Are You Experienced?

I think too much emphasis is placed on experience. Both customers and painting contractors sometimes seem to think that the number of years of experience reveal some kind of magical information.

There are many different kinds of experience. Simply stating the number of years of experience doesn’t tell us what kind of experience. Too often, someone with 20 years of experience really has just 1 year of experience, repeated 20 times.

Experience seems to be some kind of validation. For the customer, it appears to create trust. But just because a contractor has 20 years experience painting does not mean he has 20 years experience running a business. The two are quite different.

And what if he has been painting new construction tract homes for 20 years? This is considerably different from custom repaints. The experience of new construction does not necessarily prepare one for repaints.

For the customer, experience does not necessarily translate to a good job or a good experience. There are myriad factors involved in repaints that simply do not arise in new construction— such as protecting furniture and minimizing disruptions to the family.

Experience is a good thing, but it’s not the only thing.

© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008