12 KEYNOTES MAY 2023 WWW.ALOA.ORG INSTITUTIONAL Providing Estimates completion? When would be the best time to do this project? These questions will naturally happen after the introductions and should be organic, not forced, once you are engaged in conversation. Ask what they are trying to achieve. What are their goals for the project? Share in the vision of their project. After the questions comes the listen- ing part. If you are not certain what the project entails, ask more questions, and don’t be embarrassed. The person you are meeting with will appreciate you car- ing to ask about their project. Endear- ment comes from us listening genuinely, which shows you’re a caring and sincere interested party. The fact that you care develops a foundation that helps builds a working relationship with the client. Good communication skills are based on sending and receiving information. There should more emphasis on the re- ceiving, meaning listening. This is im- portant to both parties. Often, the skill of active listening takes precedence in communication. This is something that takes discipline and a lot of work for me. I am naturally not a good listener, and I continually work on it. Giving an Estimate and Seeing Everyone learns differently, I am a visual learner. It is necessary to orient oneself on a job site to see and understand construc- tion key plans. If you are not familiar with a project, it’s helpful to see how the rooms in the building are laid out. Know where mechanical rooms and pipe chases are, understanding that usually they stack up top to bottom on each floor. Locate the stairwells. Know how they will be keyed. See where the fire doors are located. Gather information that pertains to scope of work you are estimating. The project may pertain to lock handing or hardware functionality. Room number- ing is important. It would also be helpful to see the construction documents like the hardware schedule. Often, renovated rooms and new construction door num- bers are not on the doors when you’re installing hardware, cores and cylinders. The signage, carpet and lock cylinders are going in at around the same time. That is why it’s so important to have the right door numbers on a key plan. Make sure that end users did the numbering of the rooms. I work with the space management de- partment; they determine all the room numbers. You will often find the archi- tect’s construction plans and the final room numbering do not match. This is why you want to make sure that you have the correct numbers on a final key plan to alleviate the confusion of what key mark goes to what door. As I said, the signage often has not been installed when you arrive to work the job. That is why spe- cial attention is needed in the cylinder/ core installation phase of a project. It’s a nightmare when your data on a cylinder does not match a request to produce a key from your records. If the project involves interchangeable cores, be careful not to give a control key to non-lock-shop main- tenance staff. The cores will be moved around and destroy any semblance of order to you have. Your records for key issuance will be corrupt. It’s bad enough when doors are moved around, and you scratch your head trying to figure out why you cannot produce a key for a particular door. When this happens, you will need to do what I call a “determined pinning.” If you are fortunate, there is a Coremark stamped on the core. In the case of a stan- dard cylinder, you may be lucky to see the Coremark written on the cylinder with a Sharpie or pencil. This will save you from rekeying the cylinder needlessly. Sure, it’s not the worst thing to have to rekey, but why do it if you don’t need to? After Giving the Estimate, Do “Do” is actively working on the task at hand. The clichés about working smarter are all true. Be organized. Try to limit the number of times you go to and from the site on large projects. Use a cart to work from. This is a time saver. It’s helpful if you have the room to load a cart in your service vehicle. I know supply chain issues exist. Plan your work in conjunction with the parts you have on hand. Avoid over promising and underperforming. This is particularly important because we are in a position of trust. We need to follow through and do what we promised. Sadly, in most cases, we as technicians are guilty until proven innocent. This is based on the clients’ past experiences with others. I hope you have found this article in- formative. I always want to share what I’ve learned over the years. Steve Fryman, CRL, CAI, CISM, AFDI, is a second- generation locksmith with over 45 years of experience. He has been a business owner for 20 years and is currently working at Florida State Univer- sity as a key compliance manager. Steve is a subject matter expert in institutional shop management. “If you are not certain what the project entails, ask more questions, and don’t be embarrassed.”
