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.