I failed in some of my duties as Master Craftsman this week. I should have been helping my apprentice understand how to communicate with the customer on important details and decisions. In this case the now fully sanded cabinet needed to be re-stained—but in what color? My apprentice simply chose a color he thought would be close to the original cabinet color and went with it. Me, I think the antique piece is considerably too dark. And it is too late to change the color since the stain is all soaked into the wood.
Color Me Diligent
There is some kind of principle muttering and puttering around the edges of my mind concerning this event. There likely are lessons here that are transferable to any trade.
I believe we tend to be lazy sometimes or at least lack diligence in our work. I should have advised Tim to get approval from the customer for the color used prior to applying it. After all, we have a stain sample board in the shop that could easily have been used to confirm a correct color.
Everyday Choices & Taking Care of Your Customer
There have to be a million choices made every day by small business managers that are similar to this. Color, fabric type, quality of a part, decisions that a customer ought to have a say in should not be guessed at and supplied by the worker and then fobbed off on the customer as ‘well, its done now—sorry.’
Once again there is a moral question about doing what is right for the customer. As the master craftsman I believe it is my duty to teach that right morality and wisdom to my apprentice. He is under my care, and needs to hear Godly wisdom on how to handle normal issues of the day.