I showed up to a Real Estate agents house to clean his windows and one of his sprinkler heads/risers was still sticking up even though it wasn’t spraying water. The way the sidewalk was set up it had a sharp curve that was awkward to navigate the curve so naturally I just walked into a straight line and my size 13 boot kicked the riser right off. I quickly made a phone call to my landscaping friend and he said he would be out in 30 minutes to fix it. It was a medium size home so I had plenty of work to do so I let the homeowner know what had happened and explained I would take care of it without any issues. He and his wife both had to leave to take care of business and I was left alone to finish up the house and it was my first time servicing this customer so I was hoping to leave a good impression. I texted him that all work was complete inside and out the sprinkler had been replaced and that all the screens had been cleaned free of charge and the invoice is on the counter. He later called me and said that he was thoroughly impressed and he couldn’t believe how clean the windows looked. He said he was gonna let everyone know that might need a window cleaner to use me from now on and also at the bottom of my invoice I mentioned my wife cleans houses. So tomorrow my wife and I will be doing more work for him with one of his rental homes. Honesty and hard work are the best advice and also it is good to make use of the customer message space at the bottom of invoices because as you can see it got us more work along with quality window cleaning.
Good stuff. reminds me of my first year when I broke the glass in a wood framed storm window. Just explained the situation to the client and told them I’d have it fixed and returned within a day. I’ve been doing his house twice a year ever since. He said I handled the situation very professionaly and liked that I didn’t try to make excuses, I just fixed the problem.
Years ago when I worked for **sh, I put my hand through a wooden framed storm window as I was trying to bang the frame with the bottom of my fist. They had just had the room painted and it was stuck as stuck can be. Well my hand slipped and went through both the double hung cut-up and the exterior storm.
When I pulled it out I ripped the bottom of my fist and pinky wide open, and ended up getting stitches.
I thought the homeowner was going to flip out, however she is actually a very good client for MY business to this day.
Unlike your story, I couldn’t hide the damage if I wanted to. But because you break something, doesn’t mean you lose that client. I do her twice a year, and I have to admit when I went back the next day to finish I was a little weird seeing my “piece” of skin hanging on the broken shard of glass still attached to the frame. 
That’s a great example of the power of integrity.
I once climbed onto a granite countertop, supported by custom cherrywood framing, only to have the supports smash into pieces and the granite slam on the floor. Thankfully the granite didn’t smash or even crack. The worst part is that the client wasn’t home. And it looked like a tornado ripped through one end of their kitchen.
I hired an amazing custom carpenter friend of mine to travel 90 minutes for me to fix it. The next day he showed up for the initial look. It took a couple of trips, and a few days total, and in the end, the client had an even more beautiful, sturdy, matching counter.
But it was expensive for me to pay my friend. I don’t remember if the client ever called me again.
I don’t remember if I billed them, either. I think I did! That’s funny, looking back. I probably shouldn’t have.
Wow, I’ve always feared this happening to me! Any advise to prevent this from happening?..
In the theme of the thread, I think it’s great to “confess”, apologize, and fix quickly. People expect honesty more than perfection. Hiding stuff hurts you in ways you can’t always see.
Last week, at a restaurant, I broke a chandelier piece that, when it’s hung, it’s really hard to tell if it’s broke or not, but I knew that one day in the future someone is gonna be able to tell there is a break AND it will cost them monetarily if they choose to fix it. I told the restaurant manager and I could see that he respected honesty. However, unlike other occasions were I’ve broken something, this time I could not tell if they cared or not.
Turns out, though, that they refused my offer to pay for it.
Crystal?
No. A glass sphere. Smaller. Chipped.
Good conscience is priceless. In the long run it beats any loss we might dodge.
Did you swap the krispy kremes out for apples after this?
I backed into a homeowner’s brand new Mercedes and scuffed up their bumper pretty bad. I showed up to the job first and they pulled in right behind me later on. When I was done with the job, I just hopped in my van and started backing up. The partition in my van blocked my view of what was behind me. It was one of the worst noises hearing that “clunk” sound and knowing that it was a car worth more than my entire business at that point. I rang the doorbell and had to explain what had happened. Luckily, it only ended up being $700 in damages and my auto insurance covered it. The homeowner couldn’t have been nicer about it. Very calm and reassuring. I could see a lot of people flipping out over this.
That night I modified my partition so I would have a better view of what’s behind me. I don’t know how people can drive the vans with no rear view mirrors. Very carefully, I guess.
Professor Jess,
In my van I have no rear door windows and or side wall windows in the bed area…The only windows I have are the drivers and passenger door windows and so I need to use my rear view mirrors…
The picture is a Back up mirror at the rear corner on the drivers side of the van…It really works great when backing up.
It really helps when parallel parking, backing up in parking lots or driveways…I think yawl with vans should have one of these , they work great !
Dr.Dange
