I have the pleasure of being a boater for 20+ years, and a professional, full time, mobile marine service provider for the last 5. Here is my perspective.
In general, all one needs to understand, is the customer / marine service provider relationship must be balanced for it to work well.
How can you identify a service pro?
1. They will be happy to show you their professional certifications they carry with them at all times. You should ask to see these FOR THE PERSON PERFORMING THE WORK, OR SIGNING OFF ON IT. (Can't show me, can't set foot on my boat.)
(Note that a
diesel mechanic certification or residential electrician ticket does not qualify one in any way shape or form to perform marine
electrical work.)
2. They will be happy to show you their
commercial liability
insurance certificate. (Can't show me, can't set foot on my boat.)
3. They charge pro rate.
Typically, at $100/hr, after admin, overhead, unproductive time, and reasonable business profit, the worker may see $30/hr pay,
government and benefit deductions, which ends up being about $20/hr take home.
If you seek a lower rate, all the other stuff still has to be paid.
At $90 / hr service rate, the worker will see about $15/hr gross. How qualified, good, and experienced do you think the person is who is willing to work for minimum wage?
If they have a backlog of customers willing to pay normal rate, why would they forsake those to work for you for less? If they don't have a backlog, your red
flags should be flying up like crazy.
4. Don't expect them to know every possible thing about your boat, and all of its systems, or even the thing they are installing.
If you have owned your boat for 10 years, and scoured every square inch, you know that boat way better than a pro who has been on it for 15 minutes.
If you have owned and operated a
chartplotter for 10 years, you likely know it far better than the pro who has operated that exact year, make, and model, for maybe an hour, and tried to
recall this from all of the others they have worked on in that time.
So why hire a pro then? They have the relationship with the local distributor and the factory. They have the general knowledge, skills, and experience, to install and commission it, correctly and reliably.
Far fewer DIYers actually can, (compared to how many think they can), based on all the poorly executed and failed
DIY electrical installations we fix.
Of course the pro, will perform a quick
power up and operational test, and provide a quick tutorial of basic functions if owner is present.
The customer is responsible for reading the manual and
learning how to use the features desired.
5. If you hire based on low price alone, expect that is exactly what you will receive.
If you
purchase products based on lowest price alone, you are entitled to receive all of the on-board product customer service you are willing to provide yourself.
We provide on-board
product and installation warranty for every product we sell and install.
We
endeavour to ensure our retail product prices are market competitive. (It is impossible for any one retail seller, to be the lowest of every
single internet seller worldwide for every product.)
For customer supplied (purchased elsewhere) product we install, we offer an onboard product warranty for 15% of normal product retail price.
A) If the customer refuses, and the product fails under warranty (no fault of ours), they deal with it, or we will at normal hourly rate.
B) If they accept, we deal with it, no charge.
6. If a pro makes a mistake, they will
endeavour to fix it in an equitable fashion to preserve their reputation, if given the chance.
7. If you feel things are not going well, be understanding, express your grievance clearly and respectfully, and allow the contractor to address it and make it right, before threatening non-payment.
If you jump to the latter, the relationship is instantly and irreversibly damaged.
8. Don't ask for cash discount.
In
Canada, if the contractor has revenue of more than $30K/yr, they are required by law to file
income tax and charge HST.
If they agree to not charge tax, they either do not have enough business to bill $30K per year, or are willing to operate illegally. What level of integrity do you expect from a company or person willing to work illegally and risk being caught in an audit and fined or jailed?
9. Because you are hiring someone, does not give you any right to abuse them in any way. Expect to be treated with the same level of dignity and respect that you treat your marine service provider with.
Anyone who believes they are "better" than their marine service provider, is a fool. Either they are an incorrect and put down others to feel superior, or they have hired the wrong service provider.
No "pro" will accept abuse for pay, not even for an instant.
We are very careful to
screen who we accept as a customer.
Those we don't accept as a customer (or in very rare cases, fire after the fact), end up hiring someone with lower customer expectations. I wonder how that works out?
10. In summary of all of the above, the customer / marine service provider relationship is based on a
contract between equals.
One is willing to provide an appropriate amount of
money in return for the other to provide a corresponding amount of education, skill, experience, and customer service.
Go into the relationship with this attitude, and you stand the greatest possibility of being happy with the outcome.