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If a service company offers a “No Call Out Charge” what is the customer expecting as far as Travelling,diagnosis and economics of repair
Re: Customer Charging
Let’s flip that question just for a moment,
Your TV ariel developes a fault following a storm, you ring around and find a company that says it has No Call Out Charge, we continue on the premise that during booking the service visit that money is never mentioned by either party.
Would you as an individual expect a commercial company to arrange for a service techician to travel to your house, spend say an hour climbing over your roof and performing diagnostic test to find YOUR problem ? in the process having paid out to have a vehicle on the road to get to you in the first place, stock on the vehicle to solve YOUR problem, training and experience in fault finding again to solve YOUR problem, not forgetting that this technician needs to be paid a salary in order to feed his family and pay his taxes. Probably he may also have premisies of some description, insurance in case he drops his toolbox through YOUR roof or on worse still on YOUR head.
and all this at absolutely no cost to YOU.
Personally I would not myself want to pay a call out charge for him to get to my door but that stops there. I would EXPECT to pay for his labour and time in finding MY problem, after he never had any problems himself until he was called by another customer who expects so much for so very little.
Don;t take this personally however but we all need to value what we do as a profession and get real about this .
Re: Customer Charging
ok so let me be clearer in order that you can be also.Is no callout charge expected to cover the cost of arrival,diagnosis and the refusal by the customer to have the work carried out…..totallly free!!
Re: Customer Charging
winker wrote:ok so let me be clearer in order that you can be also.Is no callout charge expected to cover the cost of arrival,diagnosis and the refusal by the customer to have the work carried out…..totallly free!!
In the eyes of the customer… yes, they will expect arrival, diagnostics and quaotation… all for free 😯
To me, I think it does what it says on the tin…. You will not have to pay for the tradesman to travel to your house, end of story!! People sometimes confuse the ‘no call out fee’ with ‘diagnostic charges’ or estimate fee’ but these are totally different statements! If I were advertising a ‘no call out fee’ policy, I would certainly make sure that the customer knew that the charge meter starts ticking when the toolbox has been opened 😉💡 If you are experiencing ‘I don’t want it done’ or I’ll think about it’ quite often, perhaps you could advise your customers something like the following….
“We do not charge a callout fee, however we do charge £XX for the diagnosis of the fault. Should you decide not to go ahead with the repair, that is all you will be expected to pay”
Adrian.
Re: Customer Charging
Well for fifteen years we have advertised no call out charge and charge currently £39.00 for the diagnosis of fault and estimation of repair cost.If the work is carried out thats the cost,if not required or deemed uneconomic we charge the £39.00.We even charge the £39.00 and let them consider over a day or two and return to carry out the repair and charge the balance.I have always considered this fair and because we charge I think that professional,financially unbiased opinion should and is given.
The reason for this posting is that possibly the understanding of no callout charge and what the customer expects for this may have changed in recent years or maybe its me and have got it totally wrong.
I should add that all new customers and a lot of existing ones are told of our charging as they enquire and book service visits.all views welcomed
Re: Customer Charging
winker wrote:I should add that all new customers and a lot of existing ones are told of our charging as they enquire and book service visits.
That’s the best thing to do to cover yourself. As advised by RCT Trading Standards when developing our website, it’s not up to the customer to ask about any potential charges, it’s up to us to ensure that they are aware of them.
winker wrote:The reason for this posting is that possibly the understanding of no callout charge and what the customer expects for this may have changed in recent years or maybe its me and have got it totally wrong
Well, I’m fairly new in this trade, and I for one, used to advertise ‘no call out fee’. I found that I were going everywhere, for free, and people used to look at me as if I had 2 heads when I used to charge them for an estimate!! Stopped that straight away!!
Adrian.
Re: Customer Charging
In my view it is misleading to advertise a no call-out charge and then charge when there is no repair undertaken as most people expect it to mean free estimate as well.
mike
Re: Customer Charging
Its has always sounded misleading to me that customers are told “no call out charge”, but there is a “labour” charge for the diagnostics.
It seems to me that this charge is in fact a call out charge under another name?
It is also quite obvious that engineers who actually don’t charge anything at all for call out (or diagnostics) will in fact have to recoup thier losses by charging more on the jobs that do go ahead.Re: Customer Charging
Martin1114 wrote
It is also quite obvious that engineers who actually don’t charge anything at all for call out (or diagnostics) will in fact have to recoup thier losses by charging more on the jobs that do go ahead.
:rolls: Cheers Martin, I wondered where I had been going wrong all these years.
Customer always told £15 diagnosis charge. If they don’t want to pay any labour, ring round otherwise I’d advertise ‘no call out charge, diagnosis or labour charge unless your machine is fixed’, not as snappy is it? :rolls: .
On the occasion that a customer does the nasty and refuses to pay the £15, (not very often as you can usually smell a rat on the phone) most engineers would grit their teeth, stamp around a bit, BUT write it off, not charge it to someone else.
Please engage brain before writing phrases like ‘quite obvious’, a quick look on this site will show you this topic has come up before and a lot of people do advertise no call out charge for various good reasons ( like myself) with no intention of misleading customers.TC
Re: Customer Charging
Sorry cornwall40, I am not the best at choosing the correct words to to convey my thoughts (It must be because I am brainless like you say).
I will leave the thread to superior tallents like yourself. :rolls:Re: Customer Charging
Now steady on chaps lets not let this thread get too heated now 😉
As has been mentioned the subject has been raised on many occasions over the last 4 years. Lots of people anxious to make their point and deride others for taking a different route and business ethic.
It is time now that we put this issue to rest and let us all do our own thing for the good of the trade. Whichever route taken is fine if it works for you then so much the better. 😀
It’s a broad church this business make no mistake about that. In fact the newly formed Whitegoods Trade Association will no doubt welcome and be open for all to join and discriminate towards no-one that at least signs up to our Business Charter.
You’re all very welcome within the WTA to charge what you like or not charge at all? Whatever works for you guys is fine by us! 😉
Re: Customer Charging
Nice to see that the holiday has really chilled you out Martin. I’ve never seen you so tolerant. 😯 We’ll have to start a special fund in the new TA to send you on holiday next time you get a strop on. LOL
Sean
Re: Customer Charging
Del wrote:Nice to see that the holiday has really chilled you out Martin. I’ve never seen you so tolerant. 😯 We’ll have to start a special fund in the new TA to send you on holiday next time you get a strop on. LOL
Things are looking up aren’t they Sean, oh yes! 8)
…. and the funny thing is, I haven’t even gone on holiday yet! (That’s set for the day after tomorrow Oct 6th and roll on, can’t wait) 😀
But back on topic I meant what I said guys, chill out and behave whilst I’m away ‘chilling out’……. 8)
Oh, and charge what you like as long as the job is done and your customer is happy, or, as they say in Barbados….
“Don’t worry…..be happy!” 😀 😆
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