Potential Renovation Woes

 After I started taking customer leads from my company again, I have managed to clinch 3 new projects over the past 1 month. 

Out of the 3 that I got, there was 1 that I wasn't really interested in taking on, we had met a total of 4 to 5 times before they actually signed the contract to confirm my services, a contract that could have been signed much earlier in actuality, delayed only because I kept asking them to go back and consider, but eventually, it got to a point where they were starting feeling really bad because they felt like they were taking advantage of me by not signing any contract to officially engage me or making any payment, little did they know it is because I do not want the project.

I felt bad that they felt bad and the wife even insisted buying me coffee during the fifth meeting, as a gesture of goodwill for the help I have been offering them, and at that point, if I lied and told them I was busy and couldn't take on their project to get out of it, I would feel like an asshole. I mean if I tried to paylah her back for the coffee, it wouldn't absolve my guilt.

The clients are really nice people, the wife especially, but the problem I have with this clients is that we do not click, we don't really vibe, and after working with the clients from my previous project  that I really clicked with and had an enjoyable experience working with, I have grown even more picky with homeowners I want to work with, now you can't just be friendly, now you have to click with me.

There is a huge difference between being able to click with a client, and a client being friendly. 

When a client clicks with me, it means they like me and we connect at a personal level, the renovation journey is just so much smoother, any potential hiccups that we end up encountering can be amicably resolved because they will come to me as a friend, they come to me knowing that I did not allow the issues to happen on purpose or do it to incur additional cost to earn a few extra buck, they come in willing to listen to why it happen and willing to be advised on what can be done to resolve the problem.

When a client is simply just friendly, that means we don't click on a personal level, that means that if anything goes wrong, they won't be as understanding because they don't see me as a friend, they see me as a contractor who is being paid by them to do a job, and if that job isn't done well, then they, as the paying customer, have the right to get upset and angry, and it is always never a good experience when a friendly client switches and becomes a disgruntled client because they will never switch back to their friendly persona again, they will start to nitpick at every single thing, they will become less cordial because they no longer see the point in being nice and once that only redeeming factor about them is gone, then they will be no different form the rude and entitled clients that I don't even bother following up a second time after the first meeting.

So as nice as these latest client is now, I will never know when they will make that switch during the renovation because the friendliness feels superficial and I honestly just don't click with the husband at all, he is cordial during meetings but we do not vibe with each other at all. 

I went to a site visit with them one time and the existing owner had a cat, so when I saw the cat, I whispered to the husband that I was really tempted to pet the cat, had I said this to a client that I click with, they will usually respond with a chuckle and maybe ask the owner on my behalf if the cat can be pet, but because I don't click with the husband and our personality just don't match, he completely ignores me and goes on to listen to his wife's conversation with the current owner. 

I also realize that anytime I try and make some some of joke in the form of sarcasm, it usually falls flat on the both of them, like they don't get what's so funny, so the wife either fake smiles or they both don't bother to smile and just looks at me really confused or like what the husband does and pretends like I didn't say anything. 

Making sarcastic remarks or a joke is my coping mechanism in social situations because I am socially awkward.

An example of a sarcastic joke I would make would be, let's say a customer tells me he has a collection of Godzilla figurines he wants to display during our first appointment. I will remember that detail and bring it up again as a joke later on during the following appointments, for example when we reach the stage where they can't decide what colour they want to paint the wall, I will then say something stupid as a joke like...

"Why not we use Godzilla as a reference and then paint your house that color?"

... and usually, the clients who gets me will catch on and then chuckle at the joke, the good ones will sometimes think of a comeback and then we can have a friendly banter, but then there are those that don't get it, take it literally and they respond with...

"So you are proposing dark grey for our house, hmmm, I am not so sure, I think we are looking at pastel blues and greens?"

... and it's so awkward because then, I don't know whether to tell them I am  joking or to just pretend to treat it as a legit suggestions, because if I tell them I was joking and they still don't get it, it will become even more awkward.

One more thing about this particular client is that  I have also made it a point not to reply to the wife's messages ( I didn't even bother getting the husband's number and opening a group chat because that's how much we do not click) after 9.30pm, just to give myself a proper time-off from work, and I guess she is aware I won't reply, so she would usually message me at ungodly hours of between 12.30am to 2.30am. 

The reason why I didn't reply immediately in the past was because I wasn't interested in the project, so I wanted to appear like I wasn't very responsive, but it didn't work and she kept coming back, so eventually that became a habit I have with her and now, I just don't feel obligated to reply to her after 9.30pm anymore and she also does the same. 

When I wake up, I will reply to her messages after 9.30am and she wouldn't respond until that ungodly hour, and we would have this back and forth where both of us wouldn't respond immediately, which I personally kind of like. I don't think I will be able to enjoy this once the renovation starts though because if I need to confirm something with them and the wife is going to take half a day to reply me, it is going to make my job EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. 

The last exchange I had with the wife was about 2 days back, we are suppose to schedule a date to drop by the condo together to submit the renovation form, I messaged her in the afternoon, she replies back at 2.30am, naturally I am not going to reply back immediately, even though I saw her message come in because the bloody message woke me up from my sleep, and I replied to her at around 10.30am, essentially telling her that she needs to prepare a few cheques for the renovation deposit, I ask her to double check with the condo management directly on how much she needs to prepare and then that was that, I was expecting her to let me know when she wants us to drop by the condo management together to submit the documents..... it has been 2 days since that last message to her and she hasn't updated me on a date yet.

They are rushing to move in, but they don't seem to have any sense of urgency when it comes to actually getting the renovation started, which is very worrying for me and this was not why I didn't want to take the project, this is another reason why I shouldn't have taken the project after they had confirm the contract with me.

I guess the only thing I can do now is hope for the best, but expect the worst, to really just dissociate when they start blaming me for delays. It's so pessimistic, but I would rather set my expectations for them low and then be pleasantly surprise at how understanding they are, then set it high and then be disappointed when they actually become a nightmare, like what happen with Sly Fox.