That one customer who taught me to pause before cutting

Had a guy come into my shop in Columbus about 3 months back, wanted a custom bookshelf for his daughter. He was real specific about the measurements, even showed me a sketch. I was about to cut the first board when he stopped me and said, 'I know you know your stuff, but can we talk this through one more time?' We sat there for 20 minutes going over it, and sure enough, he had one of the shelf heights wrong by 2 inches. Saved me a whole sheet of plywood. Ever since then, I always take the extra 5 minutes to go over plans with a client before I start cutting. Has anyone else had a customer catch a mistake that saved you time or materials?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

juliagonzalez4mo ago

Heard a podcast once say the best tool is a second pair of eyes.

6

kelly.parker4mo ago

You ever have that moment where you're so sure you're right, but then someone asks one simple question and it all falls apart? I had a guy last year redo his whole kitchen with me, and he kept stopping to double check the cabinet heights. At first I was kinda annoyed, thought he was just being picky. Turned out his wife had a specific reach limit because of her back, and I had totally overlooked that detail in the original plan. Ended up saving us from having to rip out and rehang everything two weeks later. Now I always ask clients to walk me through their daily use of whatever I'm building before I touch a saw. That one question has caught more potential screw ups than anything else.

5