About The Finishing Touch

Service

 

“All I have to offer my customers is Service.”

—Andrew Brackman

 

My father used to say that often, and it took me some time to ponder what he meant by it. Bill Brackman was known as the best concrete finisher in the Valley . . . the best at what he did! So why would he put so much emphasis on service when he was well known for the quality of his product? It was a puzzle only solved after taking over The Finishing Touch Concrete Construction and working at my father’s business for many years. I had to think about it as I was doing it and then it became my business because, I understood.

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Concrete is an amazing material that, if done well, is strong, durable, lasting and ages well. That’s something you forget about with concrete. It can be shaped and formed in a myriad of ways to perform countless functions in thousands of applications. I like to go back and look at a project, after many years, and see how it looks. The latest trends come and go, but concrete is going to be there a long time. I really appreciate the durability.

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Working with concrete is extremely demanding. Sometimes, if we’re doing a big pour, we’ll merge a couple of crews and that requires amazing teamwork. Everyone has to pull together. There’s a point at which you can tell everybody on your team gets that and they begin to synchronize their movements while dealing with intense pressure and limited time doing work that is exacting and critical. It’s exciting! And it’s always good to feel that way about the work you do.

 

As I thought about my father’s statement, I began to notice certain things—and not just in the construction trades—but things that apply in any business. Service means you’ll be there when you say you will, you’ll do what you say you’ll do and you’ll treat your customers with respect . . . you’ll use care in communicating with them, you’ll help them get through their project with confidence, you’ll form a relationship—in some ways, a partnership with them. Keeping your word is as important, maybe more important than the product. You’re there to earn a living, that’s true, but that’s only part of it. Once you get your mind around that, it’s liberating because the job you do doesn’t always turn out the way you were hoping but if we can make our customer happy, that’s the bottom line. That’s SERVICE! It’s something I find interesting about any kind of work.

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When I think about why I do the work I do: it’s not the concrete, it’s not the excavation. It’s the service . . . that’s what we’re offering.