Clients & Other Computer Issues

[BioSpark]

I've noticed lately since starting, that my clients always ask for more when I'm there. I'll come to fix one problem, and they'll ask me to fix another (or look at something).

How do most of you handle this? I charge by a flat fee, 50.00 to come look at a problem and fix it. After that, I'm more inclined to charge for each additional job that isn't on the invoice. However, I'm not sure if I should be charging 50.00 dollars to fix another problem, or something lower since I'm already there.

I'll give you a couple of examples, I fixed a printing issue, which is what I came in there for. After that, the client asked me to hook up her windows live account to her outlook, then asked me to set a homepage as her default web page. Simple stuff, but it can be a little time consuming dealing with all these "well, can you do this too". If this happens, what do you normally say?

Another issue I had with another client is to fix her router so she could get wireless. I finished it, and then mentioned that her other laptop couldn't connect to the internet. I asked if she wanted me to look at it, which she replied yes. Long story short, I sent it back to the manufacturer due to defect (spent an hour on the phone with tech support, and doing trouble shooting). Although she did pay me an additional 50.00 since this was another issue, I wasn't at first going to charge her but she distinctly wanted to pay me for another issue, and as my father always said, never turn down money.

For the time being, I'm building clients and that's why I don't mind doing extra stuff, but come three-four months when my client base could be bigger, time could be a very valuable commodity.

 

[Simmy]

You need to make it clear to the customer that your flat rate only includes the jobs specified when the appointment is made. If they want extra work done, you can say "no problem, however that isn't covered by the flat rate for the previous job and is likely to take an extra xx minutes. The extra work will cost £xx". Either that or start charging an hourly rate.

In your second example, you should definitely have been prepared to charge more if you spent an hour or so sorting out the laptop problem. I was reluctant to charge people too much when I start up, but it gets easier to add on the extra hour in time

Saying that, I charge an hourly rate but I'll still do the odd extra task for free if it only takes 5-10minutes.

 

[Jory]

I will never understand the appeal of a flat rate. It almost makes sense if you operate solely out of a shop, but I can't see it not screwing you over when doing on-site work.

 

[BioSpark]

The way I look at it, is this. My area has a big wig office company that comes in and charges by the hour to do computer work. They supply offices with their computers, their networks and their printers. They also charge a butt load of by the hour for tech support. Most the companies in this area that go through them are tired of "by the hour" charges, so their looking for a flat rate. I saw this as a opportunity, and decided to go the flat rate amount.

This change has opened up a lot of doors for new clients. Yes, I may get screwed over on time right now, but in the long run, I'm building my clients. Lets say six months down the road I change to by the hour. If I do great work, I doubt their going to care.

Flat rate has really worked out for me for the time being. I've surveyed my clients by just asking them which they feel more comfortable with (not by coming straight out and asking of course), and 99% of the time their answer is "flat rate because I know your doing the work, and not caring about the hours like the other office company was doing".

I may consider doing additional jobs for people with a discounted price. I come for job A, complete job A and if they need something else done, I'll charge less for job B if it's an easy task. Most likely, if I'm already there, people will just want me to fix it. Also, if I go in and fix a problem that takes 10 minutes, guess what? I came in to fix job A, it's fixed, now I get my income for 10 minutes of work. Sometimes I get bit in the butt, but other times it works out. I guess it just depends on the problem.

Thanks for your advice though guys, as always, I appreciate it.

 

[bagellad]

Well, of course the customer would like flat rate, assuming they are able to get you to do more and more work under the same flat rate. I think just the nature of computers makes flat rate really hard in the long term because you seem almost more money hungry being like "oh thats another $10, oh thats another $20.." because you have to keep renegotiating the job through out the job.

What do you do if something that seems like a software problem, ends up being hardware and a lot more work?

 

[Simmy]

I was about to ask the exact same questions. To those of you that charge a flat rate - How do you quote for a BSOD or a registry error? You don't know if it's a simple chkdsk that will fix it or if you need to take the machine away to replace the hard drive. If you base your rate on the average amount of time it takes to repair a BSOD, you could end up losing out if it takes several hours. If you base your flat fee rates on a worst case scenario, then it would be unfair on the customer.

Do you ever find yourself rushing to finish a job? Charging by the hour means I can take my time and make sure I do it properly. If I'm there to fix job A and I notice that there's a 2nd problem the customer doesn't know about, then I explain the problem to the customer and fix it. If I was charging a flat fee in that instance, I feel I would be less inclined to fix the 2nd problem as I was only being paid the flat fee for the original job (or go through the hassle of asking the customer for more money).

 

[seedubya]

Amen to all the above. I can see where you're coming from, BioSpark, but you need to get yourself on an hourly rate ASAP. You're cheating yourself otherwise. You are now setting up expectations in your customers of cheap rates forever more. They will not be happy when you move to hourly. If you want to compete with the big local outfit then charge less PER HOUR. The customer still wins but so do you and you can raise your rates in small increments as you go.

 

[usacvlr]

If a system comes in for a bsod issue then it's a flat 99.95 plus parts if parts are needed. Parts are paid for up front no matter if they are special order or not because as we all know once we've opened an unsealed box for a cpu or whatever it's now USED. I agree that hourly makes sense for onsite but the problem is people get anxious if it starts to take awhile. Personally I pretty much quit doing even occasional on site work a few years ago because I just plain don't like going to people's houses. If it needs fixed they can bring it in or ship it to me(But then again I specialize in laptops which are easily shipped and carried in).

 

[Jory]

Hourly rates can scare people because they're not sure how long something will take, or if you're being honest about how much work really needs to be done. Doing flat-rate work is not an answer to that though.

I just explain to people that if I'm on-site they can expect me to be there less than a couple hours because if it's more complicated than that I'd rather take it with me. In that case they're not being charged for every minute because I can walk away and do other stuff. Also I won't ever charge more for a repair that what the computer is worth so they are at least guaranteed somewhat of a labor cap.

The only people a flat-rate will ultimately appeal to is the cheap customers who will always be trying to get something for nothing. Don't even bother with those types. There are enough good customers out there to not bother yourself with leeches.

 

[oztrailrider]

I prefer to charge a standard hourly rate with a minimum charge of one hour. I have seen first hand what happens when people are getting paid flat rates for tasks. They tend to rush through the job and quality suffers since the more jobs they can cram into their day the more money they are making.

I want to provide a quality service and don't want the added pressure of a fixed price in my mind when on site, there's enough to think about as it is. I want customers who are after quality also.