July 14, 2010
Guest Post by Scott Stafford
I will probably be preaching to the choir today, but I just have to ask, “Has common courtesy become nonexistent?” I am referring to the frustration we all have with trying to obtain feedback on our bids.
Allow me to paint a scenario that we as subcontractors or materials suppliers often experience. We hear through an invitation to bid that ABC General Contractor, LLC. or ACME Erectors, Inc. is bidding on the XYZ Medical Office Building. The person handling our scope tells us they are “really going after this one hard” and that they “want to work together.”
So, we download and print drawings (and possibly scores of pages of addenda) from the potential customer at an average of $50 to $100 in paper costs. Other times we obtain documents from search services that we pay as much as $1,200 per month. Then we spend many hours or even days (sometimes weeks!) in preparing an accurate takeoff, estimate, and quotation. I should mention that often times leading up to the bid we will even help flesh out conflicts and design problems within the architect’s drawings, thus saving the eventual successful bidder some headaches down the road. By now we are into the hundreds of dollars in costs just to bid the job.
Satisfied that we have done our best to provide fair pricing on bid day, we wait an appropriate amount of time to allow things to sort out before politely calling or e-mailing our contact to ask how the XYZ project turned out for them. More often than not, our call/e-mail will not even be returned. In fact, in 2009, 84% of the materials delivered projects we lost did not even warrant a return phone call or a lead as to who did get the job.
All we ask is that ABC or ACME have the common courtesy to take 30 seconds and respond to our inquiry. Perhaps there has been no award to a GC yet…or perhaps another contractor landed the job….maybe the owner has budget issues and the project is now on hold….maybe the job is under way and ABC or ACME has elected to go with another company. Who knows? It takes very minimal effort to type a quick reply and let us know that you appreciate our efforts and will keep us posted or that you’ve elected to go in another direction though.
Not all GC’s and erectors treat us lowly subs/material suppliers with disdain. There are some that will share bid numbers with us and in turn, help us with market research. There are even some that send a “snail mail” letter to all subs thanking them for their time and listing the bid results. These are few and far between though.
Enough venting. Nothing’s likely going to change. There are plenty of GC’s and installers who read this blog though. If you are one, please keep in mind that while our product may just be a small component on the canopy of your building, it is how 71 people at this subcontractor feed their families. It won’t cost too much of your time to simply call us back or shoot us an e-mail. Believe me when I say that feedback, even if it is bad news, is greatly appreciated.
Tool of the Week – “Rules for My Unborn Son” – I became a father for the second time last week and I love this website. Surf through it for 447 (at time of this writing) father to son pearls of wisdom: http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/page/1
That is it for this week. Post your comments on the Blog and let us stimulate the discussion.
Thanks,
Scott Stafford