Monday, March 24, 2014

"Estimates" or, information finding work for no pay.

Estimates are something most everybody who has a service business needs to do. Sometimes it's easy, but sometimes it means half an hour of parts shopping and research in order to give someone a good answer.

If I'm certain that I will get the job, the estimate is simply doing the bill first and the job second. If it's a just another (lowest) price shopper, it could be half an hour of hoop jumping for no pay. I don't know how may folks asking for pricing see this side of it. I've been trying to find ways to explain what goes into estimating a large job, but how I say it always seems to come out harsh. I'm not sure what to do. I want to be pleasant, but I don't want to get chumped into extensive research for jobs that will never happen.

I might have to go to booking a $10 inspection before doing an estimate. Or at least add the qualifier of having the customer pick the estimate up in person. One of my old jobs did this to qualify the intent of the customer.

It's something I need to find a solution to that respects the customer's needs and my time.

Jeff