Before our daughter was born, my wife and I bought a little house in downtown Orlando that was built in 1923. Yep, there were houses in Orlando in 1923. It was one of the quaintest homes I’d ever seen, and I fell in love immediately. Our five years there were perfect … except for one weekend in 2008.
One of the downfalls to the old houses is the size of the closets. My wife had to use her closet and the one in the guest room, and still didn’t have enough room. I asked our handyman to help us organize or expand her closet, and his quote was a lot more expensive than I expected. When I told him that I was going to do it myself, he sympathetically looked at me and asked: “Are you sure you want to do that Chris?” He knew me well enough to know that I’m not handy, but not well enough to know that he just challenged me and I was on it. I was going to rebuild and organize this closet on my own… on that infamous 2008 weekend.
In the spirit of saving you reading time, let’s just say that I didn’t do a very good job. In reality, all of my wife’s clothes and much of the drywall ended up on our floor. Thankfully, she was in Napa Valley on a bachelorette party. The next morning, my handyman Pete dropped by – talk about good timing. When he saw the mess, he started to help me and told me that I had picked out a great organizer. He didn’t pick on me or tell me “I told you so”. He helped and then he supported my work where he could. My guard was lowered and I asked Pete to do the work … and to add his fee for fixing what I broke.
Strategy #2 to winning the DIY customer: If you lose work because your customer wants to do it themselves, stop by two weeks later and support their efforts.
If Pete hadn’t stopped by, I never would’ve called him. I would’ve felt too stupid and embarrassed. If he’d done anything but support me, I would’ve felt defensive and tried it again (and likely would’ve torn down the whole house). Pete’s timing was perfect, and his support of me brilliant.
When you visit your customer in two weeks, fully support their effort. There is a high probability that they won’t want to do any more projects themselves, so you need to make it as easy as possible for them to give you the work. If you don’t show up and make them feel positive about their efforts, they’ll go to someone else instead of admitting their error to you.
