The show invited two brilliant colleagues of the industry to talk through that and their experiences.

Host Chance Litchfield, who was standing in for Clive began by asking: Should customers be buying materials directly and what does that say to you as a tradesperson?

Fix Radio’s Roofer of the year Danny Madden from Madden Builders told the show that: “With the roofing, there is no way that a client would be getting involved in buying materials, it’s not going to happen because they are not builders, they are not roofers and they are not tradespeople. So, they don’t know. I can get what I want, when I want and I know the distributors really well so, I can arrange deliveries, things like that, it’s just not going to happen.”

Madden explained that: “There are instances when am quite straight with clients and they need to know where we stand with this and understand that if they are going to buy material say for instance sanitary ware for the bathroom and things like that, then that’s absolutely fine. But if they are going to order 100 square metres of flooring, then who is going to take that flooring in? That’s all going to be accounted for in the price.

“Although they may think they are saving the money, they do need to have an understanding that they are going to bring it in or if we bring it in that’s going to be paid for the same way that if they are going to buy a bathroom, sanitary ware and things go wrong they have to do that there after and I had this before in the past.

Another guest on the show, Dave Finnagan of Elwood Enterprises, said: “It always starts us off on a rocky relationship. I think a good builder-customer relationship is really important if you are going to do different projects and you are going to be there several months and it also makes me think that there is a lack of trust there and that’s what it does. It means that they don’t trust you to provide them with the best material for the best price. But when that happens, they are actually shooting themselves in the foot in my opinion. Every time they try and do this, they are shooting themselves in the foot because we not only know the quality of materials and where to source it from, but we also get it at a better rate. I think the misconception is that us builders are going to rip them off and charge them more than we are paying things like that. It’s one of those things where they think they are getting a better deal when they are not.

“That said, developing a good builder-client relationship that’s transparent from the start is important and the way to go about this. It’s easier to be open and transparent, and build the trust from the start. If you are in regular communication with your client and they know where you are and what you are doing that relationship grows and trust sets in over time.”