Estimates - how do you handle them?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

With gas prices on the rise, we were wondering if the legendary "free estimate" is going to become a thing of the past...or at least change...please share your thoughts, and vote in the poll below.

Thanks!

[squirtgun 122]

We have talked about a price increase of a few percent to help offset the extra cost.We also charge mileage for jobs that are farther than we usually travel.Over 60 miles and the customer is made aware that there is an extra charge for travel.

I know some will say that rising gas prices are just part of business,but as the cost of being in business increases so should your pricing to some extent.

[PressurePros 248]

I would never charge for an estimate. I would hand out dollar bills on the street just to have someone listen to my sales presentation. I get invited to a home and have a captive audience. If I don't land the sale, that is my fault, not the homeowners. I think the last thing you want to do in service sales is make the customer feel pressured by hanging a charge over their heads.

I never give the customer ballpark quotes either (though some people are persistant) After evaluating the square footage, conditions and materials needed I prepare an extensive estimate and either hand deliver it to the customer wherever possible or send it priority mail with a few before and after pics included. Using this method I have closed 100% of my estimates. I am the highest priced company on residential work too.

[Jesse 15]

Speaking of gas prices....how is that effecting everyone's "free estimates"? Is anyone imposing conditions onthe "free estimates" they give? (for example must be present at time of estiamte or the price of the stimate is taken off the job total (thus a nomnal charge for the estimate) or something? With gas prices going up so much, we were wondering if this long time 'free" standard is changing at all?

I tried charging $25 for estimates outside of city limits last year when I had a backlog of work....if they accepted the job then I would wave the fee. Not one person would pay it and most became offended that I would even suggest such a thing.

One time (to a particularly nasty caller) I asked if she worked for free......... then why should I spend an hour of my limited time, plus gas and vehicle expenses, on every "potential" customer who wants to find the absolute cheapest price, then haggle over that? She said that she would just call my competition then and hung up the phone.

Now I do all free estimates .......but use much larger and better advertising to weed out the price shoppers (I am not Wall-Mart) and I also tell people up front that there is a $250 minimum for power washing and $500 minimum on deck restorations no matter how small they say the job is. This has made my closing ratio on jobs actually looked at almost 100% on house washing and about 60% on decks.

Jesse R. Kirchhoff

Kirchhoff Handyman Solutions LLC www.midmohandyman.com

Advanced Power Washing and Restoration Services LLC ww.advancedpw.com

114 Forest Hill Ave. Jefferson City, Mo 65109

Local 573-634-8882 Toll Free 1-866-635-2708

E-Mail jessekirchhoff@mchsi.com

[John T 744]

My estimates will always be free. It's just the nature of the contracting business in my eyes. What I will do is raise my prices If I feel its necessary so I don't lose any money since time is money. ITs all about the sales pitch and if you can back it up.

I never nail 100% of anything and my % of getting the jobs is probably below 50% because I charge more then most...but I feel my customers get the best possible job when they do hire me. This is my philosphy which some others I'm sure will disagree with. OF course do best with what works for you........

[James 624]

I'm considering charging for test spots on decks or any wood job. They just take too long sometimes.

[seymore 90]

I give free estimates also but also i've learned to weed out the dead bids.I'll talk to them on the phone and try find out if it will be a waste of time for a long drive.Also i'll tell them to get rough measurements so they will have an idea of what it will cost per sqft/Lft whatever it may be.

I keep copies of all my estimates and have them on file either if i get them or not.All of my prices are good for 2 weeks from the date of the bid.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

We also have minimums for showing up to do a job. All our estimates are free, and until recently we didn't mind if the owner was there or not. We have started to ask that the owner be present if at all possible...still not required, but we do request it.

We will not quote prices for any wood restoration work over the phone. Period. Too many variables, and the owners don't understand enough to know what is going on with the deck all the time. We do test spots on jobs where we are uncertain of the coating - like an acrylic. But for most, we know what we use will work, so we bid without a demo.

We have a high close rate, but we are not the least expensive company out there, and we measure ALL the wood on the deck, not just the floor like some companies do. Square footage adds up and if you don't measure it all, you can really get bitten. You can have alot tied up in rails, lattice, supports etc. It's easy to think you are making more than you are, if you don't measure everything.

Beth :groovy2:

[Celeste 341]

Ours are free, which we follow up in writing (with a "good through" date on them) via mail along with a phone call. We are starting to "set appointments" for estimates so that the estimate actually becomes a total evaluation of anything that we can do. We've not lost a bid yet and are not the lowest in the area so we're not pricing too low.....I think that we are just very thorough with our educating of the prospective customer.

Celeste

[James 624]

This doesn't work all the time. But sometimes after I drink a six pack. It dawns on me I forgot to quote a job. So I grab another sixer and show up not after 12 pm and take a look at the job. Get some rough numbers and tell'em I'll get back to them in a couple. By telling them in a couple it leave's me room to say; a couple of hours, days. weeks ect..... That's if they call back and I know who they our?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

I feel somewhere, a chain is being yanked....HARD! :)

Rod~

:seeya:

[Aplus 525]

Free estimates here....but I really prefer, and strongly suggest the homeowner be present. I'll do my best to work with their schedule. After all, it's me who sells the job, not the piece of paper with a number on it.

I've found that when I leave an estimate in an envelope at a house, I get less then 50% of the jobs. When I meet with the homeowner and provide the estimate along with my sales presentation, I sign around 88%.

At this time I have no plans to charge for estimates, I feel that it's part of a contractors obligation to provide them for free.

[Celeste 341]

Agreed wholeheartedly Tony....you can demonstrate your knowledge & professionalism much more effectively in person. (I'm not saying that you can't be professional in leaving an estimate just that a personal appearance only enhances it)

Celeste

[Mike Smith 14]

I always do free estimates. I normally meet with the customer but sometimes I never meet them from signing the job all the way through completion and payment. Some folks are just too busy or don't want to be bothered with another meeting. If I speak to them I tell them where I will leave the paperwork and try to sell the job over the phone. I then call the night of the estimate to ensure that they got it and ask if they have any questions or concerns. Most are done face to face but I land most of my estimates either way. Id say Im around 75% of all estimates. I am definitely not the low man but quality and referrals go a very long way,

[LyonsPressureWash 14]

I read somewhere if you land all of your estimates, you're not charging enough. If you're not landing very many, then you're overpriced. I thought long and hard about this after reading it and I decided to put it to work (during my busy season of course). Anyways, my backlog was better then usual this year, so I tried this theory out. I measured the house as usual, then started adding 10% to the total bill. I was still landing 8 out of 10. So then I added 20% to the job totals. I was still landing about 6 out of ten. This was still a good percentage due to the backlog. I figured I could cold call them late in the season and give them a discount if I needed the work. It never happened as the backlog was still strong and total income grew nicely this season. As far as charging for estimates, I often think about doing that. Think about it, if you want to weed out the price shoppers and the wanna be's, a ten dollar estimate fee will at least cover your gas. If I was a real customer (ready for cleaning now and have the money to do so) and I was told that their is a ten dollar estimate fee, but will be waived if you go ahead with the cleaning, what would be the big deal? But if you're a price shopper, or just wondering what your neighbor just paid, and you're told about a ten dollar estimate fee, they'll lose interest quickly. But that's ok because that just saved me mileage on the truck, two dollars a gallon for fuel, time, and hassle. What I'll never understand is how some professions come together and charge as a whole, like my lawyer has a breakdown of what it costs per phone call, what it costs to go to court, what it costs to send out each piece of mail. If I sit down with him and have a consult, it costs me big time. He gets paid for EVERYTHING THAT IS DONE OUT OF THAT OFFICE. You call a plumber and they have a service charge of xxx amount of dollars no matter how long they are there. Call Sears and ask them what they charge to come look at your fridge. I think these other professions at one point were on the fence like we are now and came together as one to start charging. Why can't we come together as a group and set up our charges as a whole? I've been told several times this year (after the job was done and they did the math per hour) that I was making hourly rates like what they were paying their lawyers. I always look them straight in the eye and chuckle, saying at least with us you got something out of the deal. Look at your house, it looks like new again and you can enjoy it for years to come. With your lawyer, you probably just got a consult that didn't do much for you anyways. They usually respond with yeah you got that right. OK getting off topic a bit, but let's do another poll and ask, if we came together as a whole, what would you charge for an estimate, 1. still nothing because I'm scared to get reimbursed for my time, money and maintenance costs. 2. still nothing because that's how I have always done it. 3. nothing because that's how everybody else is doing it. 4. I'd like to get paid for my time and I would try charging $5 5. $10 6. $15. 7. $20 8. More then $20

Don't get me wrong, I'm still not charging for my estimates, but after setting up a Saturday to do my estimates and running a full tank of fuel (over $50) it makes you wonder about charging.

[Bob Gates 14]

I agree with A-Plus (post #12)...

Always will be free....

I make it convenient for the customer...

I almost will not go if "customer" is not going to be there....

No prices/estimates over the phone period!! Period!!

I guess it is a reflection of me...I do business with "people" not a voice on the end of a phone...nor a peice of mail...nor a note left in the door. So I either correctly/incorrectly assume other folks feel the same....

......And for those(homeowners) who insist on a "ballpark"...My answer is "somewhere over $100.00 and probably less than $1000.00"

[John Orr 206]

It sounds like those of us that are busy would like to charge, but won't because it would seem petty/cheap. Those that have "openings" in their schedule would never think of charging. I would guess that those that are busy never used to think about charging.

As we become busier, our time becomes more precious. There is only so much of it to go around, so we become more protective of it. I find myself in the "busy" category most of the time, so I can relate.

I have found myself offering "ballpark" estimates to referrals, since they are most likely to hire me. They already know approx how much I charge, so I ask if they need a solid number before I come out, but give them a range. If they need/want a written est, I will go. This has worked-out well and reduced the running around needed to fill my schedule.

As to the costs involved in giving estimates. First of all, they are tax deductible. Second, even at its highest, for me, it never amounted to more than a few dollars per customer. I do mostly residential and unless I had to drive long distances, it would seem petty to charge for it. Most of my business is referrals and repeats, so I have to be consistent with my prices, so I keep the house cost the same and vary the price on the deck/drive/fence/rust removal prices.

P.S. The avg price for gas around here is now about $1.69, with Sam's club at $1.48 for members, $1.53 for non-members. (Before prices started going up last winter, the avg here was $1.39.)

[Ron Musgraves 240]

Mine are free , I try to give them in hand when its possible. I even try to give demos when possible. some proposals will be acompanied by a video presentation.

I have never charged for and estamate ever. I have wanted to on occassion.

I have refused estmates, companys that just shop around i dont do estamates.

The title for this subject should have said residential customer estimates.

I think that points are well made; I always would want to have the homeowner or client present. Reality in commercial work is that this is often impossible for PM. Onsite location managers this is not and issue.

I also would not have sold as many commercial accounts if I had waited for the person to present the proposal.

Corporate America as much as we would like to thinks about relations is not true anymore.

If you’re a reliable responsible company they want corporate structured pricing for units. Purchasing agents make these deals and management chooses between a few select. If I wait to respond to get a manager in person I would loose the proposal to the company that just mailed or faxed it.

We have a 48 hour time period from the time a proposals taken to deliver to the customer. Often they are done immediate.

[Chappy 138]

Some of my services lend themselves to phone estimates (depending on distance to travel,) e.g. grout cleaning, gutter cleaning. for PWing and windows I have to look at them. To easy to get screwed.

[John Orr 206]

Wouldn't you know, today I had an estimate 80 miles away! (I honestly didn't realize it was that far.) Sometimes, you almost hope you don't get a job!

[Barry M 73]

We have a high close rate, but we are not the least expensive company out there, and we measure ALL the wood on the deck, not just the floor like some companies do. Square footage adds up and if you don't measure it all, you can really get bitten. You can have alot tied up in rails, lattice, supports etc. It's easy to think you are making more than you are, if you don't measure everything.

Beth, if you measure all the wood, wouldn't you just charge a lesser amount per foot than someone who just measures the deck floor? So both estimates would be about the same in the end, right?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Not necessarily. If a deck is really, really large you can lower the cost per sq. ft. but then again, depending on the deck and what needs to be done, you might not want to do that.

We are not the least expensive, but we have quite a bit of expereince in stripping, two-tone, and other complex jobs and we don't want to do a job below a certain point. Always remember you best know your costs, such as insurance, equipment, labor and materials (etc). What you may have for expenses vs. your competition can vary.

To me it doesn't make sense to measure just the floor. You can have alot in lattice, supports, and rails. We roll everything. The summer of '03 I spent two hours with a couple estimating a job. I rolled all 3,000 sq ft of decking. They wanted a very complex two-tone job. The underside (elevated deck) was to be white, the top floor california redwood, the rails white, with trim around red benches in white. I took my dear sweet time and when all was said and done they went with it on the spot. Two tone...no discount, in fact it was far higher in cost. It had to be, due to the labor and time. Had I rolled only the floor, we would have lost a very substantial amount of money. The deck wrapped around three sides of the house, and went from ground level to one story up. (three story home in the back) Lattice wrapped around the entire deck. The deck had three sets of stairs, a ramp and a bridge. A coy pond was beneath it, and also had frogs and expensive statues, a bar and elaborate brick work.

The floor would not have been anywhere close to a correct estimator. There was as much in rails and lattice as floor.

If you encounter a ground level deck with no rails on the other hand, sure...just measure the floor. :cool: You should be good to go. :cool:

Beth

[newlook 265]

Mine are free and always will be free. I even go as far as doing a free demo of our services if I really feel that will sway the customer to hire our company.

[JimCrossley 14]

Our only source of advertising is on the Internet. No yellow pages, flyers or other print media such as mailers. We do not require potential clients to be on site while we gather our information for an estimate. If the potential client meets with us, we do provide them with multi-color sales glossies which illustrate before and after results. Normally our clients have been to our web site before they called us. Further, our customers are all email ready.

We go to their site, take measurements, take prictures and conduct tests if they are required. We tie all of this information together and provide our prospects with an Excel or HTML estimate with all of the line by line details. We supply digital pictures as required to back up additional costs to the estimates.

While we are higher than our competitors, our potential customers know by our presentation that we dot the iiiiiiiii's and cross the tttttttt's.

Our close rate is about 90 percent.

[Washaway 64]

P.S. The avg price for gas around here is now about $1.69, with Sam's club at $1.48 for members, $1.53 for non-members. (Before prices started going up last winter, the avg here was $1.39.)

John, I payed 2.159/G for 87Unleaded and 2.339 for Diesel today.

OUCH!

[Aplus 525]

Of course John quoted those prices in December, before oil hit $54 a bbl.