elderly customers

[KristineS]

You're right, if you take it down to the meta level (here's how you turn the faucet) it can get a bit silly.

Still, I don't think there's anything wrong with walking them through the job once you've completed it and demonstrating everything. You don't have to say "here's how you turn on the faucet" but you can certainly demonstrate it under cover of showing them what you did.

My guess is that if you give your customers a bit of time to ask any questions they might have, you'll discover who is potentially going to have problems. A quick walk through should be enough time for them to ask questions if they have them.

[vangogh]

Sure if you say turn the handle to turn on the faucet it's insulting, but you could also say something like, "I've noticed these faucets sometimes don't always turn off completely unless you close them firmly"

That doesn't come across as insulting, but as helpful advice. Again the basic idea of walking people through your work isn't automatically insulting. It's in how you present it.

[billbenson]

"I want to make sure everything works to your satisfaction. Can you just run through filling the sink and make sure the hot and cold water works to your satisfaction?

[Steve B]

I think some people could easily go through the demonstration without being insulting, and would be doing their customers a nice service. But, it's not the kind of thing that everyone can do successfully without sounding a bit consulting - no matter how hard they try. If you don't think you are the kind of person who could do it effectively, you're better off not doing it.

In my business, I walk people through the most basic aspects of my training program and repeat myself several times (yound and old). I hope I'm not being insulting to them. But, what I found out is that dogs are very easy to train compared to people. So, I don't mind walking the edge of being repititive and perhaps insulting because it may ultimately save a dog's life. It may also save me a return trip in the future. I also send out e-mails occasionally reminding people of the things that I repeated to them several times during the training.