Hourly vs Fixed / Menu Pricing

[jesse]

Hi again,

Just want to get your thoughts on fixed vs hourly pricing? I think residential users would want a fixed price and would shy away from an hourly charge, but businesses would be ok with an hourly rate.?.

on a side note:
I feel like I'm dragging my feet on starting my pt biz with all these questions I have; I appreciate your opinions.

Thanks in advance!

 

[lan101]

I've found for me it's best to do flat rate pricing for residential and hourly for business. Typically with business clients you have to do a lot of the work onsite, so I just charge hourly because I never know how long it will take.

Residential people like a good idea of what things will cost, so I decided flat rate was the only way to go. Most people get scared away if you charge them by the hour.

 

[JustInspired]

I do flat rate for domestic customers unless on site.

 

[Easy PC]

Fixed price repairs in the work shop, hourly rate on site.

 

[mraikes]

Another vote for flat rate for bench work, but hourly for onsite. Doesn't matter if business or residential.

 

[cypress]

Another vote for flat rate for bench work, but hourly for onsite. Doesn't matter if business or residential.

I agree with this as well.

 

[jesse]

Thanks, looks like I need to come up with a menu of services and prices for in shop....What about remote? flat or hourly?

 

[coffee]

on a side note:
I feel like I'm dragging my feet on starting my pt biz with all these questions I have; I appreciate your opinions.

Thanks in advance!

Hey, Better to drag your feet a bit now and work out the kinks before you jump in. I jumped in and made alot of mistakes. So, Take your time and get it right. I think you will do good then.

Well, I guess Im different. I do an hourly rate whether they are business or residential. I have had some customers pretty relieved at my pricing and start recommending me to others. Of course, I researched my competition alot before I came up with my pricing. I do alot more service calls for a cheaper rate but Im just a one man show and mobile. They recommend me to their friends and I pick up alot of business thru word of mouth. Seems to work for me.

 

[Maniaman]

I have a couple things that are flat rate (tuneup/Virus Removal, Re-install). The rest of the in-shop are technically "hourly" but I usually have a set amount in my head.

I generally go with the following:
PSU swap, RAM upgrades, etc: 1/2 hr
LCD swaps, etc: 1 hr
Complete laptop disassembly (some power jack replaacements, heatsink/fan swaps): 2 hours
Most software issues are usually billed at an hour unless I spend forever on them.

When the new storefront gets finished, I'll be switching a lot of the in-shop stuff to legitimate flat rate.

 

[Maniaman]

I have a couple things that are flat rate (tuneup/Virus Removal, Re-install). The rest of the in-shop are technically "hourly" but I usually have a set amount in my head.

I generally go with the following:
PSU swap, RAM upgrades, etc: 1/2 hr
LCD swaps, etc: 1 hr
Complete laptop disassembly (some power jack replaacements, heatsink/fan swaps): 2 hours
Most software issues are usually billed at an hour unless I spend forever on them.

When the new storefront gets finished, I'll be switching a lot of the in-shop stuff to legitimate flat rate.

Everything on-site is hourly. I also have an in-shop express service for 2x my normal on-site hourly rate that gets your system bumped to the front of the line (if we even have a line). It is actually billed by the hour. Most people opt to wait in line when I offer them express service.

 

[joydivision]

I often work on margins, so for a hard drive replacement I would want to make xxx if it is a clone job, so I would simply add that price onto the cost of the drive.

However when it comes to billing, I increase the price of the drive a bit, and reduce the labour costs. Now some hard drive jobs take less than an hour in terms of contact time, and I even got done on the same day once but othertimes you can spend hours diagnosing the problem if it is not always obvious.

The same with RAM replacements.

LCD screens again, I know in my head I want to make £xx on it, so it is that figure plus the cost of the screen, usually comes to around £110-£120.

 

[mraikes]

Thanks, looks like I need to come up with a menu of services and prices for in shop....What about remote? flat or hourly?

Remote is the same as being onsite - hourly. But perhaps at a slightly reduced rate to make up for the lack of travel and ability to work from your own comfy chair.

 

[aggieg33k]

Fixed rate for in-shop repairs (nearly all residential) and hourly for business or onsite repairs. Home owners typically like a solid figure before choosing a repair company.

 

[Majestic]

Hi again,

Just want to get your thoughts on fixed vs hourly pricing? I think residential users would want a fixed price and would shy away from an hourly charge, but businesses would be ok with an hourly rate.?.

on a side note:
I feel like I'm dragging my feet on starting my pt biz with all these questions I have; I appreciate your opinions.

Thanks in advance!

I do hourly for both residential and businesses. However, I always give an estimate of the cost and the time (i.e. if you tell somebody you are $75 an hour but don't let them know it's an hour and a half job they'll think the bill will be $500 not $112.50)

When it comes to contracts I sell in blocks in one shot.

Majestic

 

[AdvancedTech]

For residential I go with fixed rate they like to know what the cost is up front. On commercial accounts I stick to an hourly rate...most times you go to fix one thing and then they say "oh while you're here" can you take care of this. You never know how long you will actually be on site.

 

[Mr.PCFixer]

I charge hourly and some say to little. But you must know what your market will bear when it comes to pricing. You can easily be the cheapest or the most expensive but can your business afford a few customers? Or do you need a lot of business to keep your business going? It's tough and it took me about 8 months to find my sweet spot and I couldn't be happier and my customer base is growing everyday because of it. Also use coupons, flier's, ad's and discounts to repeat customers, senior citizens, college students etc. The more you make them feel they are getting for their money the more repeat customers you will have.

 

[thebughunter]

Hi again,

Just want to get your thoughts on fixed vs hourly pricing? I think residential users would want a fixed price and would shy away from an hourly charge, but businesses would be ok with an hourly rate.?.

on a side note:
I feel like I'm dragging my feet on starting my pt biz with all these questions I have; I appreciate your opinions.

Thanks in advance!

For me, applies to both residential and businesses:
Remote Work: Hourly, except flat rate for basic malware removal. I don't do heavy infection removal remotely)

On-Site: Hourly

Workshop: Flat Rate

 

[mikeroq]

Where I work we have some fixed and mainly hourly.

$65/hour onsite
$60/hour shop

$85/flat labor on: hardware replacement (sometimes $45 like say laptop keyboard), OS re install, laptop screens, etc.

$85/flat: Replace HDD, Try to recover data (might have extra based on time), Re install OS, Re install Office, Install AV.

$45-$85/hour Data transfer between computers, depends on if they are buying a new one from us or who the customer is. Usually $85 for walk in, $45 if it is bid, but I've seen it bid at $40 or $50 or $60 or $65 ().

$45 Diagnostic (only if we do not fix it, otherwise it is just labor + parts). If it is something quick and simple it will be billed at $45 (reset password, plug in cable, reseat ram, etc) but we are 1 hour minimum 95% of the time.

And it is hard to quote people prices since half of our components (hard drives, ram, motherboards, cpu, etc) are not marked and I have to get a price from my boss and it changes every time. I give estimates based on current price and then add what I think is close enough to our markup and give them a range, like a DC jack for a laptop, well could be $10-$20, or keyboard, $20-$40, or motherboard $100-$200.

/rant Sorry.

 

[PCX]

Hourly on-site, be it residential or business and flat rate in-shop.

 

[jamston]

What would the UK techs advise on an hourly rate for business customers then? Having read this thread i think I'm going to change my flat, but higher, rate for business to an hourly rate and also start charging hourly on on site residential, currently I just charge slightly more. At present I don't have any regular business users so i should be able to change with no hassle.

Edit, this also got me thinking, rhetorical question maybe, but why do firms charge more to businesses for some things, yet plenty of other things businesses give business to business discount?