I would like to hire last guy as a sub. If that’s all that he works for I might have a decent margin.
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I had a “the last guy” customer this morning. After i kindly showed him all the ladder scuffs and the 26 screens that were bent on both sides from obviously, carelessly removing them from outside instead of going inside. He had a change of heart and forked over the extra 400 from “last guys” bid. And added the gutter clean, Happy in the end. Visually show them something,anything, why youre the better choice, and they always jump.
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Not sure how to do the memes, but a good “Batman slap” meme starring “the last guy” would be appropriate about now.
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Just finished a job that had new screens made and installed by a “handyman.” No grab tabs, most did not have springs and most could only be pulled from the outside. I will not be giving him any referrals.
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A neat point of reasoning:
A giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine properly.
Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.
“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”
So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.
The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer…………………… $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap……………………… $ 9,998.00
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This exactly.
Told someone the other day. I got six months to make my money. If I don’t make it In Those six months I won’t be back the next season . That’s what happened to the last guy.
Has anyone seen all the used power washing equipment that’s up for sale
Think about it !
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And he gave the price before he did the job. Lol 
He owes no explanations . Yet his reply should be. “This is what I get for cleaning gutters as it is an add on service to window cleaning. I know I’m not the cheapest in town , but we take just as much pride doing your gutters as we do the windows , an we are more efficient then most.”
We give estimates for a reason. To let people know the price . They have the option to decline. If afterwords they expected it to take longer that’s not your problem why do you have to explain .
If they’re all of a Sudden shocked ,an not happy at how long something took , an There questing you about it . Just say “. Yes we work effectively an Efficiently, but the most important thing is we get the job done Properly an professionally.
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The guy used to repair the guttering in the past didn’t charge enough to begin with. I bet he wouldn’t charge that now… or he isn’t a legit business with legit expenses.
I had a long time (15+ yrs) customer ask us to wash her deck, NP. Gave her the price and she was shocked 
. “Well… ummm… I guess no then. We can get it cleaned for less than that.” My reply… “I’m sure you can. No problem. Just make sure they do it correctly and no high pressure.”
We do the windows and her house washing… but she didn’t see the value in driving my Softwash truck over with the needed equipment, 15 min set up, 15 min tear down, Taping off electrical and protecting her ceiling fan along with chem cost everything else. All the equipment and same prep as doing a full house wash for the two story deck. Ok… I’m not going to try and convince customers. Either they see the perceived value or they don’t.
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Read The Pumpkin Planner, implement the strategy.
Get rid of the low hanging fruit by dropping any pain in the butt clients, or raise their rate to something worth YOUR time.
Dissolve the bottom to expand the top.
Also, go read Marketing to the Affuent by Dan S. Kennedy.
You’re welcome
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Just quoted a 4 story apartment complex and gave them a good deal at $1,200… They get back to me and say that their last company was charging $175 and why I cannot match their price. I said to call their old company… 
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$175? 
$120 sounds like a deal. Was it just one building or multiple?
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3 buildings. I’d say it would take me 5 hours. It was probably done with a lift truck or a 40 footer 
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We dumped gutter cleaning because its not nearly as profitable as our other services.
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I don’t know, $2.00 per foot ain’t bad.
I hear ya on wanting to make him happy, but refunding him the money could’ve justified his reasoning.
You aren’t going to make everyone happy. He could’ve just been paying bills the last few days and this was added to it, you never know. I understand where the guy is coming from, but he will understand your point too. You did the work, did it well…and they agreed to it and payed you.
He didn’t ask for the money back or threaten to loose his business because of it…he definitely wanted you to explain and thats all you should’ve done. Your prices are set, if you let them haggle you down you are only hurting yourself not improving your reputation.
It was an honest transaction. You just took money off your own table and gave it to a stranger. That was nice of you, but I bet your lady will see it differently. Just sayin’
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I made the mistake as it turned out back in the summer of assuming since a woman just wanted me to come and clean all her windows she wasn’t overly concerned about what the price would be. The bill came out to exactly $1000 + tax. She went into some type of mental shock. She quickly wrote the check but then mentioned that the ‘company’ who had been there last charged 300. I felt a bit bad that she had been vastly undercharged by what was obviously the epitome of what a professional company isn’t, and thought they were the standard. I didn’t feel bad about my price as we did it the right way. Fast forward maybe a week and she called to say she had stopped payment and asked me to resubmit a bill with ‘proper pricing’, her exact words. I agreed to resubmit for $600 + tax with no admission that the original bill was unfair, just to move on permanently from her.
We exchanged respectful but frank communication in the mailings that ensued.
It just boggles my mind how people such as her and her husband couldn’t understand that you can’t judge legal and professional contracting prices with fly by night, nice young guys’ pricing.
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I had a large two story, in/ex/screens french job last year. It was a “do it yourself-er” older couple who wanted to save time and spend it with their grandkids.
I walked the property with him, sent the quote, insurance, etc.
He responded, and asked that the guest apartment be omitted to cut the cost.
No problem, resubmitted the quote, sans guest apartment. He responds, accepts, and we’re on.
I arrive, complete the job, pack up my gear and head to the house for payment. The wife is there with her checkbook; asks, “what was it again?” I give her the price, she says “Okay”
The husband, storms in from the other room, “I thought we agreed you weren’t cleaning the guest apartment?!”
I say calmly “Of course, and as agreed, I haven’t.”
He says “Well you better have for that price, that’s not what we agreed too!”
Thankfully I had brought their quote up on my phone before coming to the house, I read the date on the quote, the price and omitted service, held it out to them. The wife says “That’s fine, that’s what I saw, I just forgot” trying to calm this guy down.
He shakes his head and walks into the other room while she finishes the check.
They emailed again this year for service; I didn’t return it. My schedules full of the kind of customers I want.
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I find that 95% or more of my customer interactions are positive. The difficult ones I just never go back to. That’s a beautiful thing about being self-employed. As far as any other service requested of me that I’m willing to perform such as gutter cleaning or what have you I just charged them a by the minute rate and keep track of how many minutes it takes. I’m always up front about not knowing how much is going to cost and it depends on how long it takes and I won’t know until it’s done. If they’re not okay with that I’m not going to do it.
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