There's more than price to consider!
There's more than price to consider!
As one who has investigated the Mr. E franchise, I can assure that anyone interested in their program the fanchise fees, as well as other business expenses, are passed on to their customers via their flat rate & hourly pricing schedule. The service rates for each franchisee is dependent on each businesses overhead & employee expenses figures. Typically, Mr. E will use a flat rate figure providing the task is fairly common. Otherwise they can opt to use an hourly rate. Their program is top notch and their "system" seems fairly well defined & calculated. I was pleased w/ how prospective franchisee candidates were screened and introduced into their program. Seems as though there is very good contact & support by the corporate Mr. E staffing to aid the franchisees in managing a business. One must also understand that corporate will teach the management end of the business....not the technical part. They might refer a franchisee to another member to solve a technical issue, but that usually is as far as they go.
Every electrical business is essentially the same by offering customers a service based on materials, labor, profit, & overhead. One difference between a business over another, who offer similar services, is how they market their company value. It doesn't take much effort, and make much sense, to offer electrical services at bargin basement prices. Especially with the liability isues at stake with electrical contracting. A good company will market value engineering to their customers. It takes a savy businessman to determine if a customer is interested in price or value. I try to determine, as best I can, if the customer is looking for the lowest price. I then will let the customer know that our business is "value" minded and they should look elsewhere for a low price. I've often shared w/ customers that there are (3) loosers when low price is the main focus. (1) The contractor who accepted the job at the low price because they haven't allowed for unknown expenses that oftentimes occur with construction projects causing them to experience a financial loss (2) The customer, because once the contractor who accepted the job at too low a price realizes they are loosing money will often begin to take short cuts and many times provide the customer with a substandard job and (3) the contractor who provided a good competitive quote that wasn't able to perform the work for the customer and make a fair profit...and provide a good & safe installation for the customer
Bottom line....One may look at what is charged for completing a task and may feel as if the contractor has too high a fee, but one must also look at what fee structure is fair and reasonable based on the value offered the customer.
I had a customer share with me, after completing their project, that they felt we overcharged them. We quoted the work and they agreed to the quote prior to starting the job. We scheduled the work, completed the task, and cleaned up. A day later we received a call at our office from the customer stating that they felt we overcharged them for services we completed. They "investigated" other sources regarding price. One neighbor, an electrician, said he could have completed the same work for less. I asked the customer if the neighbor was licensed..no, was he insured..no, did he have employees that he offered benefits to..no, did he have an office with overhead expenses..no. Did he even look at the work required to do the task or base his comments soley on your description of work we performed?...no answer. Did you mention to this neighbor that you purchased the wrong size light fixture, ask us to install it anyway (despite our efforts to talk you out of installing it), then decide it didn't look right and had us remove it and reinstall the old fixture...at no additional expense to you....no. Enough said!
Thanks for your kind and attentive time for some of my thoughts & comments :smile:
