ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion Minimum Rate

I never spend only five minutes at a customer's home. Especially if it's a new customer and it's the first time I've been there.

I always do a courtesy evaluation of their entire electrical system as part of the service call fee. I pull panel covers and check and tighten connections. I check for and test GFCI's, look for broken receptacles, missing covers, check for smoke detectors and CO detectors.

I went out on a call a while back where the customer lost power to some outlets. When I got there she said she had lost power to some other outlets in her home previously and the electrician she called found a loose wire in the electrical panel and tightened it. She said she would never use him again because he charged her $135 just to tighten one wire.

I pulled the panel cover and found three more loose neutrals on the neutral buss that the previous electrician had missed. I went through and made sure all connections were tight. The panel had been upgraded recently but was not wired correctly and didn't meet code. Grounds and neutrals were landed on the same buss even though this was a sub panel without a main breaker. There were 20amp breakers feeding 14awg wire.

I did a courtesy inspection of her entire home and wrote up a list of my findings and prices for the repairs. I wrote up $2,500 worth of repairs charged her the same $135 and she commented how happy she was with what I had done.

Out of the $2,500 she had me do $2,000 worth of repairs. Below are some of the things I did.

Installed 12 GFCI receptalces.
Replaced breakers.
Installed ground bar.
Corrected polarity of some receptacles.
Grounded some receptacles.
Replaced existing smoke detector with combination CO/Smoke Detector.

The other electrician before me came out and quickly found the problem, tightened one connection, collected $135 and left. He could have gotten another $2,000.

Don't assume the customer isn't interested in buying anything else while you're there. Show them how much money they'll save by having you do the work while you're already there.

On another call I went on I reset a GFCI breaker in the panel. Did a courtesy inspection and sold $950 worth of repairs.

GFCI receptacles in the kithchen.
Whole house surge protecion for power, phone and cable.
Other minor repairs.

There's usually a lot of things that are unsafe and in need of repair. Alway check the garbage disposal especially on older homes. These are often a mess and very unsafe from a do it yourself job. There's a gold mine under there.

Always carry smoke and carbon monoxide detectors with you. You can't sell what you don't have.

When replacing a switch try to upgrade them to a dimmer if they don't already have one.

Going out on a service call and only collecting $90 is going to break you.

"Don't assume the customer isn't interested in buying anything else while you're there. Show them how much money they'll save by having you do the work while you're already there."

"On another call I went on I reset a GFCI breaker in the panel. Did a courtesy inspection and sold $950 worth of repairs."


That is the way we have been operating since day one, Not everyone will be intrested in doing the additional work, but they will remember you checked.
This is why you need to charge a decent service call fee, to allow for your investigating time, electrical is a system, not a room that needs painting.

By the way this guy said he didn't have the money at the moment for $950 worth of work. But then said; Well since you accept credit cards I guess I'll just put it on my credit card.

Accepting credit cards is a great way to increase sales. Accepting credit cards doesn't cost you money. It makes you money.

I almost didn't offer him the whole house surge protection because I didn't think he'd be interested in it. He didn't seem like the type that would be interested in anything else. I decided to got ahead and add it to the list anyway and he bought every thing on the list. You just don't know what people will buy unless you offer it to them.

I regret not putting more on the list. He probably would have bought more.

I heard Ford make more money from there financing than selling cars.

I don't provide financing. I just accept credit cards.

I had a woman the other day, when I told her I don't provide financing, ask me if she could give me monthly payments and when she had given me enough to pay for the job I would come out and do the job.

She said she had a hard time saving money so she would give me $100 per month to save for her until she had enough saved to have the job done.

This was a $3,000 job. She was going to give me money each month for almost three years without me doing any work?

I've had people pay me in advanced but never like this.

I had a deal with Wells Fargo, they did the loan (took the risk) and I got paid in full.
Just being able to offer that made many sales that would have otherwise been lost.

"Zapped" Your time on site is irrelevent regarding what you charge. You have tools to buy, gas, truck repairs, insurance, blah, blah & blah to pay for to stay in business.

We charge a service call fee of $85 which includes up to one hour. That hour includes travel to the job. However if all we do is reset a breaker or such have only 15 minutes invested I charge a $55 "Limited" service call. There is more to everything than meets the eye, ie office people keying in your mans invoice data etc.

If you feel you are ripping people off charging them $85 for twenty minutes driving and twenty minutes work you need to get a job and give up contracting.

You are providing a service to people and could save someones life or burn their house down depending on your workmanship. Your work demands more than a landscaper or roofer and you need to charge accordingly! Just don't rape people just because you can.