pft....

Was excited today thought new costumer great. Went and gave her a price she had 17 windows I said £15 she said I don't want to pay anymore then 8 I said I'll do the front for that she said she wants it done every 8 weeks I said £10 for the front every 8 weeks she why is it more.... I said how about £13 for the lot she still said no. I swear people expect something for nothing any of you come across this? Oh well good luck to her finding someone cheaper then me.

And then she text me saying is £13 including the sills was tempted to send a text back saying hell no but that isnt very good costumer service ignoring the text works much better, wiping the Sill takes 2 secs of course it includes the price... Grrr should I text Herr back or just ignore her. She is one of my costumers friends her house has 13 windows plus conservertory and I worked out she is getting a far better deal at £13 then her friend is are these people stupid.

If I give a price that's it or they can find someone else then that's fine with me too as I only want premium work.

Check out the clip gav put out yesterday about competing on price. Also, be careful about charging friends different rates- once they get talking about it, the one that recommended you will not be very happy paying more.

After writing all of that out I've decided I'm not being Mr nice guy with my prices.

Check out the clip gav put out yesterday about competing on price. Also, be careful about charging friends different rates- once they get talking about it, the one that recommended you will not be very happy paying more.

Click to expand...

I know I'm just going to ignore her, will do rain today /emoticons/sad.png

I had a guy call me up to clear out his gutters a while back. I was to just turn up and quote the work, and if he was happy I would just get to work. On the morning of the job they were to be done, he called and cancelled on me whith some stupid excuse about a gazebo being in the way.

Naturally I was annoyed about it, but I kept my cool and stayed polite.

A few months later he called me to come and give a quote. So I turned up at his house, and it was huge! Gutters everywhere- all in awkward places, and at different levels. He wanted the facias, soffits and everything doing, along with loads of other jobs like taking down birdsnests from the apex etc. I gave him a ridiculously cheap rate (smurf would cry) as I wanted the job. He accepted the quote and we shook hands on it. The day before I was due to work, he called and started hagelling on the price. By now I am starting to get p*$$£d off. I explained to him that its a very cheap price I gave, and also by cancelling on me on short notice, he is effectively putting me out of work for the day. So he agreed to the price, all be it begrudgingly. When I got home that evening I had a think about the phone call we had and decided that the job just wasnt worth it. He was going to be a flakey customer, probably a slow payer, and him and his wife seemed very awkward. I had quoted so low that the job just wasnt worth the hassle. So based on that, I just emailed him that night and cancelled on him. I stayed polite, and just gave him an 0800 number for a national gutter cleaning company.

Thats the only time I have ever turned down a customer, but it just wasn't worth it. They were that type of person that you cannot build a rapport with no matter how hard you try. Its partly my own fault for putting so little value on my service, but it was a mistake I have not made since. You live and learn.

yeh me charge smurf prices now......it is hard on the price ...i like to price it when there is no one in and drop it through the letterbox and run like mad.... i went to price a local farm a few years ago....i said 15 and she said the old one was only charging 10.....so i came back at 12 and got stuck in....later it lead me to a block of flats they owned and her dads house so sometimes its worth it....the farm is still worth 15 though!/emoticons/smile.png

when they want to haggle point out the dangerous nature of this work

gutters can bite ya

Sorry but some may find this very controversial what I'm going to say next but deliberately underselling services on price alone to win work seems a daft idea as anyone can be a busy fool.

Nothing controvertial about that smurf, its bang on the money. Is just a learning curve most innexperienced people go through. I undervalued many of my jobs in the early days as I didn't know the overheads, the TOTAL time involved (getting to job, seting up, doing the job, cleaning up, packing up, and leaving etc). Its a steep learning curve that I think you either learn from, or burn yourself into the ground and fail. The worst thing about cheap prices for me is that I could see the standard of my work slipping, and thats a big problem for me as I pride myself on reputation and repeat custom- whereas many others that charge cheap prices, they don't care as they just want the next quick job.

yip nail on the head

ditto....i be just learning that too....from my son...i bought cheap c r a p all my life and it just dont pay...he has to have the brand...and he has proved right again and again....me i am just getting rid of my jim royale underpants....he he he well they cost me a pound and fifty pence is......sorry gav wont allow...

have ya got his green t-shirt?/emoticons/biggrin.png

i had better not say too much but my leisure/ home clothes were described by my daughter as hobo clothes....its a good job i dont know what that means...i be a cross between jim royale and homer simpson...doohhhh

he he thats what daughters are for

i always embaress mine

shouldnt that be embarearse....just want to test gavs naughty list of banned words..

good news is after that women today i have priced up the biggest house ever its hugeeeee 40 windows plus two cons at £50 took me an hour and half that cheered me up /emoticons/smile.png there are 20 other windows that he told me not bother with because they dont use that part of the house aha rich folk...

hmm, yes rich folk.....this time next year i will be a millionair....:rofl:

I have had plenty of people try to knock me down a bit on my prices. But I just say its not a negotiable price. That is how much it cost me to provide the service. If I do it for any less, it would be fair to you but not very fair to me. I had one guy I quoted say £13.50 (cant remember exactly), and his reply was, "I like round numbers, lets make it £13". Err no, its £13.50, that's what it costs. We use a set pricing structure, to ensure we cover our costs. He actually seemed surprised, I wouldn't come down 50p. The way I look at it, its £6 over the course of the year. We clean over 700 customers a month. If I knocked 50p off every customers bill across the whole year, its over 4k a year.

"I like round numbers, lets make it £13".

Click to expand...

When he said this^, why oh why did you not say £14? /emoticons/biggrin.png

Seriously though, those are some awesome numbers you are working with there, well done.

I have had plenty of people try to knock me down a bit on my prices. But I just say its not a negotiable price. That is how much it cost me to provide the service. If I do it for any less, it would be fair to you but not very fair to me. I had one guy I quoted say £13.50 (cant remember exactly), and his reply was, "I like round numbers, lets make it £13". Err no, its £13.50, that's what it costs. We use a set pricing structure, to ensure we cover our costs. He actually seemed surprised, I wouldn't come down 50p. The way I look at it, its £6 over the course of the year. We clean over 700 customers a month. If I knocked 50p off every customers bill across the whole year, its over 4k a year.

Click to expand...

Thats the way I look at it to its not case of it only a £1 a month its actually costing me £13 a year I dont clean as many as that but its true most of the time I say £13.50 they round it up I priced up 6 houses at decent prices this weekend two said yes hopefully the rest will but I'm getting there no more mr nice guy aha

yeh me charge smurf prices now......it is hard on the price ...i like to price it when there is no one in and drop it through the letterbox and run like mad.... i went to price a itocal farm a few years ago....i said 15 and she said the old one was only charging 10.....so i came back at 12 and got stuck in....later it lead me to a block of flats they owned and her dads house so sometimes its worth it....the farm is still worth 15 though!/emoticons/smile.png

Click to expand...

I always like to give them the price face to face rather than sending a text or dropping the quote through the letterbox. It seems to work better that way. Give them some charm and patter. I wont ever budge with my quote though....It can make you look a bit desperate.