Customer Referral and Initial Contact
Hi, this is John Dale again from GlobileNet. I had a customer call the other day who was referred by another long-standing customer.
Urgent Needs in a New Home
Mel had just moved into a new house, and there was a lot going on there. Mel actually had a need for some fairly urgent works in relation to the new home that included lights in various places in the lower levels, power point smooth changes, and things like that. She had a number of lights in the hallways and so on and so forth in the rooms. As I said, she’s just moved in, so she wanted me to come in and have a look.
Providing a Quote and Consultation
So as we normally do, we provide a quote and provide a complimentary service of consultation, really, because Mel, like a lot of customers, was not quite sure of what the best options were in terms of lighting. Then she thought “Oh, well, I’ll put downlights everywhere.”
Offering Alternatives to Downlights
But after a discussion with her, downlights are not always the best choice. So I offered options for oyster lights, LED oyster lights, the more modern slim-line versions, which definitely give you a very, very bright room, but are not task lights. So they’re perfect in a bedroom, really, where you want light that’s 180 degrees. And you just have one fixture, nice and easy to service, nice and easy to install. You just take the old light out and put the new one in. So I suggested oysters in some of those bedrooms.
Hallway Lighting Recommendations
In the hallways, I suggested replacing the existing very antiquated spotlights with downlights and the complete removal of one of those in the stairway.
Addressing Fans and Bathrooms
And there were fans which were noisy and needed replacing. The bathrooms were a bit antiquated, too. They wanted three-in-one bathroom units to replace lights where there wasn’t really any heat. And she’s got two children, so wanted to have a bit of heat, especially moving into the winter.
Phase One Planning and Adjustments
So Phase One was to have that visit to put a scope together. And I sent it off the same day, actually. And I had a follow-up call and discussion with her to see that things were as we’d discussed. There were a few changes, but mainly because she was looking at doing upgrades to the kitchen. So some of the work would probably be better left until the kitchen upgrades.
Power Points and NBN Relocation
And similarly, some of the power points and the NBN modem which she wanted to be relocated. But again, waiting until renovations happened.
Backyard and Pergola Considerations
There was some work to go out in the backyard as well. They were looking at putting a new pergola in one of those insulated sandwich layer type pergolas. So that was left till later as well because they were getting quotes at the time.
Beginning Phase One Work
Anyway, She asked us to proceed, and we proceeded within a couple of days. And so the first target was to look at the lower level kitchen areas where things were rather dull and it definitely needed bolstering. We removed the lights and put new ones in, added some power points, relocated some power points, and so on and so forth.
Bathroom Fan Replacement
The fan in the bathroom that was noisy, we replaced that with a new one. Not much that was too exciting, I guess, in that section, but a lot that required a bit of creativity to get wires through walls without creating damage unnecessarily.
Upper Level Bathroom Works
The upper level was easier, actually. We had cut in the three-in-one bathroom units. I selected them based on the space of the bathroom. There’s a couple of things in the bathroom, I suppose. One, it needs to be quite big to have a four heat lamp bathroom. They can be a little heavy in terms of energy. And of course, children don’t necessarily look at turning off the lights when you would like them to. They’re often left on. And so you don’t want to be leaving four lamps on when you could leave two on.
Wiring and Switching Adjustments
Anyway, so we had two bathrooms with those. They had to wire all the switching. So it’s not just a simple process. We had to run new wires down the walls because previously there was one fan, one light, and one switch. So everything switched from one switch. So we had to wire new wires down the walls to the new switches.
Bedroom Lighting and Pendant Fixture
And in a couple of the areas, they wanted to add dimmers to the bedroom lights. And there was a special pendant or chandelier that Mel had purchased for her bedroom. And the lamp in that one was just a single lamp.
Switchboard and Safety Check
In the pre-quote phase, I checked the switchboard, because often times, the switchboard is 30-35 years old and it doesn’t comply with the new Australian wiring codes. So by checking that, we can make sure we’ve covered everything in the quote. In this case, the light circuits were not protected. So we changed the circuit breaker to what we call an RCBO, or a safety circuit breaker.
Completing the Work Efficiently
And In total, then we had a job that was quite extensive. And we completed that with all of us, all the team, in a day, pretty much in a day, actually.
Planning for Future Kitchen Upgrades
I’ve yet to go back when Mel is ready to look at the kitchen area. As it happens, Mel also needed other services, so I did ask her if I could help her with that, to which she was very happy and appreciative.
Referrals to Trusted Trades
I work in a network group that passes referrals between different trades, and I know these trades people, and when we refer to each other, we make sure we do the best for our clients. So one was the kitchen renovator or renovations. One was for painting, one was for plumbing. However, the plumbing one, she had covered, I think one of her cousins or something was a plumber, so that covered that.
Reviewing the Completed Works
Once we completed the task, we ran it by with Mel and said, “well, let’s just go through the scope of works again. Just make sure we haven’t missed anything”, which is quite easy when you’re doing a job like that, making sure that Mel is happy.
Dimmer Light Oversight
One thing that I’ve note is that Mel, when she bought the pendant light for her bedroom, wanted a dimmer put on it, but the lamp she bought was so dim that the dimmer really wasn’t worth having. She obviously might have left that one for us to suggest, so that she could have had a nice bright light and then dim it.
Final Outcome and Customer Review
Anyway, otherwise, she was very happy. She has done us a review. Thank you very much to Mel. We’ll wait for the next Phase.
