Getting input and agreement from our clients is how we proceed with an effective aging in place renovations – often we suggest concepts that we enjoy using but ultimately it is up to the client
As we conduct more and more home assessments over the years and find solutions for our aging in place clients to provide more safety, convenience, comfort, or accessibility for them, we are going to find some solutions that we really like. In fact, we could describe them as some of our favorites. We have others that we use – some once or twice for something quite specific, some fairly often that seem to work quite well, and some that we like to use as often as possible that seem to be very effective – our favorites.
However, just because they are our favorites because we like what they typically do for a client or for their living space, they may not be appropriate every time, every client, and every situation. Actually, our clients may reject them in favor or something else they prefer or another approach entirely. This doesn’t mean that we need to change our opinion of our favorite solutions, and it doesn’t lessen their role as our favorite go-to solutions. It just means that they aren’t appropriate for each instance.
After all, aging in place solutions are client-centric – based on what the client needs, likes, and can afford. Just as some people prefer vanilla ice cream, some love chocolate, others prefer different flavors, and still, some don’t care for ice cream at all or don’t eat it. There are a range of preferences, styles, personal tastes, and applications. This is another reason that we have to be so well-versed in solutions and techniques and so versatile in how we are able to approach a client’s needs.
When what we like and recommend coincides with what they like as well, it’s a win-win because we get to help them with a solution that we both agree with and that we like.
As far as calling something a favorite, we can have a favorite restaurant and a favorite entree to order at that establishment. We can have a favorite drink at that restaurant. However, if we took the liberty of ordering our favorite for someone who is joining us as a guest and having it ready when they arrived – without determining their likes in advance – it might be considered in poor taste. It would presumptuous at the least. Our favorite doesn’t mean that it’s anyone else’s favorite – unless they happen to like it independently also.
When it comes to determining aging in place solutions for our clients, we might have a favorite area of the home to begin or to focus on first – the outside, the entry, the main doorway, the hallway, the kitchen, the master, the hall bath, the flooring, the windows, the artificial lighting, or elimination of clutter. This doesn’t mean that the client shares our concern or that we will, in fact, begin our renovation with our favorite area – if we are even engaged to help them.
Within any of those areas of the home that we like to concentrate on initially, we likely have certain things we are looking for and our favorite ways of dealing with them and providing renovations. Our clients might agree with us, or they might not. They might prefer that we start on another area of the home that has a higher personal priority for them.
Our favorites can include various styles, brands, colors, sizes, or other aspects of products or treatments that we typically recommend and like to see used when they are conditions present that would benefit from the use of such products or solutions. Sometimes, we are going to be renovating an area of the home or providing solutions where we don’t have any particular favorite solutions, products, or ways that we like to see things done. This is fine also.
We just need to keep things in perspective. We can have solutions that we like more than others and ones that we tend to use in many situations because they seem to work well and the clients like them. This does not mean that other solutions would not work as well. They just aren’t our favorite – yet. They could become so over time. Regardless, we should be careful about influencing our clients by referring to something as our favorite or suggesting that “everyone” or “most people” select them or like them. This could make them feel defensive of their position or that something was somehow wrong with them for not agreeing with everyone else.
Our favorites are just that – something that we have found that we like that generally works in many situations and we can freely recommend and install them as solutions for what our clients are facing – but not to the exclusion of other possibilities that could work also and they may like even better than our initial choice for them. We might receive favorable pricing on these items from the manufacturer or supplier, but this should not be the final determining factor in trying to persuade our client to use a particular solution that we favor.