The Quality Manager May Not Know You Were There

A quality manager at a major GC recently told me something that made me rethink how I trained manufacturer field reps for over a decade.

Her projects require manufacturer site visits, but she rarely knows whether the rep showed up, much less what they found. When she asks for the reports, she's told they'll get them to her.

What she really wants is to walk the job with the rep and understand what they're looking at. And that's scary, even for the best, most qualified and experienced rep.

Why Reps Never Sought Out the QC Manager

For years I trained reps to visit job sites, document installation conditions, take photos, write reports, and communicate their findings to the project team.

But I never trained them to seek out the person responsible for quality, unless there were quality problems encountered during the visit. To be fair, oftentimes back then QC folks weren't on site.

We Built Relationships With Everyone Except Quality

Here's the thing. We spend so much time building relationships with architects, GCs, project managers, and installers. Yet the person responsible for verifying the quality of the installed work may not even know the manufacturer was there.

That's the missed opportunity. Quality managers prep harder than most reps realize. They review plans, shop drawings, and install instructions before walking up to an installer. They're already thinking about what could go wrong.

Both Sides Win When the Rep Finds Quality

When the quality manager gets access to the manufacturer's technical expertise, the rep gains a better understanding of what's happening on the project. And both have a chance to catch potential installation problems before they become expensive ones.

The rep who knows how to navigate a construction site knows who to find and when. But most reps avoid job sites because of a training gap, not shyness.

Seek Out the Person Who Verifies Your Work

The takeaway is simple. Stop building relationships only with the people who specify and install. Start building them with the people who verify.

When you walk the job with the quality manager, you're not just documenting conditions. You're showing them what you see and learning what they're watching for. That conversation turns a site visit into something both of you can use.

Next time you're on a project, ask who's responsible for QC. Then introduce yourself.