End-to-End Service

SHANE: Hi all, and welcome to the latest episode of MARKHAM’s Invisible Strength podcast series! Today we’re going to be focusing on MARKHAM’s End-to-End Service – what it means to us and also what it means to you as a customer.

My name is Shane. I’m part of the marketing team, based here in the Napier office of New Zealand, and I’m joined here by Nikki Horn who’s a key part of our project manager management team. Can you tell us a bit about yourself, Nikki?

NIKKI: Sure thing! Hi everyone! As Shane said, my name is Nikki. I am the Project Coordinator for New Zealand. What that does mean is that if you’ve done a project with MARKHAM in New Zealand over the past 3-ish years, you’ll have dealt with me in some capacity. I’m involved with a lot of the end to end service, so I feel like I have the experience to be here and answer some of the questions.

SHANE: Awesome, so yeah, it sounds like you’re really qualified to get into a bit more of the end-to-end service, so let’s get into it!

NIKKI: Yes, thank you very much. So from design to application, to the issuing of the warranty, MARKHAM is super involved with our customers and their requirements, and so we’re going to talk about that today. Let’s get started.

SHANE: OK, so jumping into the first sort of point I want to talk about: in terms of the type of work we do here at MARKHAM, whether that’s concrete waterproofing systems or, say, warehouse floor slab, cure or seal, what are we talking about when we actually mention an end-to-end service?

NIKKI: OK, I’m glad you asked. I have a lot to say about this! So in the industry, we are often dealing with heaps of different parties. So we’re talking about manufacturers, distributors, suppliers and installers and you name it. Quite often this isn’t super cost-effective. Everyone is getting their margin to their step of the process, meaning that as the end user you get more cost and sometimes you aren’t necessarily getting the right product for your problem. Are you being sold the best solution? And it’s not always easy to get the correct technical information from people who aren’t directly involved in the manufacturing of the product. And sometimes a lot of this gets lost in translation.

MARKHAM has a supply and apply model for the majority of the products we offer. It’s our preferred method of operation. Why is this, you may ask? Doesn’t this just create more work?

We manufacture or import the product depending on what product it is. We will go and apply the product on site. We will then issue the warranty for both the supply and application of the product, so both the workmanship warranty and the product warranty. Depending on our involvement in the design stage of the project, we issue a warranty for up to 100 years in some cases. This includes our complete waterproofing warranties, so if you’re dealing with a comprehensive basement project, there is a lot of value in this. Essentially, we maintain control of these aspects of the project. So we can put our money where our mouth is when it comes to backing up our products.

I mentioned the design stage. The earlier MARKHAM get involved in the specification and design stages, the better. This ensures that our customers get the right product and the right solutions for their problems. One of our values here at MARKHAM that we try to live by is being SOLUTIONS FOCUSED. We want to sell you a solution to a problem, and not a product. Whether that problem is dusting, waterproofing, curing, workability – this is the approach that allows us to guarantee our customers and the stakeholders involved in any project that they are getting the intended performance and result; which ultimately equals value for money.

So it’s a continuous chain: design, supply, apply, quality control, and warranty.

SHANE: Nice! Cool, so from what I hear it sounds like the conventional system is a little bit disjointed, where the supplier and applicators are all different entities. Everyone’s got their own best interests at heart. Everyone’s got different systems and procedures. And can you tell us why our supply and apply sort of system is a major advantage in this case?

NIKKI: Yes, so many warranties only cover the manufacture of the product or the application of the product. The moment you have an issue, there is a disconnect as to who covers what, with what warranty, and no one wanting to take ownership. That disconnect in the politics, time and lack of resolution involved in these problems can take both time and money – which everyone in this industry knows are the two things we don’t have.

So the other thing to consider is the manufacturer’s guarantee. Is that end result that they are guaranteeing, what you have been promised on-site? If you’ve bought that from a supplier, is the product appropriate for the end-use that you’re expecting, or is it intended for something else? These things can be really subjective; variable between advisors and decision-makers, and can ultimately end up as a bit of a headache.

SHANE: Awesome, so by taking responsibility for every step, we can basically allow the customer can be sure they’re actually getting the result that they were intending to get in the first place?

NIKKI: Yes, so as I said earlier, we want to sell a solution and not a product. The earlier on we are involved in the design stage, the more control we have over the solutions and systems utilised, which translates into a more robust warranty being able to be issued. Our warranties are project-specific and performance-based.

I keep using the word “control”, and it might sound like it’s a very inflexible system when it’s really the opposite. We want to work with you to get an exact tailored solution per project so that we can back you up and service the intended life of that structure.

SHANE: Cool; and so listening to that – what intrigued me is the performance warranty. And it’s something that I hadn’t heard mentioned too much in the industry before, and it sounds like a sort of point of difference. Could you unpack this a little bit for us?

NIKKI: Sure. So when we talk about a performance-based warranty, we aren’t talking about a replacement of a defective product or a payout. This is about the required result or coming through with the solution that we offered initially. Whether we are discussing anti dusting, waterproofing, durability or curing, we want to ensure that every product is where it should be, and achieving maximum efficacy.

So for example, if you’re looking at our waterproofing system, we want to make sure that all of that gasket is around the penetrations, in the detail that we specified. We want to make sure that every slab is sprayed with treatment. We want to make sure that all the admixture is where it should be.

You only have to deal with one company, one team and one set of documentation; which does make a difference in the back end as well. This means less time and money spent, you know, in the back end when you’re trying to wrap up that project, when the time pressure really does become significant. By remediating the issues as they come up, by holding ourselves solely responsible for the waterproofing of substructures, we don’t need to find the blame; we don’t need to deal with bureaucracy, and we just focus on really getting things done.

SHANE: That’s great, and it sounds like it’s a bit of a win-win for all involved. So our end to end service, how can it help any of the others involved in the project?

NIKKI: Well, I think that everyone in the industry wants to do things once and do it right. The cheaper solutions often hold the most caveats and room for error, taking away any financial incentives that you may have gained by making those cheaper selections in the first place. The outcome is, this affects everyone involved in the project, and since all of our reputations are at stake, being associated with these projects, we want to make sure that there is a reputation boost for all involved.

So that being said, you know, architects are looking for comprehensive and more cost-effective approaches, whereas your structural engineers are looking for long term durability. Developers are looking for a solid performance warranty, while the construction teams that we deal with day in, day out, are interested in saving time and money. And when it really comes down to what the asset owner, who we are all technically working for, wants trouble-free assurance and a project-specific warranty at the end of it. So when they take over that project, they know that for the X number of years they don’t have to worry about the performance of that structure.

SHANE: It sounds really solid! And I’ve always been a big proponent of “Do it once and do it right”, and this system sounds like it matches up with that really nicely.

So with construction projects, there is obviously a lot of moving parts, a lot of services, there’s a lot of trades involved. Do you have any examples where our end-to-end service has actually helped, where a project hasn’t gone 100% to plan?

NIKKI: Oh yes, I do. And so I’ve got a couple of examples I can think of.

I’d like to preface this by saying while we offer a really robust warranty, we aren’t the be all and end all. We are one part of the bigger picture, and at the end of the day, you’ve still got to have, you know, good structural integrity. The concrete that we are waterproofing has to be of a certain quality and workmanship, and so there are those things to consider. While we do like to offer solutions, there’s only so much we can do.

And one of the projects I’m thinking of is a multi-level car park here in New Zealand that we treated for dusting a couple of years ago. A couple of weeks ago we got a notification that in certain areas of this car park, especially areas of high traffic, and turning, their car park had started to dust again. We weren’t too sure why, but we have gone to the site and discussed a remediation plan. So we are going to re-dose that concrete with our anti dusting product and go from there. We are also offering a sweep and scrub prior and post-application to try, you know, get rid of a lot of that dust, and understand where it’s coming from, and why. So that’s an interesting one. One of the more complex ones I’ve dealt with; because there isn’t a natural solution or a natural answer to that. Is it the quality of the concrete? Is it the finish of the concrete? Is it the lack of efficacy of the product? It’s a really hard one to pinpoint. Hopefully, by doing a trial, and working with the contractor, we will find out exactly what’s happened and be able to fix it.

Another one that comes to mind is a full basement waterproofing we’ve done recently. And so we had an admix in the precast panels and the floor slab. We had our spray-on treatment on the basement slabs and our swellable gasket in the construction joints and around penetrations. To make things even more complex, this basement has a pool! So you’re dealing with a lot of water-filled areas, so obviously, the waterproofing here needs to be really robust and complex. We were doing our QA. As we’ve mentioned, we like to keep control and make sure that everything is going to plan; and we noted that some of the gasket was not installed correctly and that a gap was actually apparent, kind of around the stitch joints. This left a big gap and joint between the floor slab and the precast, really exposed to water, for the water to migrate, you know, to that structural steel and cause deterioration. And after realising this, and realising that the design wasn’t followed 100%, we actually went back and retrofitted that joint with a waterproofing gasket at our cost to make sure that our warranty covered this area; which I think is really important. Like we’re going to, you know, own up to mistakes and note the defects now, so that when it comes to later, your clients and your customers are getting the solution that not only you promised them, but that we promised you.

So those are just a few that spring to mind, but you know, it’s really important to keep control of that QA; know what you’ve done and be able to offer those services.

SHANE: So awesome! Thanks so much, Nikki, for sharing all that information with us.

And to all our listeners, please get in touch with us if you’d like some more information, we’re happy to help, and all of our contact details are on our website, which is markhamglobal.com

And have a great day and don’t miss out on our latest episode!

NIKKI: Thank you!