How moving a window can send five departments on a search for new plans.
If you’ve spent any time selling modular homes, you’ve heard some version of this: “We love everything. We just want to move that window over a little.”
Sounds harmless enough. The customer isn’t asking for another bedroom or a rooftop swimming pool. It’s a window. Move it two feet to the left, update the drawing, and everybody goes home happy. I can almost hear someone in sales saying, “That shouldn’t be a problem.”
And that, folks, is where a small request can start growing legs.
The Window Has Company
On the customer’s floor plan, that window lives in a nice, empty stretch of wall. Inside the factory’s plans, it may have neighbors: an electrical outlet, a cabinet, a plumbing vent, or a structural detail that needs review.
Now engineering has something to check. Drafting has drawings to revise. Purchasing needs to confirm whether the window itself is changing. Production needs the correct instructions before building the wall. Sales needs to explain what all this means to the customer.
Five departments have joined the conversation, and the window hasn’t moved an inch.
None of this makes the customer unreasonable. They’re buying a home and trying to make it work for them. They don’t spend their afternoons thinking about drawing revisions and material release dates. Explaining those things is our job.
“Shouldn’t Be Much” Is Not a Price
One of the quickest ways to turn a pleasant customer into an unhappy one is to casually approve a request and send the bill later. “Shouldn’t be much” sounds reassuring until the customer discovers that your definition of “much” requires another conversation with their spouse.
A change needs a clear price before approval. That price should reflect the actual work involved, including any design review, material changes, or rework. If there’s no additional charge, say so. If the cost hasn’t been determined, say that instead.
Customers can make decisions with real information. They have a harder time making decisions with cheerful guesses.
The Calendar Gets a Vote
Moving a window while the home is still being designed is one thing. Moving it after the wall is framed, wired, and sitting on the production line is another.
Factories need a clear deadline for changes, plus a process for reviewing requests that arrive afterward. Otherwise, every late request becomes a personal negotiation involving whoever answers the phone.
Explain the deadline early. Tell the customer what happens when plans are released and materials are ordered. “We need your final approval by Thursday to keep this production date” is useful information. “You should have told us sooner” is mostly an invitation to argue.
Gary’s Observation
Gary Fleisher, [email protected]
I’ve never believed that good customer service means saying yes before you know what you’re agreeing to. Sometimes the most helpful answer is, “Let us check the cost and schedule, and we’ll get back to you before making the change.”
Then document the approval and make sure everyone is working from the revised plans. A perfectly reasonable change can still become an expensive mistake when the new drawing reaches four departments and misses the fifth.
The customer deserves the window where they want it, if it can be done. The factory deserves enough time and money to do it properly. A little clarity keeps “one little change” from becoming everybody’s big problem.
