Flat Rate Pricing - Service Work

[short circuit faulted]

Has anyone used or familar with Flat Rate Pricing (books or computer program), in regards to service work? I've read several articles regarding but have not found any working electrical models using internet search. I liked the concept of pricing the work on the front end for the customer to accept or deny, if accepted it takes some of the "over your back" out of the homeowner equation, plus on the billing side you are collecting at the end of the call not generating invoices at the end of the week, which breaks as a win/win for the service manager, as he a. doesn't have to generate invoices and b. doesn't have to call on past due invoices...Ah heck, ya'll don't have that last problem...do you? LMAO. Seems to me that if the HVAC guys can and have been doing work this way for 15 years or more, we are missing out on opportunity.

Any input, suggestions or links would be appreciated.

Have a safe and good day, all!
Steve

 

[luke warmwater]

Re: Flat Rate Pricing - Service Work

There is at least one company around here that I know of that uses flat rate pricing out of a book.

There price is basically based on:
estimated labor time
material cost
all overhead figured in

They don't give a T$M price. Every job that you can think of has a price in the book.
It's like a football playbook. There are variables in the back of the book.

Even though they claim that there is not an hourly rate, it's figured in.
I've come to find out that after you deduct the materials for a certain job, divide the remainder by the job hours and they are figuring in @200.00/hour per man.

 

[highkvoltage]

Re: Flat Rate Pricing - Service Work

I had a friend who also was a EC. He went to flat pricing 2 years ago. He just had his auction. The problem was that when a price was given and a problem came up it is very hard to convince the customer that those were extras. If your going to go for it cover your **s and price high. My buddy was stubborn and was going to prove this would work.(He actually had the same theory you have about the AC guys) The economy also played a big part in his demise. If your going to use flat pricing it is also hard to adjust with the economy. Good luck.
By the way the AC guys really don't have the variables we have.