This story comes from Joe Fitzpatrick of Furniture and Floor North. I'll tell it in his words for the most part with some elaboration and comment. His firm installed a house full of Berber carpet in a new home. There were contractors still working in the house prior to the consumer's move in, and before they could get a protective covering over the carpet. The consumer saw a bad stain in front of two windows that she believed the contractors caused before the carpet got covered. Fitzpatrick's team went out to the house with an extraction machine, but to their surprise, there was no change in the appearance of the carpet. The cleaning had no affect on removing the dark area, which the consumer believed to be a stain.

After scratching their heads, they decided to do a little experimentation. Joe's salesman, who was with him, discovered that when he opened a closet door adjacent to the windows, the dark spot would disappear. Prior to that discovery they had tried to explain the dark spot as having to do with something going on with the windows. They were in the right church but not the right pew. Joe was ready to order new carpet for this one room and happy he didn't have to. To really be on the safe side they got a scrap piece of carpet from the job and put it on the floor under the window where the dark spot was. Sure enough that piece of carpet turned dark too. They all laughed at how they'd been lead to believe something terrible had happened and Joe saved a bunch of money, endeared a client and proved he was professional in the way he handled this concern.

There's actually more moral to this story. Joe responded to his customer quickly, was willing to service the carpet to try and correct the problem; he didn't argue with anybody or place blame. He was ready to order new carpet if that's what it took to resolve this issue. He took help with him to assist, and the salesman actually figured out what was wrong, they explained the cause, and they proved what it was by getting a scrap piece of carpet and putting it on the floor to confirm it was a shadow.

This was actually some pretty sharp thinking- simple but effective. I was impressed with the use of scrap carpet to confirm the cause of the dark spot.

Many times an inspector you hire will not go through the effort these guys did to determine the cause of the problem, prove it and resolve the matter.

The way this concern was handled, I'm sure, made Joe a customer for life. It's not only a story the consumer can tell, but one I'm sure she'll share with friends and family, which should bode well for Joe's business. Every time she looks at that shadow she's going to think about what happened. Fortunately, this turned out to have a happy ending, but if Joe had not been so customer service oriented and conscientious, he could have had a different outcome.

Every one of you should take this lesson and learn from it. When you have a customer concern you should respond quickly. Do whatever you can, if you can, to determine the cause and correct the problem, whether it's some small damage, a spot, a peaked seam or a loose carpet.

After all, the customer buys from you, and trusts in you to be the expert.

Take an example from Joe. His problem turned out to be just a shadow, but the way he went about fixing it was a ray of light.