Costomer Contracts = Commitment?

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With our commercial clients we have them sign off on proposals to keep things clear.

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I guess that was what I was getting at. Large jobs and commercial work.

SZ
 
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With our commercial clients we have them sign off on proposals to keep things clear.

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That's ideal, and good policy anywhere that doubt can be costly. As for cancellations, the <48-hour mobilization fee makes sense to me.

Re commitment, Codit and DD often take a reply to an emailed statement of assignment as a signed contract. Helps move the stories along, and it's a reflection of how most of my jobs are set up.

Like Yul Brynner said: "Let it be written, let it be done!"
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With our commercial clients we have them sign off on proposals to keep things clear.

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That's ideal, and good policy anywhere that doubt can be costly. As for cancellations, the <48-hour mobilization fee makes sense to me.

Re commitment, Codit and DD often take a reply to an emailed statement of assignment as a signed contract. Helps move the stories along, and it's a reflection of how most of my jobs are set up.

Like Yul Brynner said: "Let it be written, let it be done!"
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Yep, email acceptance works like a signature for me.

SZ
 
Hi Jamin,

It looks like you have built your company with the understanding that "the customer is always right" and you have done an awesome job serving your customers.

I understand your frustration with customers canceling, but having a stricter contract to "protect yourself" from your customers doesn't fit your business model of exceptional service.

Instead I would change your pricing for storm work, find a way to bring in more crews, and let the customer decide.

Example: Storm hits, 1wk response time 2x your standard rate, 2 to 3 week response time 1.5x your rate, 4 to 8 weeks out standard rate. Let your customer choose the time and the price, then take a deposit, or sign your contract. Adjust the pricing so that you get the amount of work that lets you still provide exceptional service.

I would also look at building relationships with tree companies within a few hours' drive that might not get the same storm. You could easily contract with them for the first week or two after the storm hits. You would both make a profit if you increased your rates for those weeks and you build your customer base.

Contract crews are another topic that I would like to learn more about. My company contracted with a local crew when Irene hit the east coast. Having a working relationship with the crew before the storm hits seems to be the key to making it work.
 
This might not be best idea for your company. However, when I have more work than I can handle, I stop quoting jobs, limit answering the phone, and just work like crazy.

After the dust settles, I will call everyone back until I book another few weeks of work. I rarely quote when I am booked more than 6 weeks out, beyond that my cancellation rate is a lot higher. I build a list to quote when I get caught up and can offer a reasonable response time. Customers seem to like it that way better even though I am still getting to their jobs x amount of weeks after they first called, it is only a few weeks after we made a deal.

Your crews capacity is fixed, unless you take steps to expand.
You will not loose work my not quoting everything that comes your way, even with screening customers ahead of time. Decide how much you are going to work and then focus on making that work efficient.

Use storms to build an email list of maintenance customers, even if you are not able to get to the clean up in their time frame. It is a great time to collect email addresses for marketing preventive maintenance work.
 
Any requests for an estimate during emergency storm damage clean up is treated as low priority. We assess through the call or callback the level of need. Is access to or from a residence impeded? Structural damage to buildings or other property? Emergency personnel access to a property blocked? Driveways or lanes blocked? Imminent hazard? broken limbs or hangers over walkways, entries, driveways, etc?

All about managing expectations and keeping those clients that will work with you and letting the difficult ones go.
 
Me: Here it is, the estimate.

$427.50 per hour. (time and a half) I will be happy to send the crew if I can please get your visa number and the expiration please.

Customer: How long do you expect it to take?

Me: No clue. At least one hour by the time I arrive.

<If I have the time, I may ask a few questions to get us in the realm.>

Me: I will be scheduling estimates in 3 weeks, would you like to be on the list? Please call me back if you contract the work.

About a fourth of the time - please send the crew. I would advise calling before you go out for the estimate, cause they said they would call back if they contracted, but they won't. How else are you to deal with 700% increase in phone traffic?

That is for someone I do not know from a previous experience. I am not a cold SOB, but I have plenty of times sent a crew only to arrive and had the work being done by another company. That is a major loss during a storm for US. I am not in business to pay crews to drive around for a maybe.
 
Whoa! I leave the Buzz for a couple of days and this thread has turned into a wealth of knowledge. Awesome contributions.

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Jamin, do you require signatures on your contracts? On ours it clearly states a cancellation fee of $__ (nominal sum)...

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I may start getting signatures. I'll more or less state they are authorizing me to do the work. And I may start a small cancellation fee to act as a deturrent.

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Jamin, I find that although they say they will wait, because everyone is booked,if they are first time customers they may only wait so long...

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Good observation Surfarmer1. I think the reason why I have had such a long back log is because a vast majority of these jobs are repeat customers. They all would say along these lines, "I'll wait for Jamin. He's our tree guy." It is new clients who are bailing. (Not all, but enough to bug me).
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Jamin, i think if you're booked that far out you should put your prices up, not gouging, but say 10-15%...

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Trev. Good points all around. And specifically with the increase of 10%-15%.

DJM: Nice post all around. You should post more often. Nice website and photos, BTW.

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Its true (as Unatool mentions) that Marlinspiker hit the nail on the head: a "mobilization" fee for cancellation. That language captures what the fee covers rather than a "cancellation" fee, which sounds punitive (as Tophopper was quick to point out). Thats so good, I'm going to use that language myself (thanks, Marlinspiker!)

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Good point Ward.

As always, good insight Rob.

Jim Steele: I've thought the same.
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...It looks like you have built your company with the understanding that "the customer is always right" and you have done an awesome job serving your customers.

I understand your frustration with customers canceling, but having a stricter contract to "protect yourself" from your customers doesn't fit your business model of exceptional service.

...Example: Storm hits, 1wk response time 2x your standard rate, 2 to 3 week response time 1.5x your rate, 4 to 8 weeks out standard rate. Let your customer choose the time and the price, then take a deposit, or sign your contract. Adjust the pricing so that you get the amount of work that lets you still provide exceptional service....

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Thanks for seeing that in me Joshua. And you have a nice website too, BTW. And that's sort of what I'm wrestling with. I've liked the "hand shake" and "taking someone for their word" business relationship. And a strict policy isn't my style. I think I'll put stuff in writting, but not so stiff of wordage that it repels people away.

If I get burned I may have to understand it is, as Stephan said, "the cost of business." But, I think I learned some stuff from this thread to reduce the frequency, the next go-around.
 
Jamin, does your business plan describe desired growth or some sort of projection for such? I was wondering since it seems you have enough repeat business to satisfy your crew. Are you feeling the need to expand to gain more business?

I feel that repeat is the best, and if some new customers are lost, perhaps that could be lost 'repeat' business in the future.

Word of mouth has been best for us, and we don't have the desire to grow much more since we have found a nice niche in a small town. I would think that you're clientele may be similar to ours, so perhaps some screening methods would serve you best. At least you would be able to gauge the potential future relationships of 'lost' customers. If you feel the loss to be more than just aggravating, you could expand. Just think of what your customers are really looking for.

Part of our niche is that we own and operate. Some larger businesses are expanding for the sake of increased bottom lines, at the expense of poorly trained, inexperienced, unthoughtful workmanship.
 
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Jamin, does your business plan describe desired growth or some sort of projection for such? I was wondering since it seems you have enough repeat business to satisfy your crew. Are you feeling the need to expand to gain more business?

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Indeed. Since we hold onto new clientele (or new customers hold onto us), we need to expand to meet the needs of our customers. I'll be adding at least 1 or 2 guys in the Spring (knock on wood).

I used to be on every job and promote, "Who you see, is who you get" when doing bids. But, it simply is no longer that way.

Hence, the growing pains.
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Thanks for seeing that in me Joshua. And you have a nice website too, BTW.

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Thanks Jamin! While we are on the topic of business growth, have you found that it is worth it to move from the owner-operator to owner-manager?

I tried to make the jump 2 years ago from 2 teams to 4. It was a disaster, I just wasn't ready for it personally and found I was a much better worker than manager.

Making sure each crew was making money was my biggest challenge. Has anyone found a good way to measure income and expenses for each team? I am working on an excel spreadsheet I can share when it is done.

Thanks
 
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