Do you turn away business?

[user1]

I have a customer with several units down in our service area. They called yesterday and want to put down 2 units in a location that is 20 miles one-way off our normal route.

What would you do?:confused:

[Trent]

What we used to do and what we do now are two different things. We used to trade work back and forth with "friendly competitors" that we know do good work. We knew that they wouldn't try to steal our customers and we wouldn't theirs.

Our market place is changing fast and it seems like everyone is traveling farther and "following" our good customers to keep them happy. We have actually developed some pretty good markets this way however so it's not always a bad thing to drive the extra miles.

Look at the area they are working in. Can you pick up more work there? How long would it take to make it a paying route? How good is the customer? Do you have a "friendly competitor" in the area?

I know I've added alot more questions but these are the things we look at.

Good luck!

[user1]

Thanks

I do have one competitor that we subcontract and visa versa for jobs when we need to..... but he's not in this area.

I explained to my customer that I appreciated his business, but I thought he could get someone local to that area and a better price than I would have to charge. I didn't want him to get down there, pay my price, just to find that a local guy could do it cheaper and then think I was gouging. He seemed to appreciate that. I also told him that if he couldn't find someone or didn't like them that I was only a phone call away. We'll see if this pays off in the long run.

[Allstar Sanitation]

I would have delivered the toilet down there, call up a local and have them service the unit on the cheap. Customer pays you, you pay them, even if it proves not to make you much money as long as your not spending money to do it you get to keep the customer loyal to you.

[Trent]

We've used this approach as well. The only thing you need to worry about is the quality of service you get.

[Allstar Sanitation]

We've used this approach as well. The only thing you need to worry about is the quality of service you get.

A well written contract with specifics of the service along with penalties if it isnt done correctly should cover your ass. I say the only bad service is no service, lol.

[txshriner]

I have a plan that works great for me. Anytime that I find myself about to turn work away here is what I do. I quickly come up with a price that would make their problem my first priority, once I have that figure in mind I explain to them that in order for it to be feasible for me to do it I would have to charge this amount but I completely understand if it don't work for them. If it works for them I'm on my way, if not i give them a name of a friend who might can help. A good percentage of the time these are my best jobs because I priced it to the point I would drop what I was doing to go do it. The custo
er that is willing to pay a premium to get what he wants is exactly the custo
er that I'm in business to serve.

[NixTank]

Keep in mind: accepting business that is outside of your normal service area may seem worthwhile on the surface, but how much will impact your financial operations? If it makes sense to travel that far, and you can remain profitable, this could be a good avenue to open up new lines of revenue. However, if you can't sustain operations in this area, do you really want to accept the business?

D.W.
Nix Tank Company
Portable Toilet Rental (http://www.nixtank.com)
Atlanta GA