There are some customers Jon Krawczyk takes on simply because he enjoys a challenge.
He got a doozy in the form of an IT professional who tested Krawczyk’s patience at every turn.
The customer lived about an hour north of Port Charlotte, where Superior Pools of Southwest Florida is based. It quickly became apparent why the homeowner wanted to contract with Krawczyk’s company: Nobody north would work with him.
It didn’t take long for the first red flag to show itself. The client insisted that he work directly with Krawczyk, the CEO, rather than one of the in-house designers. Then there was a marathon of meetings, some lasting more than six hours, spread over a period of three months. When finally it came time for the man to sign the contract, he refused, saying he wasn’t ready. Krawczyk gave him an ultimatum: Sign it or find another company to build his pool. The man signed the dotted line.
But the customer became even more unruly during construction. He had done three years of research before the dig and considered himself very knowledgeable in the ways of pool construction. So he took on the role of foreman. He became a nuisance on the jobsite, frequently climbing down into the hole with the contractors to bark orders.
“I told him, ‘You cannot be in there, this is serious. If I find out you’re in the pool, I will fill the pool in. I don’t care if it’s the final step,’” Krawczyk recalls — and he meant it.
Constant change-orders were another frustration until Krawczyk put his foot down on that, too.
But the builder forged ahead when many other builders would have dropped the client—and maybe even did.
“The main reason why I built this pool is that I’m a perfectionist. And I met someone who was more of a perfectionist than me,” Krawczyk says. “I figured if I can make this guy happy, I can make anyone in the world happy.”
The end result was a stellar pool for a customer who today is singing Superior’s praises.
