In my dealings with my customers, I have to fight the urge to work on assumptions and I have to constrain myself from calling when they said that they would call. I dislike pushing myself on people so I tend to work with their agendas and time tables. I also dislike unfinished business so you can see how a job that is hanging over my head for that long would disturb me.
One year ago we had to interrupt a wallpaper installation for a variety of reasons, one of which was my fault. More material had to be ordered, so, the customer said she would call when it had arrived. Having a job on the back burner for one year is highly unusual and it bugged me. But, she said she would call and I took her at her word. Besides, I knew that her powder room was incomplete, she would not hang the paper herself, and it would eventually bother her enough to get me back. It happened yesterday and we finally completed the job and billed her for not only yesterday's work but for the other work we did one year ago. She was very apologetic and I felt a bit bad as I could easily have initiated the completion had I been a bit pushy. But, I was not, and I feel better for it.
I have always found that trusting people results in them trusting me. Trust is not something you can buy or sell, but is earned. This couple has a large and successful home construction business and she assured us that there was more work coming in the near future.
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