Designing and Building a landscape lighting system is truly a collaborative effort

Designing and Building a landscape lighting system is truly a collaborative effort

By Mike Gambino

Designing and Building a fantastic landscape lighting system is absolutely a collaborative effort between the project owner and the lighting system designer/builder. But lately it seems, some consumers who are in the market to buy a professionally designed and installed landscape lighting system are approaching the search for a qualified design installer in a very ineffective manner.

Not sharing information

This is a major mistake. Speaking on behalf of my fellow professional designers I can tell you that none of us are mind readers. If you don’t tell us what you want or even generally speaking what you like and what you don’t like there is a pretty high probability that the end result might not be to your total satisfaction. If  I’m making a statue in your yard a focal point at night and you hate that statue then that information is pertinent and important to know. When no input on the behalf of the client is put forth then the designer always defaults to his or her own preferences and taste which may or may not be that of the client. I don’t mean that you need to provide technical information as to say I need 2 fixtures here and 4 fixtures there leave those decisions are best left to the pro’s. Where a client’s input is critical during the design process is information pertaining to how the property is used at night. What the primary location and viewing areas are. Subjects or locations that should be prominent and those that should be downplayed. Subjects that should be considered focal points or points of attraction. These bits of  information are very important. Having photos at a consult of lighting effects that you like can be very helpful. A picture does say one thousand words.

Not doing due diligence

Coming to a meeting without having any idea on what you are willing to spend to get what you want is a major waste of time. Without a budget, a design installer is playing blind archery and the target is very difficult if not impossible to hit. Some may think well if I share my budget then the designer is going to take that number and give less value and pocket the rest as profit.

That may be true of some but however that is never the way we work. It is in our best interest to maximize every dollar a client spends on a Gambino landscape lighting system because it always comes back to us in future work. We want the project to be a huge success and the client satisfied because all of our future work comes from past work as we don’t advertise in the traditional sense of the word. Because we don’t spend money on print ads, mailers or such we put that budget into every project with the goal of satisfying the client so they go out and become an advocate for us recommending us to their acquaintances, friends and relatives.

So if a prospect tells us we want to spend $10,000. You can bet that we are going to give her every cent of value for that $10,000 investment and then some.

Knowing nothing about the company they are considering hiring with

It just amazes me sometimes when a lead comes in from our internet website. I will ask them so how do you feel about our products and projects from the photo gallery on the website. Well I didn’t look at any of that. Huh? You’ve called to consult with me and pay a consultation fee and you haven’t taken any time to familiarized yourself with what we do and type of client that we work for? In our case at least our philosphies, products, lighting system project photos are all contained within this blog and website. Either its something you’d like to pursue or its not for you the website is very effective that way.

Today every service provider worth his salt has an internet presence. They should have a good deal of information available for you the consumer to make a determination if this is something you’d like to pursue. However that does little good if you don’t want to take a little time to do some basic investigation and peruse the site and learn all you can about the service provider before calling to schedule an appointment.

Having a Adversarial attitude towards the relationship

Sometimes it seems that the property owners whom we are trying to work with and help have a totally unhealthy idea as to how the relationship should be. It’s and us against them mentality. Remember that our goals are the same and we should be working with each other to achieve them. Trust is paramount. Without it there really is no basis for a positive working relationship and one should not be entered into by two parties who lack trust of one another.

Feedback during the installation process

We constantly monitor and ask the client for their feedback during the installation. Adjustments are made on the fly based upon the feedback we get. We can make corrections during the build stage when it’s the least expensive time to do so.

In the rare event that we need to make changes we can do so during the build and not have to rebuild the whole system after completion because we totally missed the mark on what is going to make them happy. We know that we are on the right track when clients add additional work and expand the project during the installation process. I am pleased to say that that happens quite often.

This landscape lighting blog is published by Mike Gambino of Gambino landscape lighting inc. all rights reserved. Mike is a professional landscape lighting system designer/ builder and has been designing, installing and maintaining landscape lighting systems for more than 20 years. Mike resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and 2 sons. To visit his website go to www.gambinolighting.com . To inquire about hiring Mike please click here .

Blog articles may be published with permission on other websites without editing or removing links.

2 Comments
  • Mark Carlson
    Posted at 15:40h, 26 October Reply

    Mike….this is oh-so true with many clients and this does make our jobs much more difficult. As you said, it does waste a lot of time and it can add unnecessary costs to the job.

    Communications are the key to success and you are absolutely right about having an open, positive relationship, so that the end creation is the best that it can be.

    Great blog post…thanks!

  • Steve Crouch
    Posted at 05:37h, 07 March Reply

    Mike – love ALL of your blogs. You are SPOT ON! Keep up the excellent work that you provide ALL of us.

    Thanks!

    Steve

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