Just had a "can you do the job before Tuesday?" phonecall.
I said I could but it will have to this weekend over two afternoons.
Customer then said "Great, do you drink tea of coffee?". I just know I am going to like this job. Did not even ask for a price.
I can't imagine failing to offer hot drinks to builders (etc.). It's a win-win: they appreciate it & productivity goes up.
One section in _How to Live like a Lord without Really Trying_ (which facetiously described itself (in the 1960s) as a secret manual for Americans living in Britain) in which the American owner hears the sound of a blowtorch & discovers the builders all sitting around a kettle on a pile of bricks, making tea. The book advises making the tea for them, & making it strong, in order to speed up the building work. (It's a lot funnier in the book --- someone else has borrowed my copy.)
Strong tea? Not any builder I have met. They all put the tea bag in the milk and then add hot water.
Give him my number :-)
I was told British bricklayers working in Germany used to keep a vat of boiling water on the go with loads of tea bags floating in it. The German foremen would shake their heads in disbelief
We had builders in a few years ago to do a job that I couldn't manage at the time and, at the end of the job, the boss had a moan about tea and coffee. We had provided too much and the job had taken longer than he had expected!
IME, the biggest mistake you are likely to make is to seriously underestimate the quantity of sugar you'll go through. Not using sugar in tea myself, I only had a small bag in the cupboard, and that lasted about 20 seconds. The replacement bought from the corner shop up the road in an emergency only lasted until the next morning. After that, it was a seriously large Costco sugar pack. I'm surprised you can't buy it in 1 ton bags at the builder's merchant, delivered by crane with the bags of sand.
On the othe rhand, maybe the customer uses different knock out drops in tea and coffee and needed to be sure which ones to prepare! :-)
You need to raise your sights. If really currying favour I'd have gone on to "do you prefer milk or plain chocolate biscuits?"
But were you also asked if you liked an egg on your bacon sandwich?
I provide home baked goods, biscuits, and a choice of tea or coffee.
Well the odd thing is, the builders who have *just* finished our conservatory after five months, kept refusing my offers of a hot drink on the grounds they had something in the van.
By contrast, the geezers who put up the glass part of the conservatory (took them a day and a half) asked for their drinks.
TBH I phoned him to say I would be at his for 12 and he said "I'll not be there till quarter past do you want fish and chips fetching?"
How very prophetic. He did not need knock out drops!!!
Turned out he is a famous hypnotist.
All I knew was a bloke called Chris called me yesterday evening, told me roughly what work he wanted doing, said I was highly recommended and to just asked me to do the job.
"You are doing this work for free. You are doing this work for free."
Owain
That's why the customer didn't ask the price on the phone!
That's an interesting twist.
He said "famous hypnotist", not "bloody miracle worker"!
When we had the extension done we gave the builders a kettle jar of coffee tea bags and milk. They said they much preferred it that way so they could have a brew as and when it suited.
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