Dear Dakota: What To Do When a Tough General Contractor Refers a Good Interior Design Client?
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We received a question via our Dear Dakota series, and this is a big one!
“What should you do when a former contractor — who you’ve had a difficult experience with in the past (communication issues, mistakes, and lack of accountability) — refers you to a new, potentially great client? Business is slow right now, and I could really use the project, but I’m unsure: should I take it and hope for the best, or politely decline?”
This designer went on to share examples of low-quality workmanship, mistakes in installation, and the GC blaming the designer and making them look bad in front of the client (causing the client to lose trust).
While every situation is different, I think in this case you have to consider a few things.
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Can you “protect your black holes”, like I always say? So, knowing what you know about this GC and their business, are there ways you could deliver the service to your client without being impacted by the shoddy work or unprofessional behavior of the GC?
Option 01: Reduce the SOW to only include the design and a spec book. Then, wrap the service and leave the client to manage the project and oversee the GC’s work.
By removing yourself from the construction administration phase, you eliminate the stress of working directly with the GC BUUUUUUT you also lose the chance to catch or correct issues. And, if the GC is a jerk, they may still shift blame to you anyway, and without you there, the client may believe them.
This also means, it’s on your client to understand the design and understand your quality workmanship standards in order to know if something is going wrong.
Most clients won’t be able to spot issues like a designer can, so this could also lead to an issue where the client says, “I worked with X designer.” … only for their friends to look at the quality and think, “EWWW”.
Option 02: Say yes to the project but expand your SOW and increase your fee.
Take the project and provide the same service level as last time, but this time, charge more knowing you’ll need to monitor things more closely and will need to have more proactive communication throughout to ensure the design is implemented correctly.
With this option, you’ll want to make sure your contract reflects your increased fee and detailed scope and includes a clause that clearly defines your role especially around installation oversight and third-party work. (Our contract for residential interior designers does all that!)
You may not get the project because the design fee is higher. You will likely still have to deal with similar issues. But this time around, you can steer the client to different installers, if possible, or proactively prepare your specs to (hopefully) prevent future issues. You’ll likely also want to include more site visits and more written communication with the GC so things are clearly documented
In either option, there is still a risk of the GC hiring installers who don’t follow the design plan and the GC throwing you under the bus to the client.
But in option two, you have the opportunity to take on a great project, protect your client’s investment, advocate for them throughout the process with a GC you know is tough, and likely get photos of the completed project.
Now, on the flip side of this, if the GC is shady, is advising the client they don’t need a permit when they do, is hiring subs who do low quality work, unnecessarily causes delays, and harasses you or is disrespectful to you and your team, then no, the referral isn’t worth it.
Do You Work on Construction Projects with General Contractors?
If your projects involve GCs and you want to stay organized, professional, and proactive, check out these resources in The Design Library and The Workroom.
