Undercut by a pro today

[Mark Bolam]

I'm seriously thinking of putting a minimum price in my ads to weed out the timewasting minimum price obsessed brigade.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

try to be sympathetic when somebody thinks a cheaper quote is best, they may not have much money, or just think your trying it on. Most people learn by their mistakes, dont punish them for being human, like you and making their own errors.

 

My view is to apologise to the client on behalf of our industry and explain why your a little more expensive and they so cheap, in a honest and non derogatory fashion.

 

better still ask the AA for a leaflet on choosing your contractor, maybe pass one on as you quote for a new client, thats what they are made for.

 

No good moaning about the uneducated clients if your unwilling to sympathise and offer an education, or have any empathy when they ask you to return after they learned the hard way. They have suffered enough.

[Mark Bolam]

I agree to an extent Tone, and I know a lot of customers have literally no idea how much any arb-based job is worth.

 

However, I have asked a few how much did they think two blokes rocking up with qualifications, insurance and £40ks worth of kit for the day would be?

 

£40?

£60?

£120?

 

We're competitive, but we're not flipping stupid!

[oldwoodcutter]

Good points there Tony,ime being undercut left right and centre round here at the moment on hedges and trees,with part timers doing it for beer money.

Somehow retirement doesnt seem such a bad option after all.

[gand]

Had one last week, where the client had our price and another. Anyway there was not much in the job was only £160. Any she had been quoted £75 for the job, but we still got it as we'd explained the work far better. Might be a bad example, but explaining the job to the customer is half of it not just the price

 

 

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[Dog Tag]

Two people locally doing Gardening and "easy" tree work for the the sum of £91 a day.......for 2, how do I know? My step father employees them to do bit and pieces...... £91!!! where does the £1 come from?

 

Vat...lol

[d-raittuk]

hi just update the guys i was talking to about the stump job. had a site meeting at lunch time today with him and went through everything to justified the price (£960) fully insured public liability etc etc i took my laptop in the L200 and showed him some of our work befor and after pics and as always was honest and upfront and said you could go to the hire shop and hire a small grinder for a few days and do it yourself even gave him the the card of the guy who does them. i also encouraged him to seek other prices. message in the diary when i got in tonite asking me when i can start the job.

[d-raittuk]

Good points there Tony,ime being undercut left right and centre round here at the moment on hedges and trees,with part timers doing it for beer money.

Somehow retirement doesnt seem such a bad option after all.

 

this is it we have all the insurance qualifications training equipment witch none of which is cheap and its all depreciating by the day yet them people in the shiney tippers doing a job and then fly tipping the waste or your have ago gardener on his landscaping insurance something needs to be done to stop it i think we're about the only profession left that can still be "done" by idiots. its like dyno rod doing gynaecology on the side. anyways rant over lol

[Le Sanglier]

I see this has turned into the usual "we are undervalued, clients are stupid for wanting the cheapest price" thread, yawn.

My favourites line so far "apologise to the client on behalf of the industry":lol::lol:

[Taupotreeman]

this is it we have all the insurance qualifications training equipment witch none of which is cheap and its all depreciating by the day yet them people in the shiney tippers doing a job and then fly tipping the waste or your have ago gardener on his landscaping insurance something needs to be done to stop it i think we're about the only profession left that can still be "done" by idiots. its like dyno rod doing gynaecology on the side. anyways rant over lol

 

But not every cheap job is done by the guys in the tranny tippers. I posted on another thread that was along the lines of the following;

Imagine Joe Bloggs is just starting out. He does a job for Mrs Smith at a cut price rate. Does a good job etc. Mrs Smith tells her knitting circle friends what a good job Joe did and how he was good value. Joe gets a several more jobs out of it and at the end of the first year he's made enough money to pay overheads and a little bit of cash to keep the wolf from the door. The following year, he ups his prices a little. Still gets the work, keeps his customers happy, doesn't have too much big gear so can afford to charge a little less and just take a bit longer. Stacks the rubbish on a truck rather than chipping it so doesn't have to worry about a chipper, fuel etc. I know I started out like this in order to get a foot in the door and it worked pretty well. My first customers still come back to me because they know I do a good job. The price increases they have taken in their stride. Fair enough, I lose a few but not that many in the grand scheme. People seem to forget that we all started out on the bottom rung of the ladder and cheap doesn't always mean a crap job.

 

 

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