Selling peace of mind

procut

procut

TreeHouser
Joined
Jun 9, 2014
Messages
14
When a wind storm goes through here everything goes to hell and the phone goes crazy. People have to wait quite awhile to get a downed tree taken care of. I was thinking of selling folks around here an 'assurance program'. $25 a year gets them on my priority list if ever one of their trees fail. Has anyone done this? Does it work?

Erik
www.pro-cuttreeservice.com
 
Like a protection racket, gangster style :).

A problem might be, to get enough customers signed up to make any money on it for you, you'd be unlikely to be able to meet the need in what they might consider a timely manner if a bad storm rolled in with widespread damage. Unless you change the price significantly upward...
 
Our priority list is based on how much the client spends with us on a regular basis. The best customer is 1st in line.
 
In my area there are homes with branches laying on the roof after wind storms over 2 years ago, people have no interest in having anything done.
 
I think the $25 is trivial compared to the money and danger involved in storm work. I always prioritize work that is most threatening. People, busy roads, property, etc.

If you set up a prioritized customer list for $25/per and all those customers had minimal damage, would you then pass on a bigger job that poses a significant or extreme threat to persons or property? By contract/agreement then you would have to.
 
Yah, for $25/head. I'm not even making a list or checking it twice when a storm comes through. Guess I'd make a crappy Santa.
 
Yeah, like Mr....uh, Twig and Justin said.

Someone that drops big money on you every year vs. the one time customer that gives 25 bucks.

I guess if I were doing storm work, I would do the highest paying jobs first and prioritize from there down. Unless my mom needed something cut down first!

Of course if some one offered even more money, well, its just business.
 
It's funny this topic came up. I am in the midst of ironing out a month of winter work for the next 5 years. I have to be vague because competitors could ruin it for me. Long story short, this commercial account wants to know if they can be absolute number one after storms. To date, I haven't done any work for this account. So my response was that they can have whatever they want if they choose to occupy a month a year for me.
 
FireFighterZero said:
Yeah, like Mr....uh, Twig and Justin said.

Someone that drops big money on you every year vs. the one time customer that gives 25 bucks.

I guess if I were doing storm work, I would do the highest paying jobs first and prioritize from there down. Unless my mom needed something cut down first!

Of course if some one offered even more money, well, its just business.
Click to expand...

Exactly Jim. We get a storm here every few years, chance to really stack some moolah in the bank.
 
Big money customers could get a private line number, too. If someone spent 5-10k in a shot, or overtime, I'd give them a personal cell number/ home number to call if the feces hits the ventilator.
 
FireFighterZero said:
Yeah, like Mr....uh, Twig and Justin said.

Someone that drops big money on you every year vs. the one time customer that gives 25 bucks.

I guess if I were doing storm work, I would do the highest paying jobs first and prioritize from there down. Unless my mom needed something cut down first!

Of course if some one offered even more money, well, its just business.
Click to expand...
Can't cherry pick based on the value of it. It's sort of unfair. If elderly Mrs Jones calls first with a tree on her car($600), it just wouldn't be right when Mr Wentville gets first priority because he has $2300 worth of trees strewn around his back yard. I make them sign on the contract that I'm hired to do the work. That way I can take it in the order of priority it comes in, and not be losing work while tending to the more serious issues that take priority.
 
Tucker943 said:
Can't cherry pick based on the value of it. It's sort of unfair. If elderly Mrs Jones calls first with a tree on her car($600), it just wouldn't be right when Mr Wentville gets first priority because he has $2300 worth of trees strewn around his back yard. I make them sign on the contract that I'm hired to do the work. That way I can take it in the order of priority it comes in, and not be losing work while tending to the more serious issues that take priority.
Click to expand...


And take a non-refundable deposit, spelled out on the contract.

A signed contract won't mean anything unless you want to take him to court. You at least get the deposit if they re-neg.
 
I don't take deposits. My fine print in the invoices covers all this. I won't enforce it. It's to encourage people not to play games. If they do sign on the line and end up hiring someone else, I'd rather not do business with them anyhow. But no, I'm not taking deposits. That screams that I'm running on a wing and a prayer and need cash now.
 
Occasionally I will take a pre pay or deposit. Only at the customers insistence. Often times because they will be out of town or country when we do the work. I have two escrow accounts (what I call them) to place the money into until the work is performed. Held a check once for the better part of 4 months.. Freaked some poor bugger out.. :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

cory
Tree work thoughts
2
Replies
44
Views
3K
96coal449
9
H
Caring for Our Sycamores?
Replies
9
Views
1K
kevin bingham
kevin bingham
M
For conspiracy theorist only
14 15 16
Replies
386
Views
19K
Mellow
Mellow
cory
Hiring, or, How is this world going to stay in orbit
2
Replies
46
Views
5K
Steve Mack
Steve Mack
pigwot
A lot of chainsaws in Ohio
Replies
13
Views
3K
Cut4fun
Cut4fun
Back
Top