When it comes to clients, can builders be choosers?

Q: Clients can make or break a building job. While it’s not easy to turn work away, do you have any rules about the type of clients you will work for and those you won’t?

Firm: Cove Construction Limited
Principal: Nick Gill
Location: Whitianga
Staff: 4 carpenters, 2 apprentices

The only time that I’ve really ever turned clients away is if I find out there are quite a few people pricing the job. There’s the odd situation where there are about nine people pricing one house and I’m not really into that, as I feel I’m being used as a price check.

I normally try to do a bit of research on the clients to see who I’ll be dealing with; because Whitianga is a small community, it’s usually fairly easy.

I’ve mainly been building holiday homes, as well as a few homes for locals. I’ve found the best clients are usually people over 50, who are building holiday homes, rather than first-timers. For them, payment is never really an issue.

I think I’ve been lucky, as I’ve had really good clients since I started my business three years ago. I’ve got on well with most of them, to the point that we can go for beers after the job’s complete.

Firm: Ian Trainer Building Limited
Principal: Ian Trainer
Location: Twizel
Staff: 1 builder, 1 hammer hand

Because Twizel is such a tight-knit community, you usually either know the potential clients or you know of them. If they’re bad clients, people will warn you not to work for them.

I’ve had a few situations where people have contacted me about a job and because I’ve heard negative things about them – usually that they didn’t pay or had a job end up in dispute – I just say that I’m too busy. It doesn’t happen that often, probably only three or four times in the 25 years I’ve had my own company.

If you do end up doing a job for people you don’t know, which has happened to me a few times, and they’re difficult to work with, I just say I’m too busy when they ask me to do another job.

For me, difficult clients include ones that think they know everything and people that change their mind halfway through a job. It’s just not worth working for them, as it adds unnecessary risk and stress.

Firm: Tokerau Builders
Principal: Mark Dancaster
Location: Tokerau
Staff: 2 independent contractors

Basically, for me it’s a gut feeling. Out of the last five houses I’ve been asked to quote on, I didn’t put quotes in for three, mainly because of gut feeling. It seems pretty spot on, as two of those three ended up in arbitration!

I always meet the client before I agree to a job. It’s important to know who I’m building for, so I can understand what they want out of the house or property. That’s when I get a good or bad feeling – if they’re expecting too much from what they’ve got, or their expectations are outside the field of what they’re trying to employ, it’s not worth the stress.

The last four houses I’ve built, I’ve actually had the owners helping out on site, so it’s imperative that I’m comfortable with the clients.

Sometimes that’s meant turning down work, even when I didn’t have anything else on, but I really enjoy building and I don’t want to be in a situation where I don’t enjoy it.