The Point at Which Service Ceases to be a Virtue

By lach Dionne

One of our most expensive business luxuries is over-anxiety to outstrip our com- petitot-go just a little farther than he does. This is particularly true in the line of building "service" as we have come to know and catl it.

Now, this journal has been preaching building service since its first issue, but we have lon_g- ago -come to realize that building service is a commodity that must be wisely and intelligently handled and dispensed. In fact, building service is wise or foolish, depending entirely on how you interpret the term, and incorporate it into your business.

- 4ll gling and growing and worthwhile concerns must use building service. And it is only when they misuse it that it becomes a tiability, rather than ai asset. And its misuse most frequently comes about throtrgh the urge of over-enthusiastic competition.

The deadline is easily established to one who knows his business. So long as your service is making you-money, it is being wisely handled. When you find it eiting into your gross profits is the time to call a halt, and when that time comes you generally discover that you have been giving away too many things for nothing.

And service does NOT mean that you are to give your stock in trade away, whether that stock consist of building material, or the knowledge of how to handle and use that material.

For instance: The other day a friend of mine carne to me rejoicing. He had bought a-car, needed a garage, and came to me fairly tickled over the "building service" he ltad , discovered, a{rd the discovery of which ligtrtened his mind along building lines.

He said to me: "This man not only sold me the materials, but he sold me the completed _building, and left me no worries at all. He puts up the garage, puts in the doors and windows, lays the concrete floor, and puts two coats of paint on the building, and I pay him the flat price agreed upo4. I call that service."

_ Now, that salesman hadn't GMN him anything. He undbubtedly had-included in his price all the materials, the labor, the cost of over-seeing the job, and a piofit on the yfole- proposition. He-didn't give away that service the man w:xl so tickled at getting. The chances are he-made a better profit on the service than he did on the material. But h--e delighted his customer.

And THAT is the idea that should be behind all building service. The service should not come OUT of your profiL ft should INCREASE that profit. And when it doesn't you haven't properly understood the meaning of,the term.

When you deliver goods, for instance, within a reasonable radius of your yard, Io_Y are performing a service, and are undoubtedly charging for that service. -But ii you deliver the_ goods -many miles farther away, at the same price, you are doing a fooiish service, and throwing away your rightful profits.

- _-They say that there is a point where "patience ceases to be a virtue." True enough. And the same thing can be just as truthfully said of service.

IF' IT DOESN'T PAY BOTH THE BUYER AND SELLER-IT ISN'T SERV. ICE. GET THE POINT?