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In today's rough economic times, making a lasting impression with your client could mean the difference between future work and being left out in the cold. With the decorative concrete market being so highly competitive these days, it is up to you to leave your customer feeling satisfied and confident that his or her new floor or countertop investment will bring years of satisfaction.

Often, contractors leave a project on a sour note with issues that can range from the wrong color, excessive trowel lines or even those few tiny bubbles in the sealer that are left behind forever. Trying to explain to a customer "this is as good as these types of products get" simply won't cut it. I guarantee you this type of attitude will leave you scrambling for future work, especially since one unsatisfied customer will blossom into dozens after that customers tells everyone about his or her dissatisfaction.

When we started our decorative business we set out to satisfy 100 percent of our customers 100 percent of the time. That's not to say we didn't have our share of picky customers who we believed had nothing better to do than nitpick every aspect of the project. Despite their anal ways, we went out of our way to please the customer! Two stories come to mind on projects where we left such a good impression upon completion we had at least 10 referrals that turned into signed contracts.

The first was a couple in Atlanta that called for a quote on a 600-square-foot basement. Lee Ann mentioned this couple was desperate to have their basement floors done and that they had thrown the original contractor off the job for a variety of reasons. I remember mentioning to her that we were simply too busy and we needed to call them back and graciously decline. After Lee Ann made that phone call, the couple was still adamant to speak with me. We came to find out the urgency of the project was due to the fact that the client's wife was just weeks away from delivering their first baby. The renovation of the basement was for the mother-in-law's impending move-in so she could help with the new addition.

After listening to their story (and feeling bad for them), I felt compelled to at least go look at the project but still with no intention of doing the work. When we visited this project, this supposed new decorative stained floor was an absolute nightmare! In fact, I was so mad at the quality of this floor I actually called the contractor and gave him my two cents worth. Without getting into the particulars, the entire new floor needed to be scraped off and started from scratch. Yup, you guessed it, we were now involved in a big way.