Extra Charges for thick tanks...

[Trent]

Who charges extra for those tanks that are solid from top to bottom. How much do you charge?

[plowking]

Usually charge by the hour,used to charge for each extra backflush. If the customer warns me ahead of time,I will bring some septage from one of my yearly customers to backflush the heavy tank to stir it up once I have pumped it part way down first. I have opened the distribution box on some heavy tanks and jetted them out if solids made it to the field. A broken baffle in a heavy tank is a real concern. If you don't charge extra for heavy tank,the customer won't have any incentive to go on a regular maintence program. plowking

[Trent]

Do you do a base with extra hourly past a certain amount of time?

[Clay's Septic]

Who charges extra for those tanks that are solid from top to bottom. How much do you charge?

We charge extra after 1/2 hour on site. We also charge extra for using our Crust Buster, a wonderful tool by the way.

[etnpumper]

It's this simple, if you want to stay in business charge for your service. If the customer is interested in a good job they will understand a tougher job will result in a higher bill.

[zseptic]

we charge extra after 30 min at a rate of $37.50 per 15 min or $150.00 per hour I recommend notifying your customer before cleaning of extra charges

[RaiderRooter]

I wish we could get away with that here. Our prices run about middle of the pack but there are people right now charging less and I don't know that I've heard of anyone charging extra for a thick tank, unless they tell the customers once they have seen the tank. I am very sure that most of the people around here would laugh at us on the phone if we tried to tell them there would be an extra charge for a very thick tank. Business is just too cut throat

[Clay's Septic]

Where do I start
First: Figuring out how to charge is not as important as figuring out how much you need to charge. What do I mean by this, you have fixed charges that do not change insurance, yellow pages, your wages etc. You also have cost of goods sold, tire, and fuel etc, this charges charge.
Do the math find out what your breakeven point is, you can do this by the hour, by the job, by the mile etc.
Now that you have that done decide how you can charge that amount charge a flat fee, charge for extra gallons, charge for extra time, dig by the foot instead of by the hour, charge for extras i.e. Lymzne, Septic Seep, Poly Lok etc.
It seems you are afraid of your competitor and how muc he is charging is this true
Clay

[Trent]

We've decided to give an hour of time (from the moment we drive in the driveway to the time we are driving out) with the basic rate. Anything over that is billed at $95 per hour which is our labor rate.

[RaiderRooter]

Not afraid of our competitors. Just aware. That is the reason we do not reduce our rate to try to compete with these bottom price people. First off, I know they have less overhead. Usually just a 1 or 2 truck operation, run out of their own house. Much much much less overhead. Also, I think a lot of times they recommend new drainfields to people at the first sign of trouble instead of trying to troubleshoot the situation. I dont know this for sure, but we have been out behind people on jobs where the owner was asking for a new field quote and after a little investigation it turned out it was something much simpler.

We have been trying to slim our company down, selling off unused, or outdated equipment, extra stock etc, in an effort to keep our margins in the black. But with the state of the economy and the rates of our competitors it is very difficult

[Clay's Septic]

Sounds to me like you are doing well in a difficult time.

We lowered our charges about a year ago, not because of my competitors it was my customers that said they were not as interested in quality as they were in price.

So, we no longer check out there system for free if they want extra they pay for it.

[RaiderRooter]

We find that the old adage is true. People who want the absolute cheapest price are going to be the first to not pay. We believe in giving quality service, to try to explain to people what they could do themselves to maybe avoid having us come out for something simple, to warn them of issues we see that could jeopardize the health of their system, etc. We may get fewer calls because of that but we have happier customers. You keep your customers in the dark too long and they wont be your customer for long.

[POOMAN]

Running a 1 truck operation from your house is not a bad thing. If larger companies can't turn a profit in their market they are doing something wrong and need to revaluate their operation. The 1st thing the big guys do is cry unfair when other companies charge less then they do. The key is is doing the best job possible while keeping inputs as low as possible.

[Clay's Septic]

Running a 1 truck operation from your house is not a bad thing. If larger companies can't turn a profit in their market they are doing something wrong and need to revaluate their operation. The 1st thing the big guys do is cry unfair when other companies charge less then they do. The key is is doing the best job possible while keeping inputs as low as possible.

I won't argue with the post, except the last sentence.
The key to a service business is this: there 3 things you can offer a customer.
1. Price
2. Quality
3. Service
It is not possible to offer all three.
Some business do not offer any of the three.
One thing is sure, quality and service cost $$$.

[Dennis]

My approach:
1) Never borrow money (that's in the Bible). I know that's not always possible and we all have a learning curve but make it goal.
2) Never short cut quality. Seek to increase quality.
3) Never cut prices. Most likely you're not getting a fair and honest return for your work & knowledge.
4) Never answer a question your uncomfortable with. Silence can be the best answer.
5) Education is priceless... But most has underlying agenda.


Easy for me to say since I'm a one-man operation, Dennis...

[Trent]

My approach:
1) Never borrow money (that's in the Bible). I know that's not always possible and we all have a learning curve but make it goal.
2) Never short cut quality. Seek to increase quality.
3) Never cut prices. Most likely you're not getting a fair and honest return for your work & knowledge.
4) Never answer a question your uncomfortable with. Silence can be the best answer.
5) Education is priceless... But most has underlying agenda.


Easy for me to say since I'm a one-man operation, Dennis...

While I've borrowed lots of money from time to time (getting real close to being debt free) I agree with all of your points. Even though we are in a downturn, I've had to raise my prices to be able to survive. I'm still getting jobs as they know I do good work. Speaking to education, my favorite time of the year is when I go to conferences. I feel so energized when I get back. I keeps you from being stuck in a rut. The nice thing about the association conferences is the agenda is better service through knowledge!