Each year we send crew and managers out, sometimes at our own expense, sometimes charged to the client, to take a look at inventories to be moved and/or to assess various logistics issues at a given physical location. This “site visit” is required where very large collections are to be relocated or where the client, for whatever reason, is unable to provide an accurate or complete inventory. The site visit becomes necessary to produce the estimate, which then becomes the basis for accomplishing the required scope of work.

      There are two kinds of site visits: useful and useless. You should go on the useful ones, and avoid the useless ones. Trouble is, telling which is which in advance.

      Customer A is very insistent that someone come out and take a look at their “large inventory of major artworks” which they want to store or ship. Sounds juicy. Sure we will do a site visit, no charge, be right over.

      Customer B says we don’t need to come out in advance, they only have a couple of pieces, just send a truck and two guys on the day of the job, no problem, piece of cake, yawn.

      Which is the difficult job for which a site visit would have been hugely beneficial?

      Customer A turns out to have five or six perfectly ordinary oil on canvas paintings, not terribly large, a straightforward job to be deinstalled, wrapped, and removed by two art handlers in a relative trice.

      Customer B on the other hand has two very difficult sculptural works, delicate and top heavy, which really should have had frames built in advance of removal to provide proper support. Not to mention  some wacky “artist installed” logistics which have to be figured out and undone before the pieces can be removed from their respective perches. Oh, and the through the doorway clearances are very tight. Oh, and the house is on a hill with overhanding trees over the driveway so the sculptures have to be dollied down the driveway to a truck at the bottom.

      Where site visits aren’t done, peril often looms. Some examples from our experience:

      – the artist who has added to his creation in the studio without considering whether it will fit back out through the studio door. It won’t.

      — the “five or six” artworks which the caller described on the phone somehow morph into fifty or sixty upon our arrival.

      — the “perfectly friendly” dogs who nevertheless have to be shut away in advance to avoid our art handlers being bitten in the driveway (Two dog bites in 15 years…)

     – the gallerist who “forgets” to mention that the large sculpture or crate we are picking up for a third party is buried in the rear of the gallery’s storage area, where it has not been seen since 1957. The estimated one hour pickup/delivery turns into a multi-hour affair as our art handlers move everything else out of the way to access that piece.

      – the overhanging trees which make an accessible driveway into a “no truck” zone. We have paid reparations to more than one homeowner’s tree surgeon over the years. Often trees and landscaping have changed character since the owner moved in 15 years ago, so the fact that “the moving truck got in just fine” has past it’s fresh information expiry date. Better to go and measure.

     — and my personal favorite, the collector who had us pick up a painting from a gallery, only to find that the piece would not fit through any door in his residence. Whereupon he refused to pay anything, saying that as professionals we should be familiar with doorway sizes and we should have advised him not to buy the painting. This really happened.

      A successful site visit begins with the customer service person taking the phone call or answering the email asking the right questions. This means not accepting vagaries such as “large” or “heavy” or “small” or “easy access.” These are relative terms, and one person’s “pretty heavy but four guys could probably do it” is another person’s “get a crane.” You really need to know which job is which.

     For all the sleuthing in advance, there are always going to be useless site visits. Sometimes the visit was not strictly necessary from the scope of work point of view, but the manager bonds with the client and secures the job, turning useless into very useful indeed.

     When in doubt, as with most things in life, it is best to show up.

       Betsy Dorfman