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The Cost of Change Can Be More Than Time and Money

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It Can Be Reputation and Loyalty, and To Me These Are More Important

Change happens for all kinds of reasons, some needed, some not. Some people love change, it excites them. These people are the ones pushing the envelope and coming up with new ways of doing things. Others on the opposite side never want to change anything. It’s scary to change. What if it doesn’t work? It’s warm and comfortable a lot like being in the bottom of a rut. It’s been said that a rut is just a grave with both ends kicked out.

So, which of these positions should a business take?

I think it depends on the situation, the people or person and the reason(s). As is the case most times, the right answer is somewhere in the middle.

Let me preface this next portion with the fact that I have been a longtime supporter and user of Pella products, for more than 30 years. I have enthusiastically advocated and installed their products throughout that time.

I AM NOW RETHINKING THIS. I was informed yesterday of some product changes that have been implemented at Pella and one of those changes may just be the straw that will break this camel’s back.

Pella has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation. (A part of what gained my admiration and loyalty.) One of these innovations is…was…one of my favorite products. Double or single hung windows with blinds or shades behind a removable pane of glass has been discontinued. This would have been the window I would have recommended above all others, short of some specific design parameters. This is the very window that I planned to put in my home in the next few years. I never imagined that this window would not be available.

I don’t profess to be a Pella historical authority, but I do remember some things that happened in the late 1990’s or early 2000’s. This is not about specific times or details, but about a decided trajectory that began and seems to be continuing.

Prior to that point customers would talk about the exceptional quality of Pella windows. The first straw was the question that I began getting about the ProLine Series “builder’s” windows. People wondered why Pella was making a lower quality builder’s window. It seemed to be counter to what Pella stood for. I assured them the quality was as good as ever, there were just less options and fixed sizes in this series.

The next straw came with the introduction of vinyl windows. More questions about what was going on. Why is Pella selling “cheap vinyl windows”? I would tell people that it was just a way to give the public more options. It was a way of helping more people and Pella quality was still available in the wood windows.

Then the next straw came. It was when there began to be problems with the bottom sash of the ProLine casement windows rotting. I continued to defend them. This was a fluke…just some bad sealant on one select style in one series. The straws continued to come, and I continued to defend Pella and my supplier. The service and support were great. We would do what was needed to help them through this freak incident.

Now, full circle back to yesterday’s straw. I can’t say why Pella made this change to no longer offer shades between the glass in hung windows. I assume it was monetary as I presume all these decisions were. I don’t have any of Pella’s internal decision-making criteria, but they are a company that needs and deserves to make a profit.

What Pella needs to remember is that dollars are certificates of appreciation and consider that my appreciation may go somewhere else.

I’m sure that as big a company as Pella is that they won’t even notice when I’m gone. What they may notice is the size of the snowball when more and more contractors and customers do the same.

These types of changes have become too common place over the last 20 – 30 years. Too many times companies have chosen to sell more for less rather than seeking to provide high quality at a high price. There’s nothing wrong with buying inexpensive projects for less. It’s about deciding who you want to be and who you want to serve.

Pella’s decisions are theirs just as my decisions are mine.

Honesty Is the Best Policy – I Don’t Care How Hard It Is

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How to Create Realistic Expectations for Customers – Part 2

 

Last week we discussed the importance of communication to creating realistic expectations for customers. This week we will look at three more things that need to be addressed to provide customers with a WOW rather than a woops experience.

 

 

 

• Everything takes longer than you think

There’s a lot of information out there about this. It is a very common problem. The planning fallacy gives some explanation, but I think it is more than this. I think many of us have a desire to help others and in an effort to fulfill expectations we over promise, which leads to under delivery. Especially when doing a construction project with all the pieces that have to fit together. Many of these things are out of my control which makes planning and scheduling more difficult. In an article by Emily Guy Birken she tells of a contractor friend who has come up with “a formula for figuring out a more realistic time frame: Double the number and go to the next unit of time for your estimate. For instance, if you believe your kitchen renovation will take two weeks, according to my friend, it will actually take four months.” This seems a little extreme, but I know everything takes longer than expected.

Solution – There are formulas and systems for determining an accurate amount of time needed to do the work. It will take some experimenting to get a realistic projection for the time to do a project. (Even if it is as extreme as the example above.) Be open and honest with yourself and your customer. It would be better to tell them the longer time in the beginning. This goes for the designing and pricing stages as well. Remember that most generally customers aren’t as familiar with the construction process as contractors, and this makes the realistic time gap even wider.

 

 

• Saying yes to too many things

There are so many things that I want to do. So many great wonderful important things. With all these things drawing us to them with overpowering magnetic force we get stuck and can’t move fast enough or far enough to get away from the pull. Mistake #2 of Michael Hyatt’s blog post “The 10 Biggest Mistakes People Make in Setting Goals” is creating too many goals. He quotes the old Chinese proverb, “Man who chases two rabbits catches neither”. I think chasing too many rabbits is what causes us to us to get lost on rabbit trails.

 

Solution – This solution is simple…say NO. This will be the hardest one to do. Those of us that want to help others struggle with this a lot. In 2014 we did the “Best Yes” study by Lysa Terkhurst at church. She said “Whenever you say yes to something, there is less of you for something else. Make sure your yes is worth the less.” We have to find our specific purpose. Then we have to focus on that. We have to be honest with ourselves so that we can create realistic expectations for customers.

 

 

• Details are worth the wait


Another thing that takes time is craftsmanship. I’ve heard people use the saying, “we’re not building a piano” when trying to move a project forward faster. This may have been true, but I believe we should give the same level of intentional care to building someone’s dream as to building a piano. People have different levels of expected quality. Being a recovering perfectionist, I ‘m going to naturally move toward that. Others may not be expecting that level of quality.

 

Solution – Each customer’s expectations need to be determined early in the process so that the length of time can be determined and communicated. This is one of the hardest to determine. Often, they don’t even know what makes one thing quality and another not. It takes time to build a piano or a dream and we need to help them determine what quality of dream they want to build.

 

 

It’s hard to tell people things they don’t want to hear. That a project is going to take longer than they expected is one of those things. Communicate with them. Be honest about the time needed. Say NO if it doesn’t fit your purpose. Quality takes time.

 

If we aren’t honest with ourselves and others then we are creating unrealistic expectations for everyone involved.

Feel free to share examples of unrealistic expectations in the comments below.

Spend Time Wisely, There’s A Limited Amount

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It’s One Thing That You Can’t Make Any More Of

 

Why is it that we struggle so much with this TIME thing? It seems that everybody, at least everybody that I talk with, is constantly wanting more TIME. To use a line from actress Ethel Barrymore, “That’s all there is – there isn’t any more.

I have been writing periodically about my core values and this is another.

In varying amounts and at varying degrees, depending on our abilities, desires and needs, we can make more money, make more friends, find more work, design new things, discover new ideas. Not that those things are easy, but they can be done. No so with TIME. You’ve got what you’ve got.

In last week’s post I wrote about the window project taking longer than I wanted. I said it was a topic for later. Well it’s later. Spending TIME is such a frequent problem that it has made its way in to several of my posts.

 

Why is it that, so many struggle so much with this?

 

Here are 5 things that I see as reasons –

  1. Trying to do too many things – There are so many great, wonderful and important things out there to do and I want to do them all. The problem is, there just isn’t enough TIME to.
  2. Lack of focus – There are more distractions now than ever before. With internet, social media, smart phones, etc. we are inundated with interruptions. According to Dr. Wetmore the average person gets interrupted once every 8 minutes. Depending on the length of each one that could use up 3-4 hours a day. That many interruptions sure make it hard to focus.
  3. Not saying “no” – When we are asked to do something, even though we know we don’t have time, most of the time we say yes. I think there are a few of reasons for this. First, most of us really want to help. Second, saying yes makes us feel needed, valuable and important. Third, we don’t want to let others down. No matter how good the reason is, if we don’t have TIME to do it, we should say no.
  4. Trying to do it by myself – Just like TIME, delegation is another one of the common struggles that I see happening and participate in regularly. To be the best steward of my TIME I have got to do better at this.
  5. Procrastination – Often times when things ahead of us are big and scary we fill up our TIME with something small and cuddly. This doesn’t mean the little things aren’t important, but often they are time sponges, sucking up valuable TIME.

One thing to understand is that SPENDING TIME WISELY will be different for each of us. The key here is to think about it. Review how you spend your TIME and decide how and where you want to spend yours. God has given each of us this TIME. We need to see how He wants us to spend it. He has given us the right amount for everything, Ecclesiastes 3.

 

How do you spend your time wisely?

 

Never Be Satisfied With Mediocrity

Little Things Are What Big Things Are Made Of

Who Should I Blame For Being Too Busy

Who Should I Blame for Being Too Busy?

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Too Much to Do Is, “Self-Inflicted Pain”

 

I have too much to do and not enough time to do it.

We had all heard someone say this or said it ourselves and for sure we have all felt it. Just over the last few days there have been numerous times in a variety of situations that I have heard it.

One of the discussions about this had to do with someone who was self-employed. This person’s family couldn’t understand why they couldn’t do some additional things around the house. They had extra time because, after all, they were self-employed. Another conversation was with a business owner. They said they hoped they wouldn’t need to work on the upcoming Father’s Day, because they had already worked the last fourteen days. Then he said, “but if that’s what it takes, I guess I will”.

This struggle is nothing new. I would venture to say this has been a problem since Adam. Can you imagine how overwhelmed he felt when God brought all the animals of the earth to him and he named them all. (Genesis 2, 19-20)

I know this is SELF-INFLICTED. It’s 8:30 PM on a Friday evening as I’m writing this. It will still be another hour or two before I get this finished and posted.

WHY?

We all know that there is a fixed amount of time so why is it that we’re always over filling it? Even less ambitious and less driven people complain about not having enough time to do everything they want to.

This brawl we’re in, trying to do more and more and running out of time is internal. It is SELF-INFLICTED. If this is the case, then we are the only ones that can do anything about it.

The first thing that we must do is understand who’s responsible for this situation. Next, decide if we want things to change. If so, then we need to evaluate the things that are filling up that time and decide what to keep and what to eliminate. Then there’s the hard one…learning to SAY NO. Ouch, that’s gonna hurt.

There is something about self-driven people. They’re always over filling their time with more than they can get done. If we don’t want this battle to continue then we are going to have to start practicing some self-control, self-restraint and self-discipline.

We have the power within our-SELF to take control of this.

Here’s an acronym to help you remember that if the problem is SELF-INFLICTED you can find the Solution, be Empowered and Live Fully without being overwhelmed.

Solution

Empowered

Living

Fully