Router Calibration offer

[jamston]

Hey guys, I'm thinking of trying a flyer run here in my very local vicinity. I live in the UK in a town and like many places in the UK we have some tightly packed terraced streets. I know from personal experience that the wireless signal soup that goes on can be a battle. So i am thinking of a 'get them through the door' type offer of calibrating the router to be on a clear channel for £5 or free if they have other work done. I was thinking of this wording and leaving a box to say how many other routers they conflicted with, so it gives the feel that someone has gone round and done a survey. I will do the survey as i go with a wi-fi analyser. Wording i'm playing with

'We have conducted a survey of the wireless access points around your property and we have found that there are xxx routers/devices operating on conflicting wireless channels in the vicinity of the property.

Routers which are broadcasting on the same wireless radio channel can cause interference and drop outs leading to a frustrating internet experience.

Although not always a fix all for wireless issues, being on a channel which does not conflict with your neighbours router is a step in the right direction.

As an introductory offer to the people of the community where we are based , we are offering our router calibration service for just £5 or FREE when other work is undertaken.
Call from JBIT Computers on now to arrange your visit'

What do people think? Anyone tried anything similar?

 

[Xander]

If you have to leave your doorstep to do that for £5, I think you'll be shooting yourself in the foot. If you're doing it remotely, fine.

Do you have an answer for them if they turn out to be somewhere where all the channels are in use and you've got nowhere to move them to? (Should that happen)

 

[jamston]

Its for my very immediate vicinity, walking distance, i could probably hit about 500 addresses in an afternoon/evening and I'm looking at it more as PR exercise to get my name out there and hopefully find people who want more than the router calibration.

I hadn't considered your second point, but thinking about it, in that situation i would put them on the same channel as the furthest away/weakest signal router.

 

[viperit]

Hi jamston,

I think before I tried to put my name out there I would ensure all the content on my website was finished. I've just had a quick look through and there still seems to be a lot of pages that have lorem ipsum copy.

Just a small suggestion - otherwise looks good.

Hope it goes well.

 

[jamston]

thanks for the suggestion, i hit a bit of a brick wall and stopped when the template got all messed up so i have a friend helping me on friday, after that i intend to nuke or make proper copy out of all the loren ipsum. Its catch 22, i cant afford to pay someone to help me with it, so i have to wait, but i cant get more clients via the site that might give me the money to get someone to help. I appreciate the input

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Be prepared to say who you are, where your shop is located...so that they can see/verify that.

IMO..."door to door" sales stuff like that...legit stuff disappeared years ago, now it's all about scams...and people are VERY wary of that.

 

[rjframe]

IMO..."door to door" sales stuff like that...legit stuff disappeared years ago, now it's all about scams...and people are VERY wary of that.

Especially when they offer to do something for free or a ridiculously low price.

If you do this, be honest and let them know you're just starting up. When somebody comes to my door claiming to be an established/successful business, my first thought is "if you were successful you wouldn't be here." You might have little or no immediate response from this, but if you can get business cards out there, you may get calls in the future. But no one will let you in the house unless they trust you.

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

Router calibration will just get you blank expression from home clients (looking at our post i see that your target market.)

out of the 1000s of WIFI jobs we have done home users will be the least worried if it not on best channel. simple fact all they care about is if it works or not.

If you just strarting out the very last thing you want to be known for is that IT guy who does WIFI stuff for a fiver. ( i know that not what you offering but i can bet you will get asked to do full WIFI installs for a fiver because of your offer, remember to always advertize so the lowest common denominator in intelligence can understand and TBH non techs will have no idea what router calibration is, i will go asfar as to say EVERY tech in here had a double check at your post title until they read that you were conducting a wifi channel mini site survey).

 

[Xander]

What YOSC and rjframe said made me think of one more thing -- how will they know you've done anything? To the Average Joe, this sounds like putting "blinker fluid" in your car. Will you be able to quantify what you've done? "There! Now that you're on channel 3, your wireless is 15% faster without the interference."

And at that price, even me knowing what you're offering, once you're in the house is, the next thing I'd be braced for is "Have you met Jesus?"

 

[ElementalWindX]

I don't see this working too well for home users.

Especially when you go into their home and you get to the point of "Oh what is your router's password so I can make these changes?" and they look at you with a blank stare and go "whatttt? I don't have a password"

Then your there to reset their router which might have firewall ports opened for their kids to play their xbox, and you don't realize it and so you change your channel and maybe setup the same ssid and maybe the same encryption key, but you get home and they are cursing your name because the firewall ports you never knew about are not mapped and their son is screaming at them. Of course they won't remember "Hey I paid a guy two years ago to open these ports for my son" so of course most people probably wont remember to tell you of this either.

oh and say you forget to use the same ssid, or they don't know their encryption key so you set it up with a new encryption key and all their computers/ipads/playstations/xboxs/phones whatever all have to be re-setup to use that "new" wireless network.

That's a lot of time and money out the door to do such a simple task.

Just one scenario I see taking this in a bad direction.

 

[pc-quebec]

Don't know if it's my poor English, but router calibration ?

For me a calibration is for a weight scale, an oscilloscope.

 

[ElementalWindX]

Don't know if it's my poor English, but router calibration ?

For me a calibration is for a weight scale, an oscilloscope.

in English or at least to me calibration just means generally "change".

 

[jamston]

Especially when they offer to do something for free or a ridiculously low price.

If you do this, be honest and let them know you're just starting up. When somebody comes to my door claiming to be an established/successful business, my first thought is "if you were successful you wouldn't be here." You might have little or no immediate response from this, but if you can get business cards out there, you may get calls in the future. But no one will let you in the house unless they trust you.

I had originally planned the ad to read something along the lines of a 'Introductory offer for our neighbours' and as I said earlier it is a get myself out there/foot in the door type exercise because its so cheap and I need cheap right now!

out of the 1000s of WIFI jobs we have done home users will be the least worried if it not on best channel. simple fact all they care about is if it works or not.

If you just strarting out the very last thing you want to be known for is that IT guy who does WIFI stuff for a fiver. ( i know that not what you offering but i can bet you will get asked to do full WIFI installs for a fiver because of your offer, remember to always advertize so the lowest common denominator in intelligence can understand and TBH non techs will have no idea what router calibration is, i will go asfar as to say EVERY tech in here had a double check at your post title until they read that you were conducting a wifi channel mini site survey).

Good points, from your perspective, would you scrap the whole idea or tweak it slightly?

What YOSC and rjframe said made me think of one more thing -- how will they know you've done anything? To the Average Joe, this sounds like putting "blinker fluid" in your car. Will you be able to quantify what you've done? "There! Now that you're on channel 3, your wireless is 15% faster without the interference."

And at that price, even me knowing what you're offering, once you're in the house is, the next thing I'd be braced for is "Have you met Jesus?"

Hahahahaha thankfully I lost religion a long time ago, but i see your point about quantification, even if i could show an increase in wireless speeds, its probably going to be pretty negligible, this was where i would offer my other service to find the real source of their patchy slow net. But again, trying to sell someone something they cant see the benefit in is kind of the art of sales. I have taken your point on board though, thank you.

I don't see this working too well for home users.

Especially when you go into their home and you get to the point of "Oh what is your router's password so I can make these changes?" and they look at you with a blank stare and go "whatttt? I don't have a password"

Ok sir that's fine, if you can just show me where the router is, those details are usually printed on the side or the bottom of it, if not, I have a database on my phone of all the common router manufacturers and their default logins and passwords and if its not there we can always google what routers or setups other customers with your ISP use.

Then your there to reset their router which might have firewall ports opened for their kids to play their xbox, and you don't realize it and so you change your channel and maybe setup the same ssid and maybe the same encryption key, but you get home and they are cursing your name because the firewall ports you never knew about are not mapped and their son is screaming at them. Of course they won't remember "Hey I paid a guy two years ago to open these ports for my son" so of course most people probably wont remember to tell you of this either.

oh and say you forget to use the same ssid, or they don't know their encryption key so you set it up with a new encryption key and all their computers/ipads/playstations/xboxs/phones whatever all have to be re-setup to use that "new" wireless network.

That's a lot of time and money out the door to do such a simple task.

Just one scenario I see taking this in a bad direction.

I know from making the mistake on my own router many years ago, never reset without copying settings, although i think in the hypothetical you are imagining, i wouldnt be able to get into the router to check the settings, It would be at this point i would say, 'this is beyond the scope of our offer, I would be able to complete the task, but it will take longer and as it is not a simple channel swap i will have to charge you £10' As long as i know what the situation is there shouldnt be any nasty surprises. Plus if there is any little snags like that, theres always remote.

I also think you're giving home users a bad rap, I have ones who seem very un-savvy and some who are just not as sharp as others generally and i think all of them understand now that their network has a name and a password, these things changing is in most people realm of understanding and if i explained that changing passwords regularly is also good for security then i think it would all be fine.

You have all raised some good points, personally i think i'm going to have to tweak it somehow, because at the moment this is the only source of cheap advertising i can do, so any positive suggestions?

 

[ElementalWindX]

I had originally planned the ad to read something along the lines of a 'Introductory offer for our neighbours' and as I said earlier it is a get myself out there/foot in the door type exercise because its so cheap and I need cheap right now!



Good points, from your perspective, would you scrap the whole idea or tweak it slightly?



Hahahahaha thankfully I lost religion a long time ago, but i see your point about quantification, even if i could show an increase in wireless speeds, its probably going to be pretty negligible, this was where i would offer my other service to find the real source of their patchy slow net. But again, trying to sell someone something they cant see the benefit in is kind of the art of sales. I have taken your point on board though, thank you.



Ok sir that's fine, if you can just show me where the router is, those details are usually printed on the side or the bottom of it, if not, I have a database on my phone of all the common router manufacturers and their default logins and passwords and if its not there we can always google what routers or setups other customers with your ISP use.




I know from making the mistake on my own router many years ago, never reset without copying settings, although i think in the hypothetical you are imagining, i wouldnt be able to get into the router to check the settings, It would be at this point i would say, 'this is beyond the scope of our offer, I would be able to complete the task, but it will take longer and as it is not a simple channel swap i will have to charge you £10' As long as i know what the situation is there shouldnt be any nasty surprises. Plus if there is any little snags like that, theres always remote.

I also think you're giving home users a bad rap, I have ones who seem very un-savvy and some who are just not as sharp as others generally and i think all of them understand now that their network has a name and a password, these things changing is in most people realm of understanding and if i explained that changing passwords regularly is also good for security then i think it would all be fine.

You have all raised some good points, personally i think i'm going to have to tweak it somehow, because at the moment this is the only source of cheap advertising i can do, so any positive suggestions?

You forget I am in America, where the majority of sheeple are stupid haha jk

I want to say I get that response on 8 out of 10 people I encounter when I have to do anything with their router.

I'm lucky if when I approach a business customer too that if they have any of their passwords written down, or even some form of what would be called a network diagram of where all their computers connect to.


Last month I had a lady pay me to hack her Windows 2008 server just to get the admin password back because she did not have it written down, could not remember it, and was afraid if she ever turned her server off she would never be able to turn it back on again and would lose all her files. (She has an exchange server too!) X_X lol Good thing it only takes like 10-20min to change the admin password even if you don't know it



I have offered to simply do completely free work just to gain a business owners trust.

I've given out as much as 5 hours of labor to a guy who owned a business one time, and today he has netted me over $50,000 net profit in the few years I have known him.


I know the biggest and best way to get in someones business is to always be in their face. Not the annoying nuisance kind of way, but find ways they would like to see you kind of way.

Attend networking events
Have their friends mention your name in front of your prospect
Come by once a month and drop off a card and some free pens or something just to let them know that you are here. It's longevity and consistency that counts. If they see you are here to stay and you are a stable person, they will tend to like you more.

 

[rjframe]

I had originally planned the ad to read something along the lines of a 'Introductory offer for our neighbours' and as I said earlier it is a get myself out there/foot in the door type exercise because its so cheap and I need cheap right now!

I understand your thinking; I did the same sort of thing. When I needed to charge $200, I would often discount it to $160 or so to avoid losing the sale altogether. Better to quote low and make $15 than quote high and make nothing, right?

Speaking from experience, this will ultimately destroy your business. Charge what you're worth. If a client isn't willing to pay that, let them leave.

You have all raised some good points, personally i think i'm going to have to tweak it somehow, because at the moment this is the only source of cheap advertising i can do, so any positive suggestions?

What do you charge for a tune-up? Offer a 20% (or maybe even 50%) discount if they call by the end of the month (or end of next month). If you're charging well to begin, you'll still make decent money, and get your name out there. You'll be there for more than 2 minutes so people will feel they know you a little, and as long as you have decent people skills, they might even remember they like you when they have a problem. Hand out 2-3 business cards to each client -- one for them and one or two for referrals.

Look for problems during the tune-up that you can upsell. If they let you fix it right away, it also gets the x% off discount. Otherwise, just kindly remind them the problem still exists as you're leaving. If they call you later charge full price for the repair.

Two weeks or so after a service call, call/email/mail them so they remember you. I prefer mail; it allows me to add a couple more business cards and any coupons/offers I'm running, but it isn't as cheap.

 

[Rosco]

find a deal were you can make more money. 5 bucks per job?!?! I didnt open my own business to work myself to the bone AND make little to no money..You might as well advertise on fiverr.com.

The type of customers that this would attract is the customers you want to stay away from. I learned the hard way that not every job is worth the money.

Maybe you could do 1/2 price for the first hour of onsite work or flat rate virus removal

you would still make a lot more than 5 buck calibration.

 

[jamston]

I currently charge £45 for an onsite tune-up and £30 for me to take it and do it in the workshop. How about adding something at the bottom of the ad or somewhere, about free router calibration with every in home service?

 

[rjframe]

That would work. But when I think "router calibration" I think network setup (actually making sure the devices connect properly). If all you're wanting to do for this is change the broadcasting channel, you may want to consider calling it something like "wireless network optimization" otherwise you'll have people wanting you to set up their networks for free. No matter what you call it, no one else is likely advertising it (or even thinking of it unless they're troubleshooting a problem) so you get a bit of differentiation.

 

[Xander]

I currently charge £45 for an onsite tune-up and £30 for me to take it and do it in the workshop. How about adding something at the bottom of the ad or somewhere, about free router calibration with every in home service?

YES! Focus on the "value added" over what you could be basically giving away.
"With every in-home service, I will maximize the efficiency of your wireless network and minimize the interference affecting it from other sources."

 

[ElementalWindX]

find a deal were you can make more money. 5 bucks per job?!?! I didnt open my own business to work myself to the bone AND make little to no money..You might as well advertise on fiverr.com.

The type of customers that this would attract is the customers you want to stay away from. I learned the hard way that not every job is worth the money.

Maybe you could do 1/2 price for the first hour of onsite work or flat rate virus removal

you would still make a lot more than 5 buck calibration.

I believe his currency is euros? or pounds? either way its not dollars, so if you do the exchange rate, his 5 might equal $100 American lol /sarcasm.


One thing I can attest to is I use to charge $50/hr when I pulled this business out of the ground from the previous owner and I was attracting all sorts of nasty people. Lots of hoarders even. I slowly changed my rate to $60/hr and noticed less and less as I increased my rate higher to the point that I get no more nasty people and only people that I love to work for. Now I charge anywhere from $80-$150