iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

What would you put in a " hints " sheet

Started by Saki, January 31, 2005, 09:25:48 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Saki

Good monday evening. As I am just getting into this sawing business, the thought occurred to me that a " handy hints " or " fact " sheet might be handy for first time customers. Maybe something that would give them some ideas on how to, or not to handle/stack their logs for milling. Maybe include things like how bad dirt is on a saw blade, so its best to carry, or at least get one end free of the ground when skidding it out. Quarter sawn vs flat sawn. Things to think about when drying - same species for stickers, etc. How important it is for them to KNOW what they want cut, do they want full 2 inch stock, or cut to what finished framing material they get at the home depot will be. How a log cut to exactly 8 feet will genrally not yield 8 feet material when dry, etc. Share some of your ideas, and maybe even a bad experience with a difficult customer that might have been headed off by an info sheet. What do you folks think? Any merit to this?

Tom

In my Gung-ho days I made one of those up and found that the customers weren't interested in reading it. 

The best thing it did for me was prompt me as to what to talk with them about when I was "spec'ing" the job.

Those are some of the most important moment you will spend with a customer and talking with them, face to face, about what you do is a valuable marketing tool that you don't want to lose. (This is when they decide whether they like you or not)

The next best marketing time is the period while you are sawing. 

Approach the job with the idea that you are teaching them what to do this time so that they will know the second time.

If you smother your customer with paper work, rules, schedules, books, stuff that isn't important to them, then there is a good possibility that you will run them off.   It needs to be fun for them, not a career. :)

I did find it handy to draw a picture of what the saw-site should look like.  Show the mill and logs with their preferred direction, where the lumber comes off, where the slabs come off, where the sawdust goes and where you would like to park your truck.  They will look at that. :)

pigman

My experence is the same as Tom's. Most of my customers are as dumb as I am and we get along fine. ;D A few already know everything and hire me to saw just to teach me .  ;)   I printed out a sheet with a lot of information but very few seemed interested in reading it. Maybe they read it after we finished sawing. I always try to use the KISS method when ever possible. :P
Bob the simple minded
Things turn out best for people who make the best of how things turn out.

Cedarman

When selling lumber to a customer, I always ask what they will be using it for.  From that I can ask leading questions so that I know exactly what they expect. Only then do I quote a price.  For both parties to be satisfied and happy, there has to be a meeting of the minds.  Neither side wants surprises.

In the ideal world the printed fact sheet would do its job, but we have human nature to contend with.
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

ARKANSAWYER

  It is a good ideal and will help some.  Good stickering and stacking will help most people.  I have found more people who know more then me and have some strange thoughts as what to do with their wood.  I advise if asked but have found that most will go on and do what they want the way the want to do it.  Having seen some good wood wasted has broken my heart more then once.  But it is their wood and I am only responsible for sawing it up properly and they way they want it.
  But proper stacking and keeping tarps off of the pile and knowing that some woods like hickory do not do well left outside for PPBs to get into them.
ARKANSAWYER
ARKANSAWYER

Thank You Sponsors!