How to beat the recession

[iadom]

An e-mail from Europart this morning contained some very ‘interesting’ :rolls: advice under the heading, ‘How to beat the recession’. 😥

………………………………………………………………………………………..

If you are a Service Dealer or work from Home

Advertise in the Free Papers.

Offer free callouts / estimates, and mention it even if you already do this.

Print your own leaflets. They don’t need to be fancypants. You can cut 4 leaflets out of an A4 sheet. You can buy a ream of 500 plain paper for £2.50. (If you can’t buy it for £2.50, then we will sell it to you for £2.50). That makes 1,000 leaflets. Advertise a Special Offer: “Can’t afford to buy New? Get your washing machine serviced or repaired now, with no call out charge – free estimates for repairs”. Mobilise the family and do leaflet drops in your area. You can deliver 1,000 leaflets in a week with a few hours’ evening work. Or pay a professional leafleteer to do it.

Drop your servicing charges (they can always be increased when biz picks up).

Use all the tricks of the trade to reduce your servicing charges: fit carbons, not motors; repair bearings and seals, and don’t fit drums or spiders; use pump motors and not complete pumps.

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

The mind boggles.

Jim.

[leavemetogetonwithit]

Re: How to beat the recession

europrat wrote:

and don’t fit drums or spiders;
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Nah, it would never work. The customer would realise there was no drum in the machine before you got out the door. 😆
Mike.

[hotpnt]

Re: How to beat the recession

think this was on a previous topic, but, who can really offer free call out & free estimates?

[Madmac]

Re: How to beat the recession

A mug.. thats who.

[silverbroom]

Re: How to beat the recession

Recession, I am finding people are more willing to spend a bit more on repair than buy new.

silverbroom

[iadom]

Re: How to beat the recession

silverbroom wrote:Recession, I am finding people are more willing to spend a bit more on repair than buy new.

silverbroom

It was ever thus. In the 70’s 80’s even the early 90’s when things got really tight and 70’s unemployment went through the roof I was as busy as ever.

Jim.

[cornwell40]

Re: How to beat the recession

How to beat the recession if your’e a distributor of spare parts.

Send out a ridiculous email telling you to sit outside your shop with a cold beer ( bugger!!!!!!the chavvy types have been on to this one for years and I always thought it put people off).:rotfl:

TC

[simonb]

Re: How to beat the recession

I dont understand the difference between free callout and estimates and service engineers who charge? i find say out of 10 jobs for example 2 might be ber on average so just back in van and onto next job(after trying to sell them a new appliance of course) so the 8 appliances that are repairable subsidise the other 2 ber’s

so how do enginners who charge callout earn more money then? i fix most i go to see?

obviously im not seeing the point somehow?

[leavemetogetonwithit]

Re: How to beat the recession

The advice in the e-mail must have come from someone who’s never been at this end of the business, that’s why it is such nonsense.
Simon, why should customers who pay to have a job done subsidise those who don’t?
Mike.

[VillageIdiot2]

Re: How to beat the recession

simonb wrote:i find say out of 10 jobs for example 2 might be ber on average so just back in van and onto next job(after trying to sell them a new appliance of course)

Hi simon,

So, just to clarify, you drive a few miles (using fuel that you’ve paid for), you spend 10-30 mins in someones house diagnosing a fault that ends up being BER, then you simply go “back in van and onto next job” 😯

At the end of the day, fuel is not free, tyres are not free…. time, is not free! Somewhere along the line, that has to be paid for…. By someone 😕

Wouldn’t get a gasman out spending half an hour looking at your boiler for free…. That’s for sure! You’d either get a replacement from him or a bill! What’s the difference with us? We’re skilled too! (That’s something I don’t get)!

But back to your question….. “so how do enginners who charge callout earn more money then?”

Simple! 2 engineers, same rates, go to the same number of jobs, with the same BER rate (2/10)…. The one that charges an estimate fee / callout charge whatever will get paid for the 2 BER’s…… That’s how 😉

Adrian 🙂

[Alex]

Re: How to beat the recession

Thankyou Washdoctor for putting it in a nutshell.

The biggest dis-favour we are done happens to be by those who offer “No Call-out” It encourages customers to look for the free meal ticket.

Very often despite being more expensive than the man & van, we can offer varoius means of assistance and if the appliance is not too old, can arrange a discount on spares, supported by the manufacturer.

I feel that by offering something for nothing bears a cost which is then recovered from those that are willing or able to pay.

Personal opinion on this of course, but also by experience after doing this for a long time, and still here.

Alex

[boselecta]

Your equation only works assuming both engineers have the same work load, normally if you offer a free call out you will have a larger work load. Where I live competition is tight I can’t afford to not give free estimates, I would be out of work and begging for my old job back at Comic!

[leavemetogetonwithit]

Re: How to beat the recession

There’s competition everywhere. No escaping that. There are also sensible customers who know that what looks cheapest is not necessarily best value.
Mike.

[VillageIdiot2]

boselecta wrote:normally if you offer a free call out you will have a larger work load.

I couldn’t agree with you more! But that comes with more fuel spent on travelling round the extra customers, more time out on the road, more time in peoples houses who only have you there because your FREE!…. less ‘quality’ customers, more messers, the list can go on!

I’d rather 5 paying customers per day regardless of BER or whatever than 10/12 with freebies in that lot!

Back to the recession bit of this thread…. How to beat it…. Surely thats got to start with cut costs and increase income / maximise profit from the income…….? Charging callout fees/estimate fees etc will do that!

But, before I get shot down….. That’s only my personal opinion 🙂

[simonb]

Re: How to beat the recession

i quote

“The biggest dis-favour we are done happens to be by those who offer “No Call-out” It encourages customers to look for the free meal ticket. “

i agree with this because at the end of the day i only choose to offer Free Callout because others already do who are in competition with me in my area,
yes and i dont know a gas engineer who offeres free callout either but i think here at some point the fingers got to be partly pointed at manufacturing costs of new appliances and sales because how much is a new gas boiler supplied and fitted? in comparison to a washing machine, if most brands of washing machines etc were average priced at what they really should be in 2008 at about £500-£600 each and not these stupid £200 machines , well our repair bill of £100-£150 per customer would id say be fine.were not in demand as much gas enginner or a plumber thats in my personal experience of course, and yes i also agree we are just as skilled espeically multibranded work as most independents do.

Personally my fear of charging callout is my workload would drop, hey and after all that i went out tonight to guess what a BER i drove 3 miles just for the 1 job just after writing my reply earlier 😳 and before i left he insisted on paying me for my time 🙂

[Author]

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