There's a reason contractors vehicles have windows, it's so you can wind them up AFTER the job and have a quiet bitch to yourself about the customer if you feel it's needed. While you're with the customer your behavior has to be 100% and you need to take your cue from the customer as far as conversation goes BUT even so you need to make sure you are focused on the job you're there to do.
We have slip on boot covers to put on because often after a days work your feet smell so slipping covers over your shoes protects the customers floors and saves having to apologize for the smelly feet, also our Occupational Safety and Health requires us to wear safety shoes on the job.
We also do the courtesy call if we're going to be late and I've found all customers appreciate it, even if you're only going to be five minutes late.
We also like to send a thank you note or call when we receive payment and if someone has referred work to us we like to send them a thank you as well, depending on the job we'll sometimes send them a bottle of wine, some beer or chocolates. One we did recently was referred from a realtor, it began as a simple rat control job but once we got in the ceiling we found wiring chewed, insulation destroyed and huge quantities of droppings so we recommended they have the wiring done and the insulation replaced (without offering to do the work) we ended up recommending an electrician and getting the job to do the clean up and insulation. So a simple $100 job went to a $1500 job. We sent the realtor a bottle of wine and some flowers as a thank you for referring us.
Little things don't cost much but they can make you a lot.
