How many times have you been to a restaurant with a group of people and placed an order with a waiter or waitress who did not write it down? Was your order served correctly? Could you predict that this would happen as the server left your table to put the order in? This frustrating scenario plays out daily in the world of rehabbing as well. While walking through a house with your contractor, it’s essential that all key points and requests are put in writing. Don’t take anything for granted. This might seem obvious, but where people make a mistake is that they assume if their contractor agrees to do something a certain way, and it’s very clearly communicated in conversation, it will happen as described. They are taken aback when the item does not get done and the contractor has a completely different take on what was said and agreed to. In these situations, the contractor is not necessarily being dishonest. They might genuinely believe that the conversation went that way. The main problem is that the human mind makes split second, sometimes random decisions about what information to place in short term versus long term memory during a conversation. Some items might be remembered while others are promptly forgotten. Your contractor might remember that you talked about crown moulding in the kitchen, but not in the bedrooms as well. This is compounded by the fact that you are probably throwing a lot of information at him or her all at once. In order to improve communication with your contracting team, use whatever tools you can to keep conversations and requests documented and easily accessible. Make use of all the great smartphone apps out there to document requests or record the audio of conversations with your contractor. You can take pictures of punch out items with your smartphone and actually markup what needs to be addressed with a giant circle or arrow right on the picture with an app like Evernote. Use collaboration apps like Trello, or Podio to create checklists and prioritize them. There are many solutions out there. The important thing to avoid frustration is to not rely on verbal communication alone when working with your contractor, or anyone else on your team. ♦
-Michael Moreno
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