Free Estimate.

[bagman]

Re: Free Estimate.

Exactly the same as you Robbra, get very few people refusing to pay such a low call out fee, those that aren’t willing to fork out for that aren’t worth wasting my time on.

[LJDomestics]

Re: Free Estimate.

Exactly, If they aint willing to pay £25 to£30 at the forefront, Why even bother.
There is so many types of customer, those that LOOK like you aint gonna get the job because they look real hard up, then they shock you and say do whatever you need to do.
Then there is others that LOOK like they gonna say the same as they have a nice big 4 bed house, double garage, half a dozen motors, Then they whine about a £30 set charge regardless of the outcome of the job.
Its all down to perseverence ( long word for me im sure its spelled wrong ) i think, You can almost tell what customer you got just over the telephone call though

[Cras]

Re: Free Estimate.

thats exactly the problem every customer is different one person thinks your expensive the other thinks your cheap you never can tell who those people are .We are very good at filtering out the wasters over the phone and most of the time call out fee is never mentioned as most of our customers have used us before . Having said that if we do get to a property and they ask for a free estimate they get just an estimate i dont spend ages looking for the problem if they want a quote i inform them that this will take longer and we make a charge for this service .This way im on my way to my next paying customer without wasting to much time .I do think its a regional thing though and we are fortunate that most of our calls are within 10 miles of our base and we do our best to lump calls together so avoiding unnecessary travelling.On this point i do about 12 calls a day and clock up around 22000 miles a year . im interested to see how this compares with you guys out there ? cheers Cras

[goosegreen]

Re: Free Estimate.

I do 8 calls a day on average and 10k mileage a year. So It all depends on your patch how you run your business i.e Call out No Call out. What right for some is wrong for others.

Goose

[leavemetogetonwithit]

Re: Free Estimate.

LJDomestics wrote:
Its all down to perseverence ( long word for me im sure its spelled wrong ) i think, You can almost tell what customer you got just over the telephone call though

That’s a very good point. I took a call last week and I was pretty sure it was going to be a bit of a problem in some way or the other, so I gave her a rather high estimate over the phone and asked her if she would be able to pay me on job completion.
Got there, did job, money was directly forthcoming -no problem. Then she said, ” You fixed my auntie’s machine up the road last week.”
😳 If I’d known it was ******’s niece it would have been a tenner less!
Mike.

[Lawrence]

Re: Free Estimate.

This subject always comes around and always ends up with the same conclusion its horses for courses .
I charge a callout charge £40 +Vat incl 15 mins then £10 per 30 mins after that
If you are outside a set perimeter its £50 and if you are outside another perimeter it’s £60 the customer is aware of this from the outset .
I repair all makes and carry most parts on stock ,I don’t decry anyone charging no callout charge if they can make it pay but I know what it costs me to get to the door ,and under a certain amount I lose money it is as simple as that .
Lawrence

[leavemetogetonwithit]

Re: Free Estimate.

Lawrence wrote:I know what it costs me to get to the door ,and under a certain amount I lose money it is as simple as that .
Lawrence

Precisely. Anyone calling out or estimating for free (really) has to make it up on the completed jobs. Or go out of business.
Maybe that’s been said before. Oh well, circles are a good way to go round.
Mike.

[Author]

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