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Nooooooooo!
It costs you £20+ to turn up – for nothing? Get the options clear on the phone beforehand and make it clear you’re going to turn up to WORK!There’s no such thing as a free lunch……
Regards,
Penguin.£35 an hour works for us – pro rata after that. Certain jobs are pre-priced and the customer will know in advance – blockages, most bearing jobs, door seals, pumps etc.
The only time we’ll break from this is nuisance jobs – door handles and the like – then you squeeze 2 into the hour @ £20 a throw plus the bits. If you can keep them local to each other, this is more profitable!
The main reason that it all works is that Mrs P is a perfectly competent engineer in her own right and is able to assess the customers problems reasonably accurately and allocate time appropriately. Seeing as she now deals with the phone, e-mail and twins, this is good!
A big van with plenty of basic stock racked out in the back helps as well. Our first year, we didn’t make any money; but we learnt a lot about what we should be carrying – and filled the van!
Mrs P also means that there are no “free call outs” or “free estimates” – I can go to a job knowing that the customer is informed as to likely cost, and I’m likely to have the bits.
Of course, it all goes pear-shaped occasionally – usually customers misdescribing faults is the main reason and you have to grin and bear it. These days they are relatively few and far between.
I think the main thing is to be very aware of your overheads. I guesstimate that it costs me £23 to ring a customers door bell and that is the crucial point that must stay in mind when you cost up any job, or you ain’t going to make any money!
Regards,
Penguin.Martin,
Hants can’t win the County Championship ‘cos they’re in the second division …… Could get promoted though. They’re struggling at Headingley at the moment (I can hear the applause as I pass by).Lancashire for the title I reckon. Cork is at it again with 6 wickets and Worcs are struggling.
Penguin.
Go on Dave, remind me – who’s does Connections….? I’ll have to phone through.
All this for 2 brown knobs!
Thanks mate,
Penguin.It’s strange how this just rumbles on and on. At the time this was far from a disaster – Cambuslang were running a night shift for months for the first time in YEARS.
Simple idea – spend £100 – get a free flight. The bit everybody forgets is you could get a choice of 3 free flights, but not your choice – what Hoover’s agents could rustle up around the time and destination you wanted was as near as anyone was ever going to get. And yet – people organised weddings, honeymoons, anniversaries, God knows what else, then had the GALL to complain when they didn’t get what they wanted!
Personally, I thought it was to Hoover’s credit at the time when they pointed out that if people bothered to read the rules of the competition, they’d find out what they’d signed up for!
Truly, a sign of the totally self-interested, self-centred and downright selfish times we live in.
Hoover as we know it died due to the Americans reshuffling and selling the business on. Typically, the Americans never really got their heads round the little appliances we have (I think it’s called the Cadillac Syndrome in the Automotive world… It’s why Rootes/Talbot died.) and found it all a bit too complicated and confusing. While most of us in the trade have issues with Whirlpool; they have at least allowed the European division to do the European thing without trying to insist they promote American type products. You can get them if you really want to, but it’s the Italian end which is actually running Europe. They just tell the bean counters how good it is!
So, did this spell the end of corporate honesty and the capitulation to the all powerful consumer? I rather suspect it did – no manufacturer is likely to offer any sort of “interesting” promotion these days!
Regards,
Penguin.Mohammed Ali is bowling (and refusing to get out in recent tail end stand) for Derbyshire…. That’s a terrifying thought!
Rain seems to be the most recent winner. Still too many draws.
Penguin.
True – can we wangle things to get the relevant people (the ones who take decisions) to read these dicsussions? It’s obvious that we have one or two people involved from that side of the business, but the debates don’t seem to move forward!
I take it you weren’t a shop steward at Linwood in an earlier life then?
Penguin.
So’s the washer. Perhaps a bit of sharing with the UK board repairers might be mutually benificial in the long term?
People over here are gradually learning that the sole advantage of a front loader is that it fits under a work surface.
I look after a NZ lady locally with an FP dryer and so far we’ve managed to get away with “proprietary” components. The build quality of the machine ( A 3/4 size t/d) is very good, and I didn’t cut my hands to ribbons when I changed the belt. Which was nice.
Good luck Stan,
Regards,Penguin.
Nah, K’s right – get the calculator out and play! 20{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} off a bigger number gives you a different answer than adding 20{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} onto a smaller number.
AND I didn’t get a star for 200 either!
Penguin.
