What exactly is a dispatch fee, I know another EC that charges a dispatch fee to go and look at a job. He refunds the dispatch fee if he gets the job, but he says that he gives free estimates. What do you tell customers when they say I thought you give free estimates?
Joe Blow calls you for an estimate. You charge $50 to go out, look around, and give an estimate. That 50 clams is a 'dispatch fee'. The estimate itself is free.
What the other EC is doing is maintaining his ability to claim 'free estimates', but he's still charging for it, just under a different name.
Same thing as "Free.... just pay $29.99 shipping and handling!"
One guy I know of gives "free estimates" if work is ordered if not it's 40 bucks. But he's all flat rate and if work is ordered at the end you add 40 bucks for a truck charge.
I'm sure some customers would pay it but so many other guys do not charge anything to come look at a job it may be hard to get it. At least here anyway.
If we use an hourly rate of $75.00 per hour, the time spent driving there and meeting with the customers, reviewing the job, pricing the job, emailing the quote, and securing a down payment can easily run 3-4 hours in total time from start to finish. We're doing this for free but in reality that's $300 of our time that we're not getting paid for. They might not even use you to do the work because you command $150 per hi-hat.
All time needs to be accounted for and paid for. If you have 2 service trucks on the road and your technicians total compensation is $43.00 an hour you will go broke real fast if you are not charging a dispatch fee or trip charge. If the average call takes 1.5 hours, that’s 3 hours of pay. That’s only on one call per tech. That’s $129.00 total, just on labor cost. We haven’t even scraped the surface of all the other expenses that it takes to get your technician to the job.
Have a good flat rate system set up. Explain there is a trip charge. Tell them they will get a credit if they choose you to do the work.
Depends on the distance to the client. If they are close, no problem, my estimate is free; over 20 miles away or something and I'll badger them with questions concerning the job and try to find out if they are bid shopping. Charging for estimates is for big contractors with allot of trucks on the road and that ain't me.
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