The anatomy of a service call.

[GUNNING]

hire a salesman or an electrician...decisions decisions

hire a salesman or an electrician...decisions decisions

People equate quality with cost. If you charged $90 & $98,for the same job, the customer paying for the $98 job would think they got a better quality job. Even though it was the same thing. Presentation is important but when you do service work when does the sale end and the work begin? If you are going to flat rate a customer and not find other problems you need to include in your rates the cost of finding that burned up circuit or bad service or be prepared to renegotiate the sale. To me, changing the price upward after the sale will make for an unhappy customer and not getting paid. If, on the other hand the sale and negotiation was done and formalized by "the boss" or another independent actor it would formalize the negotiation process and get the added income. Kinda like the car dealer does to us. For the small shop, the sale is finalized when the receiver hits the cradle. If its an estimate or free work it cant happen without office participation. For a salesman your only as good as your last sale and your reputation can be ruined overnight. People know when they have been gouged. A fair price will be a good long term strategy unless you have systems and procedures in place to renegotiate while the work is being performed.

 

[GUNNING]

on a similar vein, when do you introduce your rates? On the job, Over the phone, Side of the truck, When you walk in the door?

 

[bradleyelectric]

I used an approved splice cap -- copper /aluminum with new receptacles..

I've seem some sloppy stuff lately that people have paid other so called electricians to do. I had to ask for my own sanity reasons.

 

[romexking]

What I meant is that, if I get a call about an inoperative receptacle, for example, there's no reason to drive there unless it's already agreed that I will be doing the work.

I give free on-site estimates for new work if it's a real job. I can give troubleshooting estimates over the phone, by quoting my hourly rate: $150 1st hr, $100 each addtl.

Troubleshooting is never free, and work has to be done to determine the cause of the malfunction. There's no reason to drive there to do what I can do free on the phone.

let's look at this in a different way. You've already spent upwards of a hundred dollars or so just to have this person call you. Why throw that opportunity to make a lifelong customer away? Granted, you may not make money every time you replace a single receptacle, but who knows what that will turn into. How do you know that they don't have a FPE panel? Maybe you could inform them that they need new smoke detectors, a CO detector, GFCI outlets in the kitchen, surge suppression on their panel.

If you are EXTREMELY busy, you must prioritize the calls you get to first, but by all means schedule every call, and get there as quickly as possible...before they call someone else. Train yourself and your staff to be more than repair persons. You need to be at the very least, a safety expert. Teach your customers about electrical safety, because if you don't, no one will. Be more to them than just the guy that fixed that outlet thingy, and you just might get a repeat customer.

 

[ohm]

let's look at this in a different way. You've already spent upwards of a hundred dollars or so just to have this person call you. Why throw that opportunity to make a lifelong customer away? Granted, you may not make money every time you replace a single receptacle, but who knows what that will turn into. How do you know that they don't have a FPE panel? Maybe you could inform them that they need new smoke detectors, a CO detector, GFCI outlets in the kitchen, surge suppression on their panel.

If you are EXTREMELY busy, you must prioritize the calls you get to first, but by all means schedule every call, and get there as quickly as possible...before they call someone else. Train yourself and your staff to be more than repair persons. You need to be at the very least, a safety expert. Teach your customers about electrical safety, because if you don't, no one will. Be more to them than just the guy that fixed that outlet thingy, and you just might get a repeat customer.

Good plan.