Big Lou said:
We figure he has to dedicate his time and resources to the max paying jobs to stay in business. That is good but in the mean time he loses his standing with some customers.
Sorry Lou, but that's bull. You are simply being too kind to this contractor, Big or small job, it makes no difference to us. Repeat clients and word of mouth are where we make our real money. We get to the clients "more or less" in the order the work was scheduled with a few minor exceptions. You could almost say we run off of 3 schedules. The main schedule reflects bigger projects, the next schedule is what we call "filler jobs" (one day or less) and the final is to keep track of dates we are needed by another contractor (we do our own things, but are also a subcontractor, you NEVER forget the other companies that helped you grow) but all three schedules work together. So say you are on the waiting list with your $275 project, even if there are 10 big jobs that came in before you, you get moved up the list, as your little project can be done on a day that another project was finished early in the day, or you would get squeezed in between larger jobs. If your job is an emergency, you get moved right to the top of the list. Note that an emergency is you have a tree ON your house, car, etc, or something as simple as a blown irrigation line with it gushing straight up.
We would never blow off what sounds like a cheap money cold call either, as you never know where it could go. Let me give you an example of a real client, who has similar things going on in his yard, as yours. Cold call in 2009, on a Sunday ... I answer the business line if I am awake, period, as we offer emergency services. These folks had just bought the house, and had no idea what to do with the pond (couldnt figure out how to turn it on). Since hubby has a special interests in ponds, wanted to go check it out that day. First of all, they were expecting to get an answering machine, not a live person ... they were floored that we were willing to come that day. Told them on the phone it would be a $50 service call to come look, and he would get it going IF POSSIBLE. We were there for a good couple of hours. Only charged them the $50, inspected everything, and explained how the system worked, so that THEY could take care of it, themselves ... about a week or two later, they called again. Couldnt figure out how to turn on the irrigation. Same deal. $50 service call, and was there for a couple of hours trying to trouble shoot it (hacker installation and broken) ... Suggested a new system (small profit margin in irrigation installations), but they said they couldnt afford it right now, and asked if there was anything hubby could do to MAKE it work ... bandaids and bubblegum got it running ... didnt hear from them again for awhile, then they called asking if we could refer someone to check out their chimney (of course we knew someone) ... gave them the info and hung up ... I have client history stored in the computer. Since fall of 2009, about every two to three months, they spend anywhere from $1500 to $3500, like clockwork, Just picked up $1800 a few days ago (spring clean up and fix something on the pond that they broke - my newly aquired Grape Hyacinths came from their yard). Oh, and thanks to their referrals, we picked up both of their neighbors as well
We have several other clients just like them. If it is outside, they call us FIRST. If we dont do that particular item, we tell them someone we trust to call, as for many of our clients, these are second homes, so dont know the whose who game.
