Is this normal??

Gainey Q's

Gainey Q's

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A customer calls and says, "I'm a little over an hour away and I'd like to make an appointment to visit your shop so I may order a cue". So the customer arrives and has no idea of how he wants his cue. 3 1/2 hours later of going over different materials he has made a decision and placed his deposit. The next day he text wanting to change the rings and the wood used for coring. What was the 3 1/2 hours for? Is this a normal situation? So far I have been lucky enough to have customers that already know what they want I guess. Thank you in advance for your responses.

Very Respectfully,
Gainey Q's
 
Gainey Q's said:
A customer calls and says, "I'm a little over an hour away and I'd like to make an appointment to visit your shop so I may order a cue". So the customer arrives and has no idea of how he wants his cue. 3 1/2 hours later of going over different materials he has made a decision and placed his deposit. The next day he text wanting to change the rings and the wood used for coring. What was the 3 1/2 hours for? Is this a normal situation? So far I have been lucky enough to have customers that already know what they want I guess. Thank you in advance for your responses.

Very Respectfully,
Gainey Q's
Click to expand...

Oh yea.... I have one guy that has ordered a cue 6 months ago........ I have not started it yet......... he has changed it about 10 times so far................

LOL


Kim
 
Welcome to neurotic customers ! I have had customers want to make changes after they "liked" the pics I sent them of the work so far, only to want "a new one". I smoke a cigar for there protection.
 
Crazy isn't it? If you give the customer the option to change it they always will. I have a customer that ordered a cue 18 months ago, and paid his down payment. To date he has change his mind over 20 times. Haven't even started his cue yet but my wood stock is growing quite fast mostly at his expense. Lol

Rich


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Gainey Q's said:
A customer calls and says, "I'm a little over an hour away and I'd like to make an appointment to visit your shop so I may order a cue". So the customer arrives and has no idea of how he wants his cue. 3 1/2 hours later of going over different materials he has made a decision and placed his deposit. The next day he text wanting to change the rings and the wood used for coring. What was the 3 1/2 hours for? Is this a normal situation? So far I have been lucky enough to have customers that already know what they want I guess. Thank you in advance for your responses.
Click to expand...

Shawn, must be the guy I sent to you! :grin-devilish:
 
All the time.. Customers always think they know what they want till they see all the options then they are totally confused
 
i am not a cue maker
but if i were
i think i would have that type of person sign off on a design before starting so there is a record of his approval and ask for a nonrefundable deposit
jmho
icbw
 
bbb said:
i am not a cue maker
but if i were
i think i would have that type of person sign off on a design before starting so there is a record of his approval and ask for a nonrefundable deposit
jmho
icbw
Click to expand...

We do ask for a final decision on design aspects. But even after Everything is covered, people still change there mind with great frequency.
 
It will never change............ people are always changing their minds........ learn to live with it.........

LOL


Kim
 
Gainey Q's said:
A customer calls and says, "I'm a little over an hour away and I'd like to make an appointment to visit your shop so I may order a cue". So the customer arrives and has no idea of how he wants his cue. 3 1/2 hours later of going over different materials he has made a decision and placed his deposit. The next day he text wanting to change the rings and the wood used for coring. What was the 3 1/2 hours for? Is this a normal situation? So far I have been lucky enough to have customers that already know what they want I guess. Thank you in advance for your responses.

Very Respectfully,
Gainey Q's
Click to expand...

whammo57 said:
Oh yea.... I have one guy that has ordered a cue 6 months ago........ I have not started it yet......... he has changed it about 10 times so far................

LOL


Kim
Click to expand...


You guys are lucky you're building custom pool cues, image these guys ordering a custom motorcycle or a custom home.
It would be cool to know what they ordered after all that><:cool:
 
It's normal only if you allow it to be.
If it were me, I'd give the client his money back and tell him to come see me when he
figures out what he wants. My time is not his to waste and I don't get paid for time wasted.
My shop-rate is $50/hr. You want to talk cues? Let's talk cues, the clock is running.
People will waste your time because they don't respect your time. Do YOU value/respect your time?
Update photos, ph. calls, emails, hand-holding, they all take time and they WILL be added to the cost.
Now I'll qualify how I can make that statement. I don't take custom orders & I don't build custom cues.
I do know builders that build to order exclusively and they are very good at it. They have my blessing.
I also know builders who like myself, only build cues that they want to build. That works for me.

KJ
 
Gainey Q's said:
A customer calls and says, "I'm a little over an hour away and I'd like to make an appointment to visit your shop so I may order a cue". So the customer arrives and has no idea of how he wants his cue. 3 1/2 hours later of going over different materials he has made a decision and placed his deposit. The next day he text wanting to change the rings and the wood used for coring. What was the 3 1/2 hours for? Is this a normal situation? So far I have been lucky enough to have customers that already know what they want I guess. Thank you in advance for your responses.

Very Respectfully,
Gainey Q's
Click to expand...

A couple of things, first he says he want to make an appointment. That is fine so it does not interrupt your work day. The second is, there is no way he was discussing the cue for three hours. People often can not stay focused and they start telling war stories, they want to impress you with how good they play and how much they know, they ask questions about your tools and so on. The conversation can go all over the place with little of it about the actual cue.

You have to feel the customer out and not really commit to anything right off the bat, This applies in all business dealings regardless. Lastly, you can always say no, just make an excuse. Some people will telegraph to you right from the the start they are more trouble then they are worth to deal with.

Also, by taking a deposit he has you in his pocket now. He will feel the right to bug you any time he feels like, as well as expect him to make many more changes.

I came back to make another comment, send him his deposit back. Don't cancel the order, just tell him you will let him know when it is done. If he bails on you, so what, sell it to someone else.
 
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Yep! It's normal and not limited to cues.

When I spent time on car restoration forums, my signature was" if your painter/ restoration shop, treats you like a valued customer. It's because you are. If they treat you like you are a pita, it's because you are!"

The customer is always right. Sometime it best if you help them chose someone else!

Larry
 
When I was building my house, we had design meetings, final design meetings after decisions were made, meetings after the blueprints came back to make sure designs were right, and a final meeting before building started. If at any time we wanted to make any changes AFTER design was set, there was a fee imposed. Perhaps something like this could save a lot of aggravation?
 
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