I've had my own tree business for 3 years now. Nothing big. F-550 chip truck, Bandit 200xp, Boxer 427 w/ BMG, and small Rayco stump grinder. 3 part time guys. Don't set the world on fire, but
it's growing. 100% in 2014 & 41% in 2015. I own all equipment--no debt. No advertising; just word of mouth. I probably should, but I don't do contracts. I've only done 4 or 5 contracts for customers who asked for them. I've never had a non-payment, and only a few that were late.
So I go to a referral from a neighbor. His fishing buddy. Both of them are Iranian--I'm not racist, but anyone who denies that they have a different way of doing things is just blind. And they're tighter than bark on a tree. Anyway, he's got one dead red oak (30" dbh), and one dying red oak (28" dbh) almost grown together, sandwiched between the neighbor's fence, a large koi pond, the house, and an embankment. No way to get a bucket truck in the back yard--goes down to water. Could maybe bring a crane in the front yard & lift everything over the house. I give him a quote and don't hear back. I never gave it another thought.
He calls 3 weeks later and wants to meet me on the property & maybe we can "work" something out. It's not far from my house--I go, and he also wants a small oak in the front yard removed, a crepe myrtle trimmed, and the canopy raised on a yellow pine. I give him another price. We do the "middle-east haggle" and finally shake hands. I scheduled it a week out.
2 days later he calls. Asks me,
"How would you feel if I have someone else do the job? What happened is, this guy told me that he would do the trees, but didn't show for 2 weeks. He called yesterday and said he could be here Saturday. His price was $700 below yours."
I told him I would feel the same way that he would if someone was trying to take food off of his table. I told him that when a dishonest tree guy didn't keep his word, he called an honest tree guy. I told him that to back out of our agreement would be rewarding bad behavior; paying off my honesty with dishonesty. And I told him a lot more, because, I was ticked off.
He ended up sticking to our agreement. But he was critical of the job we did from start to finish even though we did an excellent job & at a compromised price. I know that 700 bucks kept gnawing at him. Sort of made me wish we had let the hack land a few large chunks in his fish pool. At the end of it all, I was glad that he was an honorable man. He must have known in his gut that switching would have been wrong. Maybe he just called me to get the right words to say to the low-baller; or just confirmation that his gut was steering him straight.
This is not necessarily a game the customer played, but rather, a complete lack of understanding that there are other inputs/factors besides Legal Tender. I know, I know, it's my responsibility to educate the customer. Try that with a partial language barrier, and an almost complete cultural divide.
There, that rant was still shorter than a few of yours Ward. I'm like you--99% of my customers love me, and I love them. But....
it's growing. 100% in 2014 & 41% in 2015. I own all equipment--no debt. No advertising; just word of mouth. I probably should, but I don't do contracts. I've only done 4 or 5 contracts for customers who asked for them. I've never had a non-payment, and only a few that were late.
So I go to a referral from a neighbor. His fishing buddy. Both of them are Iranian--I'm not racist, but anyone who denies that they have a different way of doing things is just blind. And they're tighter than bark on a tree. Anyway, he's got one dead red oak (30" dbh), and one dying red oak (28" dbh) almost grown together, sandwiched between the neighbor's fence, a large koi pond, the house, and an embankment. No way to get a bucket truck in the back yard--goes down to water. Could maybe bring a crane in the front yard & lift everything over the house. I give him a quote and don't hear back. I never gave it another thought.
He calls 3 weeks later and wants to meet me on the property & maybe we can "work" something out. It's not far from my house--I go, and he also wants a small oak in the front yard removed, a crepe myrtle trimmed, and the canopy raised on a yellow pine. I give him another price. We do the "middle-east haggle" and finally shake hands. I scheduled it a week out.
2 days later he calls. Asks me,
"How would you feel if I have someone else do the job? What happened is, this guy told me that he would do the trees, but didn't show for 2 weeks. He called yesterday and said he could be here Saturday. His price was $700 below yours."
I told him I would feel the same way that he would if someone was trying to take food off of his table. I told him that when a dishonest tree guy didn't keep his word, he called an honest tree guy. I told him that to back out of our agreement would be rewarding bad behavior; paying off my honesty with dishonesty. And I told him a lot more, because, I was ticked off.
He ended up sticking to our agreement. But he was critical of the job we did from start to finish even though we did an excellent job & at a compromised price. I know that 700 bucks kept gnawing at him. Sort of made me wish we had let the hack land a few large chunks in his fish pool. At the end of it all, I was glad that he was an honorable man. He must have known in his gut that switching would have been wrong. Maybe he just called me to get the right words to say to the low-baller; or just confirmation that his gut was steering him straight.
This is not necessarily a game the customer played, but rather, a complete lack of understanding that there are other inputs/factors besides Legal Tender. I know, I know, it's my responsibility to educate the customer. Try that with a partial language barrier, and an almost complete cultural divide.
There, that rant was still shorter than a few of yours Ward. I'm like you--99% of my customers love me, and I love them. But....
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