Roadshow Happenings

Just got back from a roadshow event that was rather happening, I was suppose to leave the event at 1 pm, but my boss kept asking me to "cover" for my colleagues, the ones who were going to stay the whole day, while they went for lunch, so I ended up leaving at 3.30 pm.

I was able to get my hands on a few new customer leads and it's nice to get customers who are actually looking for an interior designer and not just emailing in looking for free quotations that being said, there was a couple who were pretty blatant about looking for a quotation, just right off the bat...

"Let's get to the point, we are planning to start work in 2 weeks so we are really looking for the an interior firm that will offer the best quotation at this stage."

... they weren't rude about it, in fact they were really friendly, but looking for an Interior Designer and expecting them to start work in 2 weeks, that's pretty much an impossibility, this stage should have been done at least a month ago, I mean they will probably only really confirm a designer next week, and that only gives them about a week to confirm the design, to shop for the tiles, to apply the necessary renovation permits and have those approved, there is no way in hell they will be able to start work in 2 weeks, even if they were to confirm a designer tomorrow, there is still no way they are going to start renovation work that soon. 

So they were pretty straightforward with a few of their cost related enquries and at this point, I just kinda lost any interest in running their project for them, I really wanted to get the conversation over and done with so I can move on, and since they were only really looking for cost figures, the conversation was pretty much them asking me...

"How much do you charge to hack a wall per foot run ?"

"How much will hacking the floors cost per square feet ?"

"How much will it cost to lay floor tiles on the walls and floors?"

... and I just gave them whatever information I knew, marking up the price slightly higher than I normally would sell to other customers, I did not give them figures that would be specific to their home measurements, instead, what I gave them was unit price and they just jotted everything down on this stack of paper with all the measurements written on it, it is really quite amazing to see the amount of effort they have put into their renovation, but alas, I just can't see them starting work in 2 weeks.

Whilst at the event, I also managed to catch a glimpse of my old customers speaking to other designers from the other design firms, well not very old, literally met them 2 weeks ago, not too sure if they saw me, but I saw them making their way towards the lower floor, didn't bother to go up to them and greet them, I wanted to, but decided against it, I don't think they would have been too excited to see me either because they stop responding to my emails.





I get that customers normally don't respond back when they are no longer interested because they are not comfortable at rejecting an Interior Designer, but I feel that not responding back is even ruder.

The first time I met them, I asked them if they had visited other Interior Design firms before, to which they replied I was the first one and they really didn't know what to expect from such a visit.

Since that was the first visit, I shared with them the services I will offer them for free at the early stages and told them I will email them the quotation when I was done, so they could take a look at the final figure and decide if my price was within their budget, we spoke for a little over an hour and then they left, I emailed them the quotation, thinking if they were interested, they would email me back to schedule a follow up appointment, and I wrote in the email that if the price is within their budget and they were still interested, we could schedule another meet up to discuss further....

Well, one of them emailed me back and asked...

"I noticed the carpentry dimensions aren't complete, there is only the length and height."

Really have no idea what she expected from the quotation to be honest, a fucking attachment of the custom carpentry blueprint maybe?

So I replied back that the purpose of the quotation was for her to get a rough idea of how much her renovation requirements would cost her, that getting more information is a benefit only paying customers will get (which isn't particularity true, but I just didn't really see a lot of potential in her to want to put in too much effort) ,to which she replied back...

"I can't decide based on the quotation, please advise on what I should do next?"

... I have already advised her on what she should do next in the first email, which is to schedule a follow up appointment with me if she was still interested, but I guess she must have missed that part, so I wrote back asking her more directly...

"Would you be free this weekend for a follow up appointment so we can discuss further?"

... that way, we can move past the quotation and roughly discuss the designs and overall theme she wanted for her home, well, no response after that, and then I see her and her friend at the event today. So I guess my advice that was emailed to her got translated into ...

"Stop disturbing me and look for other Interior Designers to entertain you."

Enough of that customer...

So I will be starting 2 new renovation projects soon, both of which are presenting their very own set of problems, which isn't great.  Really giving me quite a bit of headache to be honest, my first project hasn't even completed yet and I have recently signed 2 new projects to run, one of which belongs to a customer I was talking about in the previous post.



I am really not looking forward to working with that particular customer from the previous post, just because he takes so long to reply to my text messages, especially when it comes to scheduling an appointment, I always get inform last minute and I always feel bad because I always have to reschedule with him. For example, I would text him on Tuesday asking if he would like to schedule an appointment over the weekend so we can discuss his renovation requirements, and he will always write back...

"Will let you know later."

... and later isn't the end of the day, it's always the night before he wants to meet, it's horrible because on one hand, now that he is a paying customer, I have to prioritize my appointments with him, but on the other hand, I can't be leaving my weekends open just for him and ignore all my other appointments.