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The Birdcage: How to Ruin a First Impression
Many readers know that my husband and I moved last year to Florida from Upstate NY, where – yes, thank you! – we have truly enjoyed this winter. No shoveling, mostly mild temperatures, lots of sun, and golf! – a big change from the past many winters. So here in our new home in Florida we’ve decided to bring some of the outdoors in. Or maybe we’re going to take some of our indoors out. Whichever way you look at it, we’re getting ready to build a “birdcage,” a screened room which will be attached to the back of our house. We began by soliciting estimates from four different birdcage builders, inviting them over to discuss our project. The first to arrive was James. We were very impressed with James and his company. He had answers to all our questions, he was knowledgeable about some of the unusual questions and requests I had. Just before James left, he told us we would have his final estimate by Monday. Two more estimators came to the house, but neither one was very knowledgeable, nor impressive enough for us to trust with our project. Finally, the fourth estimator, David, came to discuss our birdcage project, and he was just as impressive as James. David gave us his estimate before he even left our house. So – all we needed to do was wait to receive James’ estimate on Monday in order to make our decision. But Monday came and went. Tuesday came and went. We called, left messages… No estimate. Finally James’ estimate arrived – almost two full weeks after he had visited us. It was a few hundred dollars less than David’s, but take a guess whose company will be building our birdcage. (Hint: not James’!) As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. That was certainly true for the two “middle” estimators…. however…. Our first impression of James was very favorable. But then? He ruined that by not carrying through on his promise. He established an expectation – then blew it up. He never…