Something we notice about small local trades such as plumbers, electricians and carpenters is how many of them have poor admin. People who answer the phone, respond to enquiries, arrange quotes and invoices and follow up regular servicing visits can be quite remarkably casual.
We had an example of that this morning with a local plumber we’ve used for years. Mrs H’s parents used them for decades, so as a family we’ve probably used them for fifty years. Good plumbers too, but their admin has always been useless.
We owe them money for a recent service and they owe us for a gas fire part and a fitting date, but the person on the other end of the phone had no idea about either transaction. They don’t appear to have a simple computer system where they can look up jobs against our name and it’s been like that for years.
Oh well – they are good at plumbing.
6 comments:
Working in Further Education I knew loads of tradesmen - plumbers, electricians, tree surgeons, roofers, etc. - who had given up running their own small businesses for the dubious pleasures of teaching youths with little interest in their "chosen" trade. When asked why, they often said that they couldn't cope with the admin; they liked the actual job, but invoices, contact details, job specs and VAT receipts were all thrown into the cavernous space above the Transit's dashboard along with paper cups, empty cans, yesterday's Daily Mirror,and greasy KFC detritus.
It was my job to gently break it to them that they had to now do registers, safeguarding records, schemes of work, lesson plans, course promotional materials, and celebrate Equality and Diversity.
I think some of them got quite nostalgic.
Our experiences include:
A joiner who refitted our bathroom for us but didn't send a bill. Eventually we phoned only to be told he'd moved away.
Another joiner who did a lot of kitchen work for us, leaving the difficult bit to last. Then he vanished. We suspect he didn't want the humiliation of admitting that his plan for the difficult bit was baloney. Unfortunately we'd made him progress payments so we didn't end up with a free kitchen.
A friend bought an expensive bike. "Will a cheque do?" "We suggest, sir, that you write the cheque for half the price and we'll set up a Hire Purchase agreement on the other half. The total cost to you will be the same." So he did as bidden and never did hear anything about the HP agreement.
We used to get bikey things from a local shop owned by an agreeable young man. Eventually I had to instruct him to stop undercharging "now that you have a family to support".
"They don’t appear to have a simple computer system "
At least this removes the risk of their customer database being "hacked"...
Sam - my impression is that many of them need someone who can do it for them. Maybe that's why some join a bigger outfit. Maybe that's partly why most of us join bigger outfits.
dearieme - we haven't been that lucky, although we think our decorator doesn't charge enough. But he isn't young so we don't feel too guilty about it.
Dave - yes, it's probably a set of filing cabinets which are immune to hacking.
In days of old it was often the tradesman's wife who answered the phone and probably did the admin. Then along came the mobile phone so now instead of talking to someone who took the message you have an incoherent conversation with someone who is probably speaking from the top of a ladder or the depths of a drain.
djc - yes, my impression is that mobiles are part of the problem. One chap who did some work for us said as much, yet they seem to feel they must respond to the mobile.
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