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View Full Version : still looking for better solutions to prequalifing customers



huggytree
06-12-2009, 10:28 PM
had another bad customer this morning....i knew it was going to be bad 4 days ago when i made the appointment for a bid....went anyways...

was a referral from a remodeler...couldnt understand her well over the phone (german accent).....wanted me to repipe her bathroom(drain) and put a new mixing valve in...i told her $1k-2k range....(this was my prequalifing her)..she made some comment about price and said 'just please come over and bid'...instead of asking more questions about her budget i let it go (my mistake)

i knew she had lead drains and did research on it...found out you cant couple onto it...you must replace it all the way back to cast iron or steel..

showed up...she wasnt home...husband was there in bathrobe...didnt know what was going on....couldnt answer most questions....couldnt get ahold of her on the phone...i was rude and said 'why isnt she here? she should have called to cancel the appointment'...i was mad....

then he tells me he had someone to do the water pipe already...he just needed me to replace 3' of lead pipe....and he wanted a bid for it!!!!..i told him i the correct way and the only way i will do it is to replace all of it..the bath tub(which they want to save) has a lead drain...a new waste/overflow wont work on it...i must replace it....i said $2k+ job....he said nooooooo..the tub stays....i say ok then....im done here, have a good day...he argues with me a bit on my way out the door......i had to just walk away...

they will get 3 bids to do a $150 plumbing project.....they were sooo far off from hiring me it was incredible....we are not a match in any way...i didnt even give him a written bid....no reason to spend 5 more minutes...-100% chance of getting the job...

i saw it coming to a point.....i feel some additional questions over the phone would have saved me the trouble....

can i ask them 'is $1k-2k for plumbing in your budget?'

when i give people a price range i assume they are agreeing to that price range...im finding over and over that people think 'he's not seeing what i see...its much less than that'....i think they just want a bid to see what a real plumber charges..never intending to use me..

that would have brought this all out....i see these things happening every time...i can pick them out...next time im going with my gut and canceling the appointment...this bid took me 2.25 hours w/ drive time (they were far away)

Spider
06-12-2009, 11:09 PM
I see no problem with asking, "Is $1k-2k in your budget?"

Here, again, you were been quite able to have turned that rough estimate into a firm over-the-phone bid "subject to anything I see on arrival."

You could easily have refused to make a separate journey to provide a bid.

painperdu
06-13-2009, 05:11 AM
It sounds like you tried to prequalify them but they lied. How can you protect yourself when customers lie to you?

huggytree
06-13-2009, 07:46 AM
it goes back to what i always say...'People have a set budget for plumbing and they find someone who will do it for that price...if a plumber is too high, they go to a sidejobber, if he's too high they go to a handyman, if he's too high they find a friend'

they do not adjust their price UP to afford me ever....most(not all) people fit this

i think more questions would have brought out the fact that they intended to spend $150 on a plumber and not $2,000

my gut feeling is right on 95% of the time

Spider
06-13-2009, 02:40 PM
It seems like you know, or feel you know, the answer. So, I don't undertand what you were asking. What was the question, again?

thx4yrtym
06-13-2009, 09:29 PM
Huggy,

It's hard to go with your gut when business is slow or you're concerned about upsetting the person that referred you. Problem is - your gut is usually right. Unless someone has done work directly for home owners they can't possibly understand what people are like to deal with. 95% are a treat. Well maybe not quite that many but a lot of them are. It's the rest that can make you nuts.

I might have sold the woman when she said just come give me a bid that there was a $75 trip charge for the estimate, paid in advance. If she objected I might have said - well I have questions and unless my questions are answered , it's $75. My time is worth every bit as much as hers. If she won't value my time then I will.

then again , on another day in a different mood, I would have played it exactly as you did.

part of the game,

Steve B
06-14-2009, 04:11 AM
Great advice Gregg. Telling them about the trip charge may be just the ticket.

Also doing more of these small quotes over the phone will help. Even if the job ended up being in your range and you got the job - would it have been worth it? Assuming you didn't do the job immediately when you went over to bid on it and had to return - you would have had 4.5 hours tied up in the job just in travel time.

huggytree
06-14-2009, 09:49 AM
it would have been worth it if i got it done under the hours bid. I usually do....

The homeowner was very hard to understand....i could have given a phone bid easily if i could have communicated better...i couldnt have known about the tub over the phone though...

When a customer seems cheap or doesnt know what they want i do like the idea of spending 10 extra minutes on the phone getting the details and giving a complete phone bid...if they refuse to answer or seem super cheap give them a $100 bid charge(refundable off the job if i get the job)

no one will pay for a bid...especially the Super cheap customer like this one...

the problem will never be completely solved, but these 2 idea's should atleast give me something new to try.....

i have a contractor who bids on 5 projects to get 1.i get the info on the phone from him and put together a bid...when the job sells THEN i go over to verify price...sometimes i raise my price when i see extra things...its never been a problem...the homeowner always understands...this idea of giving phone bids to homeowners is exactly the same thing...most projects are Very similar