Richard Smith Custom Concrete, West Hills, Calif.
by Bruce Hackett
of Richard Smith Custom Concrete of West Hills, California, subscribes to a business maxim that he believes is crucial to the success of any contractor business, or, in fact, any business: Do more listening and less talking.
“It all boils down to honest and open communication,” he says. “If people would just try to keep their mouths closed and their ears and eyes open more often, there’s virtually nothing that can’t be done. We all need to do a better job of listening to our clients.” (That advice would probably save many marriages as well!)
Not that you should stop talking entirely, however. The ability to clearly communicate your ideas, your strengths as well as your weaknesses, and your concerns about a given project are also very important, Smith adds.
“Anything can be achieved as long as everybody’s honest at the table — honest about what they want, what they know, what they don’t understand. Instead of the proverbial poker game that takes place at the beginning of too many projects, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to all parties involved if the ‘game’ were to be played ‘open-handed’? Lay your cards on the table and dispense with the posturing.”
 In his 20 years in the concrete installation business, Smith has been involved in more than his share of successful projects, from 20-square-foot residential patios to 200,000-square-foot malls. He’s also seen a few projects that were less than successful, and in nearly every case, he believes this was due to communications failure. “There are many ways for communications to break down,” he points out. “The client may be unclear in conveying what he wants. The designer and architect may not fully appreciate each other’s area of concern. The contractor may fail to admit his lack of experience with the type of application the project requires. The budget, and its flexibility, may not have been discussed sufficiently. Any of these will decrease the likelihood of having a satisfied customer at project’s end.”
Nurturing the relationships between the key players on any concrete job — the owner, the architect, the designer and the contractor — is crucial to achieving successful results, says Smith. “Every project has its key players, and those players, as controlling as they might be, are constrained by the progress of the project itself. Each has his or her own agenda and level of understanding within their area of expertise. For example, many clients are very precise about what they envision the project should look like upon its completion, but too many are rather vague about what they want. In those cases, it’s up to the contractor to probe for more information, or show samples of products and applications, that might help the client identify and communicate their wishes.”
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