28 Jan The 4 habits of highly successful landscape lighting designer/installers
By Mike Gambino
In addition to having great design and installation skills, people skills are also of paramount importance for landscape lighting designers/installers to posses. This is by no means a comprehensive list.
Good listening skills– Every designer has their own signature style, some tangible or intangible item that they are known for. Like Spinach is to Popeye the sailor man whatever that signature is it’s often associated with that particular designer. That’s all well and good but sometimes designers can tend to lose track of the fact that the client is paying good money to be satisfied with the end result.
What was successful for fifty other past projects for those particular clients may not be guaranteed successful on today’s current project. Failure to ask and listen to clients wants needs and requirements often leads to problems during the construction process and unhappy clients..
Reliability– I think it was Woody Allen who stated that just showing up is winning 80% of the battle or something to that effect. That may be a bit of an exaggeration and stretch but unreliability like not showing up when you are scheduled to show up can quickly put a designer in the doghouse with the client. It seems such a simple thing to be on time but there are some people who are habitually late.
Reliability usually goes hand in hand with being organized which leads us to our next value.
Organizational skills– Not only will a designer need to get him or herself to the project site on-time but the work crew, tools and materials. Coordination of sub contractors should the need arise as well as management of the project so it stays on schedule and on budget.
Honesty- This is a big one. Without honesty there cannot be trust. Without trust there cannot be a win-win end result for all parties involved. Simply put Design/installers must be as concerned for their clients best interests as they are for their own. That means balancing the best project outcome with profit derived from the job.
These 4 habits seem like they should be a given for any professional service provider. Unfortunately they are not as I have on more than one occasion found out when hiring work at my own home.
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 .
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