Does Doing Freebies Get You More Work?

[ITO]

how many of your quotes involve sending a man in a fully stocked service truck to someone's house to give a price for installing 4 recessed lights and a switch?

I answered that question in the last sentence.

I don't quote service calls

However the point you were trying to make is excellent, that service truck, gas, material and electrician are expensive.

 

[ItsHot]

freebies

freebies

Usually doing "freebies" just leads to more freebies. Some jobs seem to turn into total freebies!

 

[ITO]

If you do enough freebies they start to expect it, and even get mad that you don't do it.

I wonder how many freebies plumbers give?

 

[Tiger Electrical]

So i would like to hear from you guys who charge for estimates cause i too have gone to look at work that the caller never intended to give me. like the realtors you speak of.
and Emahler youre probly right, i have 3 guys in the field currently and do maybe 3 quotes a day if im lucky. fortunatley most of our work is for repeat contractors.
tell me what you tell people that call for an estimate. maybe we could turn the tide around here.

Any service charge will discourage the ones that expect free. IMO at least multiply your SC by the 3-4 bids they might get. If they won't pay $25 each to find a good contractor ($75-100 total), I'd let the competition take care of them. I may rethink this in the future as my sales skills improve. It could be understandable that the average client would balk at a $200 SC. My SC varies with distance and time of day.

Dave

 

[emahler]

Any service charge will discourage the ones that expect free. IMO at least multiply your SC by the 3-4 bids they might get. If they won't pay $25 each to find a good contractor ($75-100 total), I'd let the competition take care of them. I may rethink this in the future as my sales skills improve. It could be understandable that the average client would balk at a $200 SC. My SC varies with distance and time of day.

Dave

understand the difference between a service call charge and a dispatch/estimate fee....

the service charge will usually include some work (troubleshooting/etc)

an estimate/dispatch fee will not cover your costs and is mostly used to discourage tire kickers....

 

[Tiger Electrical]

understand the difference between a service call charge and a dispatch/estimate fee....

the service charge will usually include some work (troubleshooting/etc)

an estimate/dispatch fee will not cover your costs and is mostly used to discourage tire kickers....

I think the terminology varies in different areas of the country. Here a service charge is like a "show fee"...it gets the tech to the door. If work is included it might be called a troubleshoot fee, or a minimum (as in a 2 hour minimum at $95/hour, or a $300 minimum which includes up to an hour on site). You need to be clear on the phone what's included in the first charge & what isn't.

Dave

 

[Greg Swartz]

Freebies are evil...

Freebies are evil...

I have been the guy in the first post... do something for free, give a decent bid, and then never get called back... a lot of customers I do work for think all our prices are too high. I ended up being the lowest.

I understand that people don't understand we pay our electricians more than the customers make. (Usually)

Problem is, there is a rule for requesting estimates... Get 3. LOOK at them, usually, it's throw out the highest, and throw out the lowest... Mr. Middle gets the job. But most people I know understand: More estimates = le$$ money... They don't care about the time or money they cost you.

I also run into customers that if your bid was $10, and your competitor's was $9.99, and you ran into a burning building and saved their life... they would still choose your competitor...

There are others though, who I get repeat work from, ones who do not bid a job out anymore. They just call me. Although they still ask for a price ahead of time... and I think that's fair.

My freebie experience is similar to several people in this forum... Save it... usually for charity. I've done a ton of work for my church... all of it free. Just so long as I don't expect anything in return.