Steve Payne
VIDEO: Mike Holmes interview part 8: Educating your customer
Canadian Contractor Estimating"Too often I've seen contractors walk in with a pad, out of their pickup truck, and they listen to what the homeowner wants. They give them a price and ask for a down (payment). And there's never enough education there." - MIKE HOLMES
In our continuing series of interview clips with Mike Holmes, Canadian Contractor’s Rob Koci asks Mike about how to educate customers, especially when quoting on jobs. Click here to view this short video.
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“If I don’t like the homeowner I give them the highest price they ever seen”. Yes MH just said this in this video. What would he do if they actually accepted his quote? Would he then graciously back out or would he rip them off and shrug his shoulders and say “oh well, I don”t like them but at least I’m screwing them over”?
Am I the only one scratching my head on this? Canadian Contractor should be ashamed for posting this video. Us good contractors have to fight everyday to dispel the myth that we are out to screw customers and you let him get away with saying something like that. Please tell me there is a part 9 where you nail his ass to a wall for that.
If you don’t like a potential customer, don’t feel they are a good fit, or get that weird feeling about them at that first meeting, be a man and tell them that you don’t feel they are a good fit or your schedule is too busy to take them on, don’t help to reinforce the negative perception of our industry.
Do the industry a favour and take that video down before the public finds out about it.
Patrick: We’re not “ashamed” of anything we post on this site but thanks for suggesting we should be. We decline. We have taken many shots at Mike Holmes on this site… and printed as many. Some of them have been quite forthright (“I wouldn’t get Mike Holmes to build my doghouse,” one reader wrote. Another called him a “self-glorifying, egotistical maniac.”) That’s just the tip of the iceberg. As far as I know, apart from people taking shots online, not ONE magazine in this country has published such a high volume of editorials, letters, opinions, etc. criticizing Mike Holmes. And we have also published letters and opinions that think the man is good for the industry, overall. What the videos were all about, was a chance for Mike Holmes to respond to the tremendous amount of flak our readers have given him, basically. We tried to pick up on all the points our readers have made. To then refuse to put the interviews up, because we didn’t like some of the things he says in them, we just wouldn’t be doing our jobs. And we appreciate that you would censor this video so no one gets to see it.
I agree with a lot of what patrick has to say. how does mike holmes know what every customer wants is he also a psychic. I see he is arrogant but to claim he knows every thing is ridiculous . If i am pricing a job i would say i was really busy right from the start no bullshit. as far as him doing wonders for the industry give his head a shake . he is breaking the law by doing plumbing electrical and soon to be doing carpentry without a license . how big of a 2 faced b####rd can you be . The problem i see is he has a following of viewers that would follow him all the way to hell and back . They cannot think for themselves . if you look at some of his projects and see who may have done the work in the first place , you may find it was the owner. If you made a major screw up on your house would you tell anyone you did it. instead that screw up was done by a friend of a friend who just happened to have never been to that house ever . look into that
“If I don’t like the homeowner I give them the highest price they ever seen”.
What kind of homeowners he his talking about?
I don’t know Mike Holmes nor I ever seen his works/jobs, but this phrase above can put him in a lot of trouble. I agree with Dave, at least be polite, to much work to handle now, may not be possible to do this work on your time frame etc.
There is a lot of ways one can refuse to do work without profiling, just the fact the homeowner is a dislike on the eyes of this contractor for any unknown reason.
This type of hype, can affect a lot of honest contractors.
he says he’s all for the home owner .but seems like he is all about himself .not a good person to be on tv. basically condemning exactly what he is . kind of a disgrace to the profession ..
I priced a kitchen job they wanted a basic pine cabinets and standard counter top. and then told me i should upgrade to oak with granite top because mike holmes would . I told them they should call mike because i couldn’t afford to do the job that way. and I was booked up until next summer .
If i had of done the job I most likely would not have been paid . my time was wasted but i wasn’t rude or give them a high price that would have made me look bad .
word of mouth is your best advertisement.