A garden is designed around a particular stone. The customer chose it from a sample and the design depends on its colour.
By the time the base is prepared, the stone is unavailable for eleven weeks. The landscaper proposes an alternative, sends a photograph and starts laying it after a brief telephone conversation.
The customer sees the finished surface and it is not what she chose. The alternative was reasonable, the conversation was rushed, and the argument that follows is about a colour rather than about workmanship.
1. Confirm materials before the project starts
Everything, with lead times checked. A project that begins with materials unconfirmed is a project that will stop, and the stopping will be blamed on the contractor.
2. Check lead times at the quotation stage
Not at the point of ordering. Some materials are weeks or months away and the design depends on them, which changes the programme entirely.
3. Order the full quantity in one batch
Natural materials vary between batches. Ordering short and topping up later produces a visible difference that cannot be corrected afterwards.
4. Order a sensible surplus
Breakages, cuts and wastage. Running out with three square metres to go is one of the more expensive mistakes available.
5. Explain natural variation before anything is chosen
Stone, timber and clay products vary in colour, texture and thickness. This is a property of the material and customers experience it as a defect unless it has been explained.
6. Show a large sample, not a single piece
One tile shows nothing about the range across a pallet. A laid sample area or several pieces is what sets an accurate expectation.
7. Explain how the material will change
Weathering, fading, patina and how it looks wet. Customers choose from a dry sample in a showroom and see a wet surface in a garden.
8. Agree the substitution process in advance
What happens if something becomes unavailable, who proposes an alternative, how it is approved and in what form. Agreed at the start, this is a process rather than a dispute.
9. Get substitutions approved in writing
With a photograph and ideally a physical sample. A rushed telephone approval is not an approval, and it is what turns a reasonable change into a complaint.
10. Explain the price implications of a substitution
Cheaper, dearer or the same, and what happens to the difference. This has to be settled at the point of approval rather than on the final invoice.
11. Explain the maintenance each material needs
Sealing, cleaning, jointing and what will happen if it is neglected. Customers choose on appearance and live with the maintenance.
12. Keep the design intent visible through any change
A substitution that works technically and undermines the design is still a failure, which is the ground in garden design enquiries that need a proper brief.
13. Keep the seasonal constraints in view
Some materials cannot be laid in certain conditions, which is the ground in timing and season questions that delay projects.
14. Capture the material preferences at the enquiry
An assistant that asks what the customer has in mind, explains natural variation, checks lead times and sets the substitution process before anybody quotes prevents the conversation that happens after a surface is laid. The same selection questions appear in material choice questions from homeowners, handled with the care in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under landscaping.