Electrical Knowledge Repository - "Courtesy" calls (Free service calls)

Old EKR Archives: Subject - "Courtesy" calls (Free service calls)
kbsparky	Do you ever provide "courtesy" calls to your customers? You know the ones, where someone has just bought a new house, then calls to report that some of the kitchen outlets are not working, or one outlet in a bedroom? You arrive to find that they have piled up junk on their counter and hidden a tripped GFI receptacle, thus resulting in dead kitchen outlets. Or you might have to show them the wall switch that controls the "dead" bedroom outlet. Or change out a bad bulb. We have a philosophy -- one "courtesy" call to help educate the ignorant customer. Call us again for something stupid like that, and then we charge for the trip. It's built-in to the price Buying a house can be an overwhelming experience to some, and there are a lot of things that are told to them in a short period of time. Impossible to remember it all, so we cut `em some slack. 95% of our business is repeat customers and referrals so this model works well for us.
macmikeman	KB, if I was you, I would carefully track those "courtesy" calls to see just how many of them will call you back, or what referrals you got from them. Then add up what you would have made from each if you had of decided to charge for the trip. Don't forget to add interest to the dollar value, and even better what you would have made from it on the stock market. Then decide if it is worth the "free advertising" or not.
lctrc789	As time consuming that this may sound, we give out letters to all customers on service changes. The latter states what we did and what we did not do and that we DID RE-WIRE home and that you may blow more breakers now then you did fuses and explain why. Also the letters explain what to do what to expect if we come out etc... For new homes, we have letters that I give to each homeowner, (I walk through each home with homeowners and the GC on every job looking for things that can be missed overlooked and ideas and concerns) These letters explain GFCI, AFCI protection, where they are located and what to do if your bathroom, bedroom, outside outlets etc. are out where they are located and what to look for. I also explain timers, photo cells etc, anything and everything that could cause a problem. Understand that some of these customers may be as far away as 50 miles, one way, so I do not like to make courtesy calls to often. Would rather talk on the phone and walk them through these things then to drive 100 miles to reset a breaker or change a light bulb, That does cost. I also have a service agreement with commercial and residential customers and yes I have quite a few, this includes going to the place, checking all the connections in the panels, breakers etc, as well as look for trouble signs, burnt breakers, busses discoloring, ballast's burning or smelling things like that. We do an agreement for 59.95 a year and this includes a trip charge and up to one hour for any checks we do. Many people like the idea and some have cancelled, but for the most part we do quite well with this and get a lot of repeat and new customers for this service.
electricbill	I do work for the home owners assoc. in a condo complex near me. I had a guy call last Thanksgiving day, he said his downstairs bath and hallway light were out. I know the set-up on these places (only 3 models), so I tell him to go out to the garage and reset the GFI outlet by the door...he tells me he "needs an ELECTRICIAN!! I rumble over to his place, reset the GFI and give him the bill for $75. You would have thought I stabbed him!! Pat: I like the idea of a letter to explain what might happen after a service change-over, also the GFI's and AFCI's.... bill
kbsparky	In those cases where they refuse to cooperate over the phone, and demand that someone show up --- they don't get any "courtesy" and have to pay for the service they demanded. I am referring to cases where someone has just moved into a new house that we were involved with, and discovered that one or more outlets are inoperative. Many times it is a factory problem, and as such we send out an invoice for our trouble of fixing it (Talking about pre-wired modular homes here). The factory reimburses our customer. But occasionally, it is a matter of a hidden tripped GFI, or switched outlet, or bad bulb. We allow for one courtesy call in some cases, depending on circumstances. We'd prefer that the builder intercept such calls and deal with them himself, and many times that is the case. There are cases where we missed something, and we do take care of those problems without further billing as well. While I concede that we might be able to increase overall revenue by charging for all such calls, the goodwill and reputation we have established with our repeat customers could suffer if we decided to charge out the wazoo in such cases. They all know that we "tell it like it is" and appreciate when we waive a charge for something stupid. They also know that the second time someone is going to pay. In cases where a long distance is involved, we usually try to combine those calls with something else in the area, even if they have to wait a week or so, just to be efficient. If they demand we drop everything and go there NOW, and it turns out to be stupid stuff, they get a bill anyways, no free lunch here. Each case is evaluated on its own merits, and my customers appreciate our responses.
John A. Peters	My old boss told me that as long as you tell them what to expect before you go there you will not have any unexpected reactions. This is all the more important when the distance is farther. When the distance is close, we do not tell the price unless it is asked.
craig	Personally, I ask over the phone,( if I think the call may be something very simple i.e. tripped breaker, gfci, afci, etc.) if they would like me to try to clear it up and not charge them, or do the service call and charge for it. It's about 50/50 for either responce. If it's in a new house that I have wired, I will go there, free of charge, for one year if there is a problem.
ecarbine	Let them pay you for your knowledge, its like the old fable of the guy who is called out to a manufacturing facility because one of their machines is not working, He went out looked at the machine, grabbed his hammer and tapped it twice and it started up. He turned around and told the guy "that will be $500", the guy freaked out and told him he wanted an itemized statement. So the next day the technician brought him back a statement that showed; Tapping on machine with hammer $1, knowing where to tap $499.
devo	For emegency calls, I get $200 for answering the phone and the clock starts right then (2 way travel, time on job, plus materials). Is it ruthless, NO, your lawyer does it and so should you ,we've gone to school and trained just like anyone else. As far as repeat customers and referrals, they'll call back if you fix the problem.
ecarbine	People don't expect you to work for free, so don't ever offer to work for free
Jakey240	I have done the free call in the past and will probably do it again. One time it was just screwing in a fuse there was major work going to take place in the future so I figured give them the free call should come back to me. then when I saw another EC truck in the driveway I kinda figured that was what I got for donating that call. Its just hard sometimes you just think it was 5 minutes of your time no problem. Everyone has to make money so I say charge them .
Wireless	If it is a new customer and it takes less then 10 min I tell them they will pay me next call.
ecarbine	Sorry guys I respectfully disagree, your time is worth a lot, when you consider the time it took to get there, the time it took to diagnose and fix the problem, coupled with the fact that they could not have fixed it by themselves, charge them for it
Wireless	ecarbine, if there is a need for a diagnosis there will be a charge. Going out to the panel and resetting the breaker is not a diagnosis.
jwhite	This issue depends on your relationship with the customer in question, (or hope to gain a relationship in the future). I too have had the "free call" backfire and I had gotten taken. More often than not, if handled well, this can be a boost to your reputation and business. For example: You just wired a new house. The HO moves in and calls because something is not working. You show up and find that he just couldn't find the switch. A few minuets here can gain you his future work, future work from the builder, and future work from his friends and family. I once got a call from my boss to stop by a house on my way home to check out some outdoor Christmas lights not working. I was doing a bigger project at the time, and it was on my way home. Five minuets and I found that the lights were on shrubs outside and that one of the cords was laying in the snow. The GFCI that was located in the bathroom had tripped. This was an old lady who appeared to be living on limited income. I called the office and told the boss that I was not going to charge for my time, and asked how much to charge her for his. He said to write a bill, explain what I did and write FREE in big letters on it. Have her sign it and distribute the copies as usual. Turns out this woman was not only active in her church she was a "big mouth" (That quote is from one of our future customers). The original customer told everyone at her church, all her neighbors, her entire family, and most likely the postman what a wonderful company we were, and how honest and etc.. you can imagine. We couldn't have paid for better advertising. This is just one example of how these things can go in your favor. I still say that it is a case by case basis, and each situation must be decided at the time.
ecarbine	There should be a diagnosis, rather than just reset the breaker you ought to try and find out why it tripped. if you only cure the symptom and not the cause, your not helping them that much, plus your obligating yourself to go back out when it trips again and they will expect you to do it for free again. Don't get me wrong I have done calls for free but I don't base that decision on how much time I spent or how silly the problem is. I have charged many many times for resetting GFCI outlets and even showing them where the switch is that turns on their switched outlets. By the samy token I have done a complete service change for free because the poor widow had absolutely no way to pay. My philanthropy is not based on the amount of time it takes to fix the problem.
jwhite	quote: Originally posted by ecarbine There should be a diagnosis, rather than just reset the breaker you ought to try and find out why it tripped. if you only cure the symptom and not the cause. If you are referring to my post than I need to be more clear about the events. Saw the lights not working. Checked the panel and all breakers were on. Looked around for GFCI recs. Found one tripped. could not reset it. Looked outside. Found cord in half melted snow. Picked the cord end up brushed it off and rested in atop a branch of the bush. Went back inside and reset the GFCI. Yes all in under 5 minuets. Our service call fee at that time (years ago) was 65 to show up and 35 an hour. She would have had to pay 100 dollars. BTW I forgot to mention that the boss told me to put the 100 on the bill as the fee then a line through it and write free under that. I guess my point is that it is ok to do work gratis sometimes. Still fill in the entire invoice and make a note of the savings you are giving them. Seeing this in writing is a much stronger message than hearing it told to you.
ecarbine	I agree that its alright to work for free on occasion but it should be a rare exception, personally I don't think christmas lights not working should be one of them but it sounds like it worked out well for you, and intuition can often lead you to that type of situation. I think there is an epidemic in our industry of chronic under charging, for whatever reason electricians seem to be embarrassed about charging people for the work that they do. Too often guys son't charge for their expertise, they only want to charge for their physical action which, lets face it is very minimal for resetting a tripped breaker of GFI.
jwhite	I see your point ecarbine. The reason why I could do the work in five minuts was because of my knowlege of wireing systems and old house construction. And, I agree with your assessment of undercharging and why. I am one of those people who has a hard time charging when not alot of work was done, and I need to change my attitude. This is not service call related, but I am having a delema at work now. Only a hand full of contractors do the work I do on the base where I do most of my work. Yet the general contractors are always trying to beat me down on prices. I am afraid to stand my ground for fear of loosing the jobs, but at the same time, I wonder who they will get to do the work if i don't get it.
ecarbine	Boy do I hear you, I have gotten out of doing a lot of service work because the market here is saturated with service companies and they are just ding it for crumbs, its frustrating, I have had to branch out and try and find other markets, one of which is Gov. contracting, I am in Salt Lake City and we have quite a few military installations around here and as a disabled vet owned company we should do well. Do you have any suggestions for cracking that nut?
jwhite	This sites most leading contributer is an inspector in your neck of the woods. Ryan J If I am not mistaken he also did some government work in the past when he was a contractor. I may be out of line, but I do not think that he would have a problem giving some advice along these line. You can look up his name in the members list, and send him an email, via his profile, asking for his advice. I have emailed him in the past with confusing code questions and found him to be more than willing to help in any way he can.
ecarbine	I have heard of Ryan, but I haven't met him. I am a member of the IEC and he did our continuing ed classees but I wasn't able to attend I will put him on people to meet list Thanks
jwhite	Ryan is not only one of the most knowelegable, but, one of the coolest people I know in this industry. Besides he is the forums only "chick magnet"
iplaypearldrums	And consider the time spent studying for NEC tests and business tests and filling out paperwork for the state........the dentist gets his; we should also.