Do you get penalised for being good?

Re: Do you get penalised for being good?

We charge £50.00 plus vat for an electrical repair to laundry product. We rarely have an issue as you descibe, I can’t recall the last one at all. However we do fully inform the customer of our fixed price repair policy which includes a small repair charge of £40.00 plus vat where the call was a 10 minute call. This is at engineers discretion and works very well for us.

Kevin

Re: Do you get penalised for being good?

£40 + VAT!?!?!?!? I wish we could. There’s too much competition around here to charge that much 🙁 We can charge that much for dishwashers, but generally, you’ve earned it on a dishwasher.

If a customer doesn’t want to pay for your expertise, I’d poke them in the eye, and tell them to get their Indsh#t/Servis fixed somewhere else. Maybe kick the door off the machine before I left.

What are they paying for then?

Well, if I wasn’t in an eye-poking mode I’d say they are paying for…

Labour, petrol (unless you charge seperate for that), expertise, tools, a 12-month guarantee, shop over-heads, and also mention that Gordon Brown is a complete ****-monkey.

Can you tell I’m in a good mood this morning?

Dishwashers are brilliant! Fantastic source of revenue, especially built-in/integrated as no-one wants to know them.

We changed the charges here so they now vary on the brand which takes some account of the hassles of the brand, getting spares etc. as well as the price bracket of the product. I don’t expect a Vauxhall to be serviced at the same rate as a Mercedes and I do not see that our industry should be treated any differently.

Charges range from £50 upwards to over £100 depending on the product, all are fixed rate. If the customer doesn’t want to pay that they are welcome to go elsewhere.

K.

Re: Do you get penalised for being good?

This was a common problem, especially in the days of Hotpoint carbon jobs. ( I would sometimes read the situation and remove the motor to do this). Sometimes I wondered if the customer would be happier if we flaffed around trying this that and the other (as Kevins engineers must do 😉 )before finally getting it right, rather than using our expertise to get it right first time.
Given the amount of testing and that now required, there is no such thing as 5 minute jobs anymore. Not that they ever really were 5 minute’s anyway but that was the number the customer always came up with which is the same 5 minute’s that they write on the note on the door when popping out.

Re: Do you get penalised for being good?

Quoting a fixed rate for a call over the telephone to your customers is a must in this trade and is the fairest way of doing business. £40 a very reasonable rate indeed considering the overall expenses we all have to live with in order simply to knock on their door after all.

The trick is to have the ability (based on experience mainly) to suss out your customer as quickly as possible the moment you cross their threshold. By that I mean, are you dealing with a snotty old cow that looks down on you as if pond life has entered the room? Or a humbling little old lady that dearly wishes to make you a cup of tea before you start work? Maybe some smart ar*ed husband opens the door to you and states that he could easily fix it but couldn’t spare the time?

Possibly some civil servant type has taken time off from his busy desk job at the Ministry just to let you in to fix “the wifes machine”? or even the filthy stinking top flat with some foreign bird that’s watching your every move and only speaks 6 words of English, “Hello!” and “How much will it cost?” 😀

They are all so very different and have differing attitudes to the charges you make as well. Therefore it is best that you in all cases quickly establish the problem, deal with that problem and show your customer the machine working after you have pronounced your findings. 🙂

If we use an example of those characters I have listed above, all having the same machine with the same fault (lets say a Zanussi W/M with a duff Door Interlock = 10 minute job usually)

The ‘snotty cow’ ? For her I would clean the door glass, check the drain filter. Do a ‘dry test’ then ask for a couple of towels for a ‘wet test’ Stand over the machine watching it intently on its every sequence, then declare the “ALL OK Madam!”

The little old lady? The same treatment but enjoy a cup of tea in doing so.

The smart ar*ed husband? Fix it in record time and demand my £40 (plus parts etc) and away ASAP!

The Civil Servant? The ‘full works’ on this one and at a real steady red tape governmentaly enquiry sort of pace. Finding fault with every component I touch hopefully!

..and the Foreign Bird?…Make sure I see the money up front before I lift a finger to help :rotfl:

Re: Do you get penalised for being good?

The occasional customer who makes the “£40 for 10 mins. work” remark never bother me anymore.
They`ve already been told the likely charge before and during my visit and I normally have the bill written out before I call them through for final discussion about the fault and payment. I simply hand them the bill and my business card and say “there you go , just as i said on the phone”. 🙂
I think this way I don`t give them time for any comments and on the odd occassion when an unhappy remark is made I simply repeat “that is what I said on the phone isn`t it”.
These people don`t know anything about running a business and I don`t accept having to pan out jobs just for the sake of it.

Bryan

Re: Do you get penalised for being good?

A fair and firm attitude is how I see it and I believe the customer respects you for it. It is true though that it`s easier to take this approach knowing you have plenty work on a week to week basis.
As I said it`s only very occassionally someone queries my charges and I find most decent customers (the type you want to keep) just appreciate having an appliance repaired at a cost effective price regardless of how long it takes.

Bryan