Quality And Trust, Or Bad Scheduling?

MKamis

Hi, everyone,

I'm new to the site, and have been in business 4 years as a general remodeler.

I get a lot of add-ons to the residential jobs I do (sometimes several month's worth). It obviously is a positive from the customer's perspective that they like the quality of my work and trust me so much. On my end, scheduling becomes very difficult because of this.

My question to you all is this:

Is it bad from a business standpoint to accept all manner of small add-ons when I could keep a tighter schedule instead (I tend to push a lot of jobs back in the schedule), or is this just the nature of things, and I should be glad to have plenty of work?

I know that the first response from many of you might be that it looks like I should hire some help. The only people I've found to be trustworthy to do a quality job so far are fellow business owners with common sense and responsibility. That's fine and good, but I can't charge enough to use those guys and make enough extra to be worth the trouble. I don't want to coordinate jobs for $5 an hour!

Marty Kamis

Kamis Renovation Co.
St. Charles, IL

mdshunk

Short of hiring help, you pretty much dedicate yourself to longer days and Saturday work when you accept add-on's. This helps to keep your schedule closer to what it originally was.

skymaster

And Sunday's. Dont mean to offend ya MD :} When the need is there ya work all 7 days.
Jackm

Bella D

Marty, I pretty much agree with what MD said. The only other thing that might help is trying to bunch all of the same types of jobs together. That's usually what I try to do especially with punchlist items. Kinda the same principal. If you ever need any help I'm always available.

Dave

copusbuilder

You seem to have a good thing going...What is wrong with telling people that you will give them your undivided attention when you are done with your current job?
If they like you...which they seem to, then they will wait.
You may choose to hire as thing progress? You may wish you hadn't? These are the things that make it fun

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Mike Finley

Let me make sure, your question is when on a current job you get change orders you add them onto your current job no matter what and push other people's job farther back in the schedule?

If that is your question then, no I don't do that ever if it means pushing another customer backwards in the schedule. If we are doing a bathroom and midway through the job the customer wants us to look at their kitchen and do a granite counter top job, I will quote it and take the deposit, but that would be treated like a new job and goes to the end of the schedule. If it's add ons the current job say they want changes on the bathroom remodel, if we can squeeze them into the current job we sure try to. It's a pretty difficult thing if somebody wants you to change the scope of work dramatically in the middle of the job and you can't because basically you are telling them you are going to do the original job only and what they really want you aren't going to do. I've actually never had anybody do anything that extreme, and maybe that is just luck or it has to do with really covering the customers wants and needs pre the job starting.

paintr56

Marty,
What I will do is push my schedule a day or two with the next clients consent. I will call and be honest tell them your current customer would like a little additional work done and it would be more convenient to do it while you are there. Ask if they would have a problem with that. A job that will take more then a day or two would not be an add on, to me it would be an additional job scheduled as if they were just calling to have work done.

Jim Bunton

Stone Mountain

Interesting. When we have a crew on the job and the client asks for extras, we do it. I have many times in earlier years left a job finished per the contract, but without the extras, only to have a clent refuse to pay because ......we weren't finished: the extras!
Right noe we have a clinet who has held back $1000 because of $300 worth of siding that had to be special ordered, and wasn't even mentioned until 2 days before the job (which was a $14,000 2 week job) was done.
I have another person who decided on a privacy screen AFTER the whole job was done and told me about it when I went to pick up the cheque. I agreed to do it, but when I couldn't get my carpenter back for a couple of weeks (rain, scheduling, etc), he became all pissed off after waiting and started calling me names.
Usually, we just finish whatever they want, and explain to the next person what happened. I usually don't have a problem.
Steve

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Mike Finley

Avoid all those problems with a written change order.

Gordo

Sounds brutal up there.

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Looks like some pros were here.