Is it wrong to Sub-Con work without consulting the customer?

Is it wrong to Sub-Con work without consulting the customer?

Author
Discussion

bristolracer

5,528 posts

148 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
bga said:
It can be very easily dealt with by stating up front that it will be you or one of your team who will be doing the work - that way the customer is left in no doubt and can ask any related questions.
Is the correct answer

Frimley111R

15,538 posts

233 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
I'd add that if you are perceived as a one man band then people naturally assume that you will do the work and they are buying you personally. If you market yourself as a company then people are more likely to assume you have multiple electricians and will not expect you to arrive.

alfie2244

11,292 posts

187 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
Frimley111R said:
I'd add that if you are perceived as a one man band then people naturally assume that you will do the work and they are buying you personally. If you market yourself as a company then people are more likely to assume you have multiple electricians and will not expect you to arrive.
Hence why I asked what name the OP trades under.

Vanya

2,058 posts

243 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
Frimley111R said:
Contract Killer said:
So is this customer just a bit nuts, or am I in the wrong?

Cheers
It's just one customer, ignore it. The biggest companies in the UK sub stuff out. All ours are sub contractors and no-one has ever said a thing (electrical business too)
Just to add another perspective, since you mention biggest companies.

When I worked (until very recently) for a major Electricity provider, we engaged numerous "big" contractors.

If any of those big contractors subbed any work out and that contractor didn't have prior Client Project Manager approval AND that subbie wasn't on the approved list, he would be allowed to set foot on the jobsite.

Contract Killer

Original Poster:

4,381 posts

182 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
Thanks guys, so its yes but no wink.....


As for what I trade under, its my name electrical services ltd.

And yes of course I charge the subby out at more than I pay him! there wouldn't be a lot of point otherwise!
I pay him £17/H and charge out at around £30/H.






Mojooo

12,668 posts

179 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
I've had a few bad experiences of exactly this (i.e the eprson you meet seems pretty sound but the person they said is not as good).

Long as the quality is there i suppose there cannot be a complaint

If you present yourself as a one man band type thing though its prob worth being upfront

skinnyman

1,632 posts

92 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
We recently had a new boiler fitted, we did the standard 3 quotes, and chose a tradesman. I didn't choose the cheapest, I actually chose the chap based on him as a person (or, at least how he put himself across). We've been very unlucky with tradesman, and I've suffered enough sub-par, scruffy cowboys types to last me a lifetime. So, to that end, I wouldn't be overly impressed if he sent a sub-par, scruffy cowboy in his stead.

Another thing I'd consider is, if the subby was actually any good, wouldn't he be a successful self employed tradesman? Rather than living off scraps from those that are

alfie2244

11,292 posts

187 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
skinnyman said:
Another thing I'd consider is, if the subby was actually any good, wouldn't he be a successful self employed tradesman? Rather than living off scraps from those that are
Being a good tradesman doesn't necessarily mean a good businessman.

Depending on the work required..........I know sparkies that have part qualified helpers who do the 1st fixing or basic stuff who are more than capable of going to site on their own and their work is then checked & signed off by the sparky, but to be fair they should at least be initially introduced to the client and shown the work 1st.

Are we saying we only ever want to deal with 1 man band tradesmen...........how would a general builder, let say a Chippy by trade, ever get anything done if he had to be able to do and be qualified all the other trades required to build an extension etc?


EddieSteadyGo

11,727 posts

202 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
alfie2244 said:
skinnyman said:
Another thing I'd consider is, if the subby was actually any good, wouldn't he be a successful self employed tradesman? Rather than living off scraps from those that are
Being a good tradesman doesn't necessarily mean a good businessman.
True. Being prepared to market your services, introduce yourself to new people, assess new jobs, estimate quotes etc etc isn't for everyone.

cashmax

1,099 posts

239 months

Friday 9th November 2018
quotequote all
Frimley111R said:
Mr Pointy said:
Frimley111R said:
It's just one customer, ignore it.
What a fantastic attitude. No wonder getting hold of decent trades is almost impossible.
So much fail from you in one short post.....

You are clearly utterly clueless in managing customers. I'm not sure why you are posting in a thread about something you know absolutely nothing about unless you're just trolling it.

You can't change your entire business based on the opinion of one customer. What if one says 'You're too pricey'? Do you cut all your prices even though all the other customers buy at your current prices? What if one says 'I want one with <insert option> on it.' Do you spend time and money adding that even though no-one has asked for it?
Could have picked on most posters here, but you are the clueless one. This is a simple issue and how you present & position yourself and your business, it's a critical issue and it's blindingly obvious what the solution is and what needs to change as the Op's business expands.

You are half the other poster's start posting drivel like this, completely missing the solution because you didn't even spot what the real issue was. It's not until someone finally enlightens you that you figure it out and claim you knew this all along.

It's shocking to think that some of you must be running your own businesses.

Frimley111R

15,538 posts

233 months

Friday 9th November 2018
quotequote all
cashmax said:
Frimley111R said:
Mr Pointy said:
Frimley111R said:
It's just one customer, ignore it.
What a fantastic attitude. No wonder getting hold of decent trades is almost impossible.
So much fail from you in one short post.....

You are clearly utterly clueless in managing customers. I'm not sure why you are posting in a thread about something you know absolutely nothing about unless you're just trolling it.

You can't change your entire business based on the opinion of one customer. What if one says 'You're too pricey'? Do you cut all your prices even though all the other customers buy at your current prices? What if one says 'I want one with <insert option> on it.' Do you spend time and money adding that even though no-one has asked for it?
Could have picked on most posters here, but you are the clueless one. This is a simple issue and how you present & position yourself and your business, it's a critical issue and it's blindingly obvious what the solution is and what needs to change as the Op's business expands.

You are half the other poster's start posting drivel like this, completely missing the solution because you didn't even spot what the real issue was. It's not until someone finally enlightens you that you figure it out and claim you knew this all along.

It's shocking to think that some of you must be running your own businesses.
It sounds like you don't run a business and so everyone that does is eminently more qualified to respond than you.

My response was not related to the OP (and you can see I did that subsequently) but was related to the 'pointy' idiot.

You pick me up for not identifying the OP's issue and providing a solution, which I actually did and yet you, yourself, completely missed that I was responding to Pointy idiot.

Oh, and nice one for slagging off half the posters on here....maybe you should change your name to 'Mr Popularity' hehe

Tired_Peter

50 posts

66 months

Friday 9th November 2018
quotequote all
Was the sub contractor English? Or did he/she not look as "easy on the eye"?

Your customer might have been kicking up a fuss because she didn't like the way the person smelt. I've had several sub contractors around (as a customer) and nobody has explained at the beginning that someone else will be doing the work. Only once it happened at the end, when the builder was asking how the sub contractors were and if they cleaned up after themselves, etc.

cashmax

1,099 posts

239 months

Friday 9th November 2018
quotequote all
Frimley111R said:
cashmax said:
Frimley111R said:
Mr Pointy said:
Frimley111R said:
It's just one customer, ignore it.
What a fantastic attitude. No wonder getting hold of decent trades is almost impossible.
So much fail from you in one short post.....

You are clearly utterly clueless in managing customers. I'm not sure why you are posting in a thread about something you know absolutely nothing about unless you're just trolling it.

You can't change your entire business based on the opinion of one customer. What if one says 'You're too pricey'? Do you cut all your prices even though all the other customers buy at your current prices? What if one says 'I want one with <insert option> on it.' Do you spend time and money adding that even though no-one has asked for it?
Could have picked on most posters here, but you are the clueless one. This is a simple issue and how you present & position yourself and your business, it's a critical issue and it's blindingly obvious what the solution is and what needs to change as the Op's business expands.

You are half the other poster's start posting drivel like this, completely missing the solution because you didn't even spot what the real issue was. It's not until someone finally enlightens you that you figure it out and claim you knew this all along.

It's shocking to think that some of you must be running your own businesses.
It sounds like you don't run a business and so everyone that does is eminently more qualified to respond than you.

My response was not related to the OP (and you can see I did that subsequently) but was related to the 'pointy' idiot.

You pick me up for not identifying the OP's issue and providing a solution, which I actually did and yet you, yourself, completely missed that I was responding to Pointy idiot.

Oh, and nice one for slagging off half the posters on here....maybe you should change your name to 'Mr Popularity' hehe
I singled you out because your attitude of "it's only one customer" sucked. The solution is to learn from all your customers, my reason for singling you out was valid.

The same goes for all the posters who clearly don't understand the value to be gained from customer interaction.

Oh, on your first point, you are correct I don't run a business. I sold it to private equity for circa £50M.biggrin

Teddy Lop

8,294 posts

66 months

Friday 9th November 2018
quotequote all

Clients not "wrong" so much as has a preference and wants someone they feel comfortable with in their home, some people can feel pretty vunerable inviting a stranger into their home and do like to case someone out. OPs mannerisms/talk probably suggests he's a one man band because that's what he's used to doing so customer assumes, and gets a bit of a shock. OP isn't wrong technically so much as should think about semantics, how he phrases things.

Craikeybaby

10,369 posts

224 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
quotequote all
After a bad experience with a plasterer, I now always ask tradesmen who will we doing the work.

After going through a few plasterers who did an OK job, we finally found a really good one, he did a few rooms in our house and all were good, so we got him back again to do another and he sent a subbie round. They were rubbish, and left the place a mess.

Broccers

3,236 posts

252 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
quotequote all
Turn up in a suit to do the quote so its obvious you'll not be doing the work. wink

Monkeylegend

26,227 posts

230 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
quotequote all
I always told my customers in advance if I wouldn't be doing the job they booked me for and gave them the contact details of the person who would. Most were ok with this, a few were not .

TwistingMyMelon

6,385 posts

204 months

Wednesday 14th November 2018
quotequote all
Personally Id just advise the customer it will be one of your "team" doing the work

Ultimately you are responsible for the subie , so they better be good, otherwise your rep is on the line

I would give them a branded fleece/tshirt to wear

I

Johnnytheboy

24,498 posts

185 months

Wednesday 14th November 2018
quotequote all
If it's a big deal for this customer explain that you sub work because you have too much work to do it all yourself. Hence if she wants you, you are happy to do it yourself, but she will have to wait longer.

So it's her choice: him now or you later. smile

technodup

7,576 posts

129 months

Wednesday 14th November 2018
quotequote all
Frimley111R said:
I'd add that if you are perceived as a one man band then people naturally assume that you will do the work and they are buying you personally. If you market yourself as a company then people are more likely to assume you have multiple electricians and will not expect you to arrive.
This is correct.

The only reason to trade as John Smith Plasterer or whatever is for the recognition and trust using your own name brings (well that and a lack of thought to the future!). For everything else e.g. subbing out work, selling the business it's really not very helpful.

I've said it before but there should be a basic bit on business set up and marketing as part of college courses trades guys do.