Need input on charging for onsite labor

[pcdrpros]

I would appreciate any input/feedback on a recent situation I have encountered. I recently sold 2 workstations and 1 server to a small boutique business in my town. I told them up front that onsite labor to deliver, install, network, transfer data, etc.. is $95.00 per hour. They asked me for a ballpark on how many hours it could take and I told them 4-6 on average if there are no issues. After all was said and done and everything was installed, it ended up taking close to 10 hours due to a receipt printer issue. The receipt printer was in the process of dying and therefore that is why all the issues. The electrician who was there the day before the install was to run cat5e network cable to the back room where the server would be. When I got there the following day to do the install, I noticed there were no rj45 ends on the cable. I had put ends on cat5 cable before, but it had been a couple of years so I went ahead and tried it. I was unsuccessful and was there for 3 hours that day and did not charge but 1 hour labor just for my time. The owner got another electric company come and put the end on the cable and the next day I was able to deliver and install and setup network, etc... After all of this I sent the invoice to the owner and charged her 10 hours of labor not including the 2 from the cable incident. She was stunned because she had in her mind that it would only be around 4 hours. I told her that I had to charge the full 10 for the day of the setup and install because I had no idea that the receipt printer was in the dying stages. She ended up paying me in full. My question is How would any of you have handled the situation? Would you have not charged past the 4-6 hour average or would you charge for the exact time you were there? I am struggling with this because I don't want to lose this client for future business. Any insight would be appreciated!!!

 

[Go-To Gordon]

When I got there the following day to do the install, I noticed there were no rj45 ends on the cable. I had put ends on cat5 cable before, but it had been a couple of years so I went ahead and tried it. I was unsuccessful and was there for 3 hours that day and did not charge but 1 hour labor just for my time.

I wouldn't charge $95 for doing nothing! You are talking about just crimping the ends on? If you have a crimp tool and splicer (you should) a quick google search and you should have had it done in 5-10 mins.

As far as the rest goes I generally charge by the job not by the hour (obviously I take time into account though). And if they are good clients that I know I will get business from again I tend to make them feel as if they "got a deal" so they'll be back.

I think the thing to do would have been to let them know asap when you ran into the printer issues that you were going over your estimated hours/price.

 

[angry_geek]

Not bashing you.

You should have only charged her the 6 hours. We do all our homework up front. Full inventory of existing equipment, condition of equipment, necessary drivers, etc. Putting ends on cables is basic stuff. Get some cable and ends and a good crimper. Practice until you can do it in your sleep. A male end should take less than a minute; female with jack rapid tool, the same. Server should have been set up and ready to go before you ever left the shop. Even a server that small, we would have charged at least $500 for configuration and data transfer. On site time should have been 2 to 4 hours tops for that setup. Data transfer starts once you get there, go set up the workstations and peripherals, when done, transfer should be done. Set up remote access, get software company on the phone, leave.

Basically, you need to streamline your processes. If you want to keep her as a client, you should eat some crow and offer her 4 free hours of support. Always coordinate with the electrician about the cable, regardless of what the client says they relayed.

 

[Y.F.N.C.G.]

I normally try to talk to the client as soon as it looks like I'll be going over an estimated time for hourly work. If for what ever reason I can't get a hold of the customer then I'll tend to give the benefit of doubt to the client an not charge over the estimated maximum time, especially if they have potential to be a good repeat client.

But luckily they paid you in full, so I think you're good to go. Just strive to be more communicative next time.

 

[frederick]

When I quote someone, I make sure the quote includes what I am going to be doing. So I would have not included the receipt printer unless she wanted that fixed as well. Upon discovering a dying receipt printer, I would have asked her what she wants done with it. Sometimes replacing is better than fixing for both me and the customer. If I quote $200 for a job, I charge $200. That's were prep work comes in to place. All the bugs have been worked out, so the only I need to do is what I said I was going to do. In some aspects you were correct, but I try to never throw out a time and a price, because when things happen, you start losing money. Keep your quotes simple, and stick to the budget. Perform an after acrion review.
What went right?
What went wrong?
What can I do to make it better?
If I miss quote, I take my hits, do a review and adjust fire for next time. Keep your head, check in with her about 2 to 3 days after the install to see how all is working, and then again in about a week. Make sure everything is working properly. Also, get feedback from her. After every job, I always mail or email amy customers a satisfaction survey. If I mailed it I include a stamp. Take the feedback to heart from the customer, but don't get angry or sefensive when she says you did all wrong and cheated her, if she does say that. Just take that feedback and apply it to your after action review.

In our shop, we have a tuesday morning meeting, at 0900 every week. We go over all the customer feedback, go around the table about how things are going and what needs improvement. The employees like it, the customers are happy.

 

[lcoughey]

Unfortunately, you are at a loss, as you did extra work without getting client approval.

It is a hard lesson learned, but when going on site, you need to document exactly what you are there for and how much that will cost. If anything else comes up, you mark let them know that it is not included with the current call. You can quote them for the new work when you are done the current project at hand.

If there is prep work that they are supposed to have done before you show up on site and they don't let you know that it isn't ready, you should have provision in your quote that you will be invoicing 30-60 minutes of your time, just for showing up. Then you can assess and quote for the extra work needed.

 

[DenverCM]

I think that it's reasonable to charge over the 6 hours but maybe not the full 10. Sometimes there are unknowns and it's hard to give exact numbers. Giving a discount (and making it known on the invoice) is sometimes a great way to keep a client and get those important referrals.

I had a similar situation. The client called and wanted a new server installed to replace the existing one that was giving them problems. I offered to go on-site to assess the job (to give him a better idea of what I thought it would take to do the job and take inventory). He didn't want to pay for a service call and wanted an estimate over the phone. I did my best and told him what I thought it would take, but warned him that other issues might come. Sure enough, issues came up! The invoice was probably a 1/3 more than expected. He paid without issue, but hopefully he learned a lesson - it would've been cheaper if I assessed the job first in person.

Side question - do you guys wire directly to the server/computer? Meaning you crimp a RJ45 jack on the end of the wire an plug it straight in to the server? I always put at least a biscuit with a RJ45 keystone in and, if not, an actual punch down panel. I haven't crimped anything in years haha.

 

[altrenda]

I had a similar situation. The client called and wanted a new server installed to replace the existing one that was giving them problems. I offered to go on-site to assess the job (to give him a better idea of what I thought it would take to do the job and take inventory). He didn't want to pay for a service call and wanted an estimate over the phone.

You wanted to charge for a service call to do an assessment so you could quote a price? The customer not wanting to pay is not a surprise and neither is the cost being higherthan the quote. The surprising thing is that he gave you the job.

good on you for providing an attractive estimate to get the job.

 

[DenverCM]

You wanted to charge for a service call to do an assessment so you could quote a price? The customer not wanting to pay is not a surprise and neither is the cost being higherthan the quote. The surprising thing is that he gave you the job.

good on you for providing an attractive estimate to get the job.

Of course I would charge. You don't? It's not a five-minute visit. It's looking at all the hardware, software, printers, network, etc. Then showing them what I discovered and then coming up with a plan to implement the new server. It's called "consulting". I've been burned too many times by people who want to know what it would to take to do a job, getting as much info out of me as possible, then turning around and either doing it themselves or finding someone else to do it "cheaper". Clients don't just pay for the labor, they pay for the knowledge and know-how.

Same thing happens in contracting - people want their bathroom remodeled, get someone to quote/bid them the job (basically doing a large amount of work with drawings, ideas, pricing material, etc.) then finding an handyman to do it cheaper. Happens all the time. That's why all of my contractor clients do the same thing - charge for the bid.

You can go work for free all you want...I won't.

 

[pceinc]

This is why you always over estimate your labor for unknown issues.

You quoted $95/hr and estimated 4-6 hours. I think there is room for additional hours as it was an estimate based on the work outlined. I would not have charged for the time spent trying to terminate the ends if you did since you had trouble. I would have disclosed there was going to be additional time dealing with the printer and provided and option of replacing it which would have been cheaper for them in the long run.

 

[myPCTechs]

We always give an estimate over the phone. If we run into a snag or issue while helping our client we will let the owner know about the situation and ask if they would like us to continue.

Most of the time they say yes and are happy because there are no surprises.

I would appreciate any input/feedback on a recent situation I have encountered. I recently sold 2 workstations and 1 server to a small boutique business in my town. I told them up front that onsite labor to deliver, install, network, transfer data, etc.. is $95.00 per hour. They asked me for a ballpark on how many hours it could take and I told them 4-6 on average if there are no issues. After all was said and done and everything was installed, it ended up taking close to 10 hours due to a receipt printer issue. The receipt printer was in the process of dying and therefore that is why all the issues. The electrician who was there the day before the install was to run cat5e network cable to the back room where the server would be. When I got there the following day to do the install, I noticed there were no rj45 ends on the cable. I had put ends on cat5 cable before, but it had been a couple of years so I went ahead and tried it. I was unsuccessful and was there for 3 hours that day and did not charge but 1 hour labor just for my time. The owner got another electric company come and put the end on the cable and the next day I was able to deliver and install and setup network, etc... After all of this I sent the invoice to the owner and charged her 10 hours of labor not including the 2 from the cable incident. She was stunned because she had in her mind that it would only be around 4 hours. I told her that I had to charge the full 10 for the day of the setup and install because I had no idea that the receipt printer was in the dying stages. She ended up paying me in full. My question is How would any of you have handled the situation? Would you have not charged past the 4-6 hour average or would you charge for the exact time you were there? I am struggling with this because I don't want to lose this client for future business. Any insight would be appreciated!!!

 

[Tallgrass Computers]

In the past when I was going over the initial agreed hours I wouild just credit the hours on the invoice. It was a way to show the client I was just not there to gouge them. The clients were always happy to see the credit. I just considered it a goodwill gesture and always had repeat business.

Afterwards I would review what made me go over the estimated hours and try to learn for the next job.

 

[Ccomp5950]

Customer service is about 2 things.

Managing customer expectations.
Meeting and exceeding those expectations.

Everything else is secondary.

If you estimate 4-6 hours, stick with that unless something outside the scope of your original estimate comes up, the MOMENT it does, bring it to the customers attention, let them know about how long you expect this to add to the estimate and weather or not you plan to charge for this additional work. You won't always, for minor things that's fine, but eventually you might have a few of these small changes add up and you will simply say "let's call it even at adding another half hour shall we?" or whatever minimal increments you bill in (I do 15 minute increments after the first hour).

If I do something that requires me to research and "learn on the job" I discount that time, not to much but I wouldn't mind turning 3 hours into 1 hour billable if I learned something I might use elsewhere.

 

[Markverhyden]

If I am approached for a project I do my homework in advance. I will produce a estimate and will stick with that, for the most part, unless the customer changes the scope after work has started.

In situations like that I will "stop" things so to speak to discuss the changes in scope and the impact on the total cost. Depending on what they added I advise them of the renewed estimate based on the added scope. I don't sweat the small stuff as long as it is truly small. Things like "we want to add app XYZ to all 20 workstations" is very different from wanting to setup a drop box account.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

I think you made a mistake not going to the owner the second you saw that it was going over the 4-6 hrs.

Even on small home jobs I tell the client "we are coming up on the end of the 1st hour and if we do not finish quickly it will go to the 2nd hour." These hints help prevent any issues like you have.

As a general rule I do exactly what was quote first. If the ends were not on the cables and I did not quote doing the cabling I would not try to fix it until all my responsibilities were met and then if my time was inline I might try to help out or I would tell them what I do next is outside the scope of the bid.

Granted you cannot connect the network and finish configuration without cables installed so I would have come back.

I agree with above its about managing expectations and meeting expectations so if you mismanaged that you will be lucky to keep the client. Since she already paid you, you might just call her and tell her that you felt bad about the situation, although you charged her for your time you will give her some free time to soften the blow.

 

[kwest]

This is why I charge a flat rate for server jobs. I pad my estimated hours and if I get done quickly great if not then my hours are discounted and good. Cable not being ready I would have charged an extra 30 minutes.

For bigger jobs they have a budget so when your estimate doubles it hurts their bottom line.