Master Your Colors

One question that I have got in the past is will I do color consulting for my customers. This is a good question as there are several schools of thought on this subject. Yes color consulting is something you should offer your clients and no it should not cause you to think of it as liability if the customer does not like the color. While both have their valid points, let me explain why I choose to do color consulting for my painting company, B&K Painting, for the past 18 years.  

Here is a phenomenon that I discovered very early on in my career. You can do an amazing paint job and choose bad colors and everyone that drives by will say it is a crappy paint job. On the other hand you can do a crappy paint job and choose great colors and everyone that drives by will say it is an amazing paint job. You need to understand how this can greatly affect your business. It is amazing how many calls for bids you will get from a yard sign if you just painted a house an amazing color scheme. What you have to realize is the majority of drive by lookers probably do not have a talking relationship with the homeowner and probably will not stop to ask how the painter performed their job. With this knowledge, your colors choices become very important.

Another interesting phenomenon I discovered early in my career is that if you do a lot of prep that is visible the neighbors driving by will think you are an amazing painter cause of the prep you do. What I realized is it is not necessarily the quality but the visual perception. White caulking shows up so do a lot of caulking for esthetic purposes of the final product. We use PeelBond primer which dries clear so we tinted it white so everyone knew how much priming we do. Prep for a quality paint job but also prep to gather the attention of those driving by. Now added with a paint job in a great color scheme and you just convinced most people you are the painter for their next project. Of course choosing colors for your customer comes with some liability.

I will discuss to things to consider that will significantly decrease your liability. In 18 years of painting, my choice of colors only caused me to have to repaint an exterior one time and I probably did the color consulting on 70% of the homes I painted. Most home owners are not confident with choosing colors and if they think they are they quickly realize their choice can be slightly off.  When you explain how color changes from inside to outside and how a small swatch can be a bad representation of the color they are wanting a customer will lean to you for advice. Now one tip and this is a very important tip to understand. The lone house I had to repaint because of my color choice was due to me convincing the customer to change her mind on colors she was sure she wanted. The colors she chose were not going to get me any jobs and were not a wise choice for exterior so I presented a different color scheme that she chose.

By me convincing this customer to change her mind I took on the responsibility that if she did not like it that I would have to repaint the house. I was convinced she would but she did not. So what I learned is that if a customer conveys to you that they have chosen their colors and not asked for your help you probably should just go with it. If the color scheme is terrible you can ask if they are sure on their choices and if they say yes leave it. What I do if the color scheme is bad is just do my job quickly and efficiently and then I do not leave a sign in front of the house. That has happened about 5 times in my career. Color consulting is an option explained in my bid package, which is about 20 pages long. If you need help creating a quality bid visit my website for details on my bid pack. A large majority of customers will call the office and ask for help and we are eager to help them.

Color choices can make or break your business so if you are not good at it then find a local interior exterior designer to help you. In the beginning of my business I found two local designers who I subcontracted to. It would usually cost me around $75 for the designer to meet with the customer and present them with 3 color schemes for their houses. There is one paint retailer, a Benjamin Moore dealer, in my city that offers the service for free. Speak to the manager of your local paint store to see if they offer the service. It took about 2 years of painting and using a designer for me to grasp colors and design and how to make a house look amazing with multiple colors. The majority of color schemes I designed over the years included 4-5 colors. I cannot go into how to color design in this article but will in a future article. Offering help choosing colors is another part of a great customer service package that will get customers referring your business over and over.

As a painter you are seeing colors every day and you should be studying what looks good and what looks bad and why. You become the expert on colors because you are painting with good colors and bad colors throughout your career. This experience makes you the expert and not your customer. Eventually you need to come off confident in your choices just like you should be confident in the work you will do. Yes there are risk but the rewards are far greater. It is very rewarding when a customer comes homes and absolutely loves their house and the colors you choose. Embrace it.

So when approaching my customers with color consulting I always make it clear I am making suggestions and that they ultimately has to live in the home not me. If they have no idea where to start I simply ask basic questions that goes like this. Do you want a brown house, blue house, green house, grey house, or do you not have any idea? Most clients will say one or the other then you have a great starting point. Now of course they could say I like the colors the house is now. The makes life easy for you. Some painters may think.

In my 18 year career painting I always felt it was harder painting a house the same colors because it was difficult trying to figure out where you had painted already. Of course this is easier if the house is faded significantly. But here is another consideration to take. When painting it the same colors most people driving by will not even notice the house was painted or they will drive by and say that the paint job simply looks nice. If you change the color scheme drastically just the opposite will happen. The paint job will be an eye catcher and most people driving by will say the paint job is amazing if you choose good colors.  

Now if a client says they want a green house then I simply begin working with greens in the color deck. I use only one deck to keep things simple and the deck is always from the painting manufacture that I buy my paint from. There is too much liability in color matching colors and the customer saying that is not the color I chose. If the color match is not an exact perfect color match, it can ultimately be your responsibly. Well that is unless you get your clients to sign off on colors prior to painting. My bid package includes a color form to be filled out and signed by the customer which can eliminate some liability if the customer does not like the colors when the job is done.  

During the process of helping them I am making suggestions and looking for reactions from them. When they see something they like I focus on colors in that area. Now some things to take into consideration when narrowing it down to a color. Roof color, landscaping colors, neighbors house colors, brick or stone colors are things to consider in your design. Your choices should be influenced by these things. Eventually we will narrow it down to one base color then I will work with all the other colors from there. Remember to just make suggestions and never try hard to change the clients mind. I always look for clues from the client if they are unsure of their choices. If I get this feeling I suggest that they paint samples on the house. This is something you can suggest they do or offer it as a paid service as we did. $25 per color is what we charged to paint swatches on the house.  

Make sure you explain to the customer that they need to paint them in serval locations and the colors will look totally different from location to location. Lighting has a significant effect on colors and how they appear to your eyes. Get the colors narrowed down and make sure the customer is confident in their choice then have them sign a color form. Of course there are liabilities with this service so why would you not offer it? There is really no great argument as far as I am concerned but some may be that you are not confident choosing colors. Then hire a designer. It will cost me too much money and my margins are not good. Well, fix your margins and add the cost of the designer to the bid. There is too much liability in choosing the wrong colors. Well, there is liability in simply painting someone’s house.  

If they do not like the colors all the prep work has been done and you have done a great first coat so the painting will go faster the second time. I do not have the time to meet with the customers. Well, hire a designer. Colors are not my problem! Customer service should be extremely importance to your company philosophy and offering color consulting is great customer service. Be different from your competition and this is one way you can. If you need help with the business side of painting you can visit my YouTube channel Paint Life TV and watch my series on The Business of Painting HERE.

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