Home visits

[WannabeFramer]

Hi,

I have been getting some requests recently about home visits - either for a consultation or picking up artwork to take back with me, to then email pictures and prices.

I am not geared up for a remote service, nor do I particularly want to do so. I have muddled through a couple as I don’t want to turn potential work away, but I haven’t felt I’ve been able to give the best service either. I would much prefer the customer to come to me and look at all the options, not me guess what they might like me to take and show.

I haven’t felt able to charge for an appointment, but recently was at a house for 90 minutes, after a 25 minute journey looking at several pictures, to only walk away with a small £50 job. It is simply not worth my while, but I feel this customer was used tradesmen quoting for jobs and treated me the same.

Or, I have collected a picture and discussed what they want. Email pictures and prices, it is too expensive, so they ask me to drop the picture back.

Aside from my personal dislike of house visits, I am unsure of potential insurance and safeguarding issues, particularly with elderly, and potentially vulnerable, people

The other issue is I am simply too busy at the moment, and a ‘quick visit’ can easily turn into a couple of hours including travel.

I wondered how others deal with requests for home visits?
Is it a common thing?

[WannabeFramer]

Oh. The main reasons for asking for me to visit are transport issues (they don’t drive), or my opening hours don’t suit.

I am open Tuesday-Saturday now, albeit a couple of days by appointment only, but I don’t think they are -that- inconvenient? I stay open until 6 on a Friday and try to be as flexible as I can with appointments.

[Justintime]

Whatever you do, word gets around. You'll attract loads more of the same, it's Framers Law!
I think you're asking all of the right questions. Figuring out how you want your business to grow is a serious conversation to have with yourself and don't forget to include what really excites you and brings you joy about the job, because we all need to attract as much of that as possible. The questionable or hard customer interactions can be quick lessons in helping us to define exactly how what and when.
Insurance is a consideration when transporting work.
I usually have to deliver oversized pieces and charge appropriately. If it's a distance then I make a day out of it and charge for mileage and fuel to at least cover my costs.
Just as in life outside of work, boundaries are important imo and some customers will always try and make you change you routine to suit theirs. If people are nice I'll bend over backwards for them when it suits me, but if they're pushy or disrespectful I won't budge an inch. My business, my rules!

[Tudor Rose]

Justin has it exactly right. Boundaries are hugely important. So don’t be afraid to set them and stick to them.

We used to be far more accommodating and it drove us mad in time and hassle. These days we will happily say no far more often and it’s a relief to do so.

Unless home visits are a focus of your business plan, knock them on the head. Those same people will undoubtedly travel to all sorts of other shops and appointments quite happily. They just want you to make their life nice and easy, with no thought to the disruption to yours. Decide if that is worth it and if it isn’t then a polite refusal is the quick answer.

[JFeig]

Take a que from home decorators/designers regarding what limits you want to establish for a home visit. The limits might be a trip charge/minimum order value or something else. Over a minimum value is ordered the trip charge can be waved.

There is also another factor that you have to consider. It is the selling price you quote has to accommodate this 2 trip process, consulting/selling time and delivery/installation time to cover your time and added costs. Your selling prices will not be the least expensive in your area if that is your goal. for a one person business this can be a bridge too far for your business model.

[pramsay13]

I offer this as a service and I used to get a lot of requests but for the last few years it has been very rare, although I did get a couple of customers asking recently and I did them, one was a couple of smaller jobs for around £100, and one was 5 or 6 larger jobs for around £500 so definitely worth it. I picked up them both on the same trip out although dropped them off on different trips. The larger job took around 2 months from phone call to delivery.
One was to a lady in a wheelchair, and one was an older lady who struggled to leave her husband alone so both felt justified.
I normally discourage home visit requests and explain that I have all the samples on my board, they can see my equipment and things I'm working on etc, and that usually means they will change their minds and come in if they can.
I also offer evening or weekend appointments if required.
I then usually ask how many pieces and what they are and what size. That allows then to give them a ballpark figure so we know there's not going to be a price shock.
If I agree I will also tell them it will be a few weeks, and then I tie it in with a trip elsewhere.
I also lost one home job recently as it was for around £40 and when I eventually got around to it a few weeks later she had already organised something else.

[WannabeFramer]

Thank you for the sanity check.

No, home visits have never been in my plan and not something I want to do. I have just found it hard to say no I guess as I didn't know if it was a common thing for framers to offer and whether I should be looking at it as a service. In which case, there must be a better way than me turning up with a box of mount samples and a few random chevrons in a bag!

The odd request to swing by and pick something up or for a regular isn't an issue. An elderly man popped in last week and asked if I would be able to go and pick up a painting from his flat nearby, as he was on the 2nd floor and simply couldn't carry it. He assumed I would go through options in the flat but I asked him to come into the workshop the next day to choose and he was fine with that. I can then drop it back to him and everybody is happy.

But home visits I get stressed about and I have felt the more accommodating I am, the more I am assumed to be at someone's beck and call. I have a particularly 'entitled' customer at the moment who is giving me grief and that is what makes me question.

Yesterday someone asked me to pick something up from their workplace as it "hard to make it over to me during their lunch break". They were only 10 minutes walk from my workshop so isn't really an issue, but I left wondering why I had to make the effort to save them doing so. Then spent the evening taking pictures to email options which seems to take longer than if there were just there in person. And I worry that the pictures look different to when they see in real life.

I do need to set boundaries and just say no!

On a digression, the oversized delivery is definitely a thing. I have a jumbo frame being collected today. I have given dimensions and warned them, but I have money on it not fitting in their boot (I've seen the car) and it ending up in my van. But they are a lovely customer and I will have no problem delivering it to them if (when!) needed.

[WannabeFramer]

Pramsay, I posted before seeing your reply.

That is interesting thank you. Do you have a mobile board or carry case? How do you decide what samples to take? I had one lady asking for plain oak, so I took a selection. It turned out she didn't mean oak, she meant antique pine to match her kitchen, which of course I then didn't have anything with me she liked.

The other issue I have is Safeguarding (big in my previous job). I find it quite intrusive being in someone's house (hence why I am not home-based anymore), and on one occasion the customer wanted me to go in each room, including their bedroom and start taking pictures off the wall. I felt really uncomfortable being in their personal space, and being a disabled and potentially vulnerable customer, it didn't sit well with me at all. I am probably overthinking that aspect but I don't want to ever leave myself open to potential accusations if someone were to decide something had gone missing or got broken later on.

Even writing the above is definitely making me more resolute that I don't want to go down that route anymore!

[JKX]

I started out doing nothing but home visits
I used a folding wallpaper pasting table covered and lined with display fabric to show a lot of samples, and a briefcase with mount samples, order book and measuring tape.

When we opened our first shop I’d still visit a few regulars who didn’t get about too well, but took on no new home visits. By the time we expanded into the much much bigger place we’d stopped doing home visits, pretty much, there’s always exceptions and that’s how it stayed, but I’d say in the last 20 years I did maybe five home visits, not including delivering/collecting. Anyone requesting it would be told no, but the exceptions would have had good reason - definitely not just can’t be arsed.

These days anyone starting out the same way could turn up with a laptop and use Ai. Dead easy to make a photo album of hundreds of moulding samples and mount colours, use suppliers’ websites too. You could even show the thing on their wall.

During Covid we did really well with online orders - WhatsApp usually, it took more time but it was a means to an end and it’s also a good alternative to a home visit, but again, only with good reason, apart from being unable to send photos!

I think you’re answering your own question as you go though, just make it a rare exception without worrying too much, or refuse to do it.

.

[WannabeFramer]

You are right, I am answering my own question! I guess the difference with you starting out with home visits, is you were geared up for it. I am not, so unless I did have a separate grab-and-go mobile display case, then it will just cause me hassle. Genuine reasons and exceptions can be on a case-by-case basis.

I have one lady with limited mobility but fiercely independent who will do her utmost to get in and see me. On her bad days, I have no problem popping in to her, but I generally know what she will want so it doesn't feel an issue.

Interesting about covid and how that was handled. I wasn't involved then but I guess it all had to be remote.

Thanks all - definitely worth discussing and seeing the answers, giving me thought on my feelings on how I take it forward (or not).

[JFeig]

As an explanation of offering at home/business services from my experience I got into the fire and flood repair sector via an independent service come to me with jobs that they were not set up to handle. This led to several more companies looking for my services.

I used their pricing models that I modified for my business. Most of the time the damaged art was brought to me as packaged by their "clean out crews" who would wrap the contents of a damaged home and take it to their facility. This was a separate charge for their client that was separate from the actual work of cleaning and or repair. I would triage and catalogue what I received into 2 categories: a total loss or repairable for a specific price. Once approved I would perform the cleaning and repairs and in a separate billing charge for my services. It didn't hurt that I became a certified personnel property appraiser to justify the evaluation process that were often paid as a separate line item by insurance companies. The basic was split into 3 services: pickup/package, repair, return, and unpack/ place back in place in a cleaned-repaired/new house. These companies also were construction/cleaning contractors that repaired or rebuilt what the fire/flood had damaged. One of these companies grew from a small local remodeling company to a worldwide industry giant https://www.belfor.com/us/en/

This was all done with a different price calculation due to different labor costs, additional supplies, additional internal housekeeping for cross contamination, and administration costs.

[Justintime]

Also be aware of consumer rights and the difference between agreeing a sale/contract at their house Vs at your business. If at their house there is a mandatory cooling off period of 14 days during which they are entitled to cancel and demand a full refund for any reason.

[pramsay13]

Pramsay, I posted before seeing your reply.

That is interesting thank you. Do you have a mobile board or carry case? How do you decide what samples to take? I had one lady asking for plain oak, so I took a selection. It turned out she didn't mean oak, she meant antique pine to match her kitchen, which of course I then didn't have anything with me she liked.

The other issue I have is Safeguarding (big in my previous job). I find it quite intrusive being in someone's house (hence why I am not home-based anymore), and on one occasion the customer wanted me to go in each room, including their bedroom and start taking pictures off the wall. I felt really uncomfortable being in their personal space, and being a disabled and potentially vulnerable customer, it didn't sit well with me at all. I am probably overthinking that aspect but I don't want to ever leave myself open to potential accusations if someone were to decide something had gone missing or got broken later on.

Even writing the above is definitely making me more resolute that I don't want to go down that route anymore!

When I first started out like John I had a pasting table filled with best sellers, but now I don't bother taking any samples and I explain that to the customers.
It is simply a collection service I offer, not an at-home consultation service.