At Ralph’s Hardwood Floors, we want all our jobs to go smoothly. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.
Just recently, for example, we were getting ready to finish a job installing hickory hardwood floors in a home under construction. We had already installed the flooring; now we just needed to apply the finish. We figured it would be a one-day job.
But we were wrong.
When our finishers arrived at the home, they realized something had happened since we laid down the flooring—it had become saturated with water. It quickly became obvious that a plumbing leak in a bathroom upstairs was the cause.
We had a real mess on our hands. A section of the floor was damaged, and there was no other choice but to tear it out and reinstall new planks. And we knew that the contractor—and the homeowner buying the house—were both counting on us to have this floor finished when we had expected to have it finished.
If I’m making this sound like a real nightmare, let me assure you that—as much of a challenge as it was—it was nothing unusual. As I said, not all jobs go smoothly, and in 50 years of business, we’ve had to deal with more un-smooth jobs than we can possibly count. The problems vary, but the constant is that we always do anything in our power to make things right.
We’ve talked before about Ralph’s commitment to exceptional customer service. I’ve told the story of my father traveling to Alaska to save a job. I’ve praised our installers for pointing out a flaw in a batch of engineered flooring that meant more work and cost for us but kept a customer from being dissatisfied. But this message of please-the-customer-at-all-costs is one I never tire of repeating because it’s a “mantra” of Ralph’s.
That’s why when we discovered the water damage on that recent job, we never hesitated to commit to keeping the job on schedule—even after the damage spread to another section, which we had to tear out as well.
Many people at Ralph’s had to step up to the plate and work long hours, over the weekend, to keep the home completion date on schedule—a date that was very important to the homeowner’s plans.
It’s no surprise to me that our team members gladly and voluntarily did this. When we hire, we specifically looks for a passion for pleasing customers. And I like to think our culture of customer service is so well-embedded after 50 years that it’s just who are, and who we will continue to be.
