The words "Free" and "No charge"

[jmatt]

We offered "free virus scans" via a voucher book a few years back, ... most people expected not only a free virus scan but also wanted us to clean out dust, check it all over and look for other problems "while its there for the free scan"

Hmm, an enlightening anecdote. I think you've convinced me.

I've been in businesses before where people treat you like you're some kind of free 800-number information service. It's not a can of worms I want to open again.

I'll find a way to convey that we don't charge for housecalls but I'll avoid anything that could be misconstrued as "free service".

Thanks for the story!

 

[SprinterTech-WI]

How about "No trip fee for in-home service!" I know it's a little longer, BUT it will convey that there is no travel charge..... which should always be broken down anyways on a bill... idk just an idea!
We do free pickup/delivery within 20 miles... but bench rates are all flat fees ($50/hr base), and onsite is $75/hr.

 

[jdpetrov]

For my in-home service, I advertise as "no driving fee within 30 miles". Sets two expectations: 1) within 30 miles you pay the hourly rate once we show up, not before and 2) beyond 30 miles you're going to pay extra.

I'd be careful with "free" but rather use "included". Free tends to mean cheap(er), plus the "free" word attracts people who expect all of your services to be "free".

"Included" on the other hand builds value, and gives the customer a sense that they're receiving a lot of value for what they're paying.

 

[JonnyRT]

Customers like certainty and I think that offering 'Free Housecalls' or anything similar is going to create uncertainty, which is going to stop people calling you.

If you want to stick with this angle my suggestion would be 'Fixed Onsite At No Extra Charge'.

 

[jmatt]

Customers like certainty and I think that offering 'Free Housecalls' or anything similar is going to create uncertainty, which is going to stop people calling you.

If you want to stick with this angle my suggestion would be 'Fixed Onsite At No Extra Charge'.

The problem is that it's not a simple question of the wording, I know how to be clear. The issue is that this concept needs to be expressed in less than 24 inches of width in letters large enough to be read at 100 feet. That gives me about 15 to 18 characters to work with.

I went driving around yesterday looking at other businesses roadside placards and one immediate mistake I saw was too much data in too little space. If it can't be easily read from 100 feet, it might as well not be on the sign.

I'm almost back to thinking that "Free Housecalls" will generate a phone call, one I answer thusly: "Yes, free housecalls means we don't charge extra to service your computer in your home. If you call the Geek Squad, they'll charge you $100 just to drive to your house. But we'll save you the hassle of the drive and hooking everything back up at no additional charge. Now, what seems to be the problem with your computer?"

 

[Mr.Mike]

Maybe: "No Fees in Home", or "No Onsite Fees"?

 

[parker.casey]

My new company's angle is that we will not charge a fee for housecalls. When time consuming scans take place, we will do remote access, of course, but someone will always make a trip to the house to finish up, clean the machine and collect payment.

Anyway, part of my marketing campaign will include roadside placards with the words "No Charge Housecalls". Space is limited and brevity is key when people are driving past at 30 miles an hour, so I worded it that simply.

My wife, who is a professional PR director and has been around marketing for 20 years, says that I will get calls from people expecting completely free service. I told her that's nuts, people will understand that it means no additional charge for housecalls -- who would be so moronic as to think there's a company out there just doing work for free?

If I rework the lettering I can fit in "Housecalls No Extra Charge" but then the final word Charge is on the next line and shares space with other ad copy ("Low Rates", with a dash separating charge and Low).

Dare I use the words "Free Housecalls"? Every marketing guide in the world says nothing catches the eye like the word "free".

I think she's being ridiculous. Your opinion?

"No call-out fee", perhaps? And I think your wife is correct.

 

[PCX]

Ask Your Self A Couple Questions

What kind of customers do you want? Do you want good paying customers who understand quality and are willing to pay you what you are worth or would you rather do a whole lot of work for very little pay?

The word Free and Cheap does attract customers, however, in most cases, it attracts the wrong customers. Those customers by in large usually end up being those who do not understand quality, nor do they understand that you get what you pay for. They are the same customers who want the whole world for nothing and will always ask the questions "while your doing that, could you also do this? and they will rarely be satisfied.

If you do decide to go this route, then you need to be very clear what "free" really means. From my experience, by in large, people are dumb. No really they are, especially the type of people that the word "free" will attract.

Also, your angle should never never never be how "cheap" you are. Again, this sends the wrong message and attracts the wrong customers.

I understand the advantage of being cheaper than the competition when you first start out. You must create some momentum, build your customer base, and the cut off your bottom %10 percent when able. But, if you already have a good income, then going the cheap or free route is not necessary, in fact, its not very wise. Your best bet is to immediately price your self out of the lower end market and charge somewhere around the average rate for repairs. By doing this, you will get paid closer to what you are worth and avoid bad customers. Eventually you will be able to raise your prices and really get paid what your worth. This is sometimes a slower process when building a business, but it only to me 1.5 years to become one of the top shops in our area. Not only have we done well, but I can count on one hand how many bad customers we have had in the last few years.

Finally, the importance of avoiding bad customers. Every thing I have been suggesting has been in the name of avoiding bad customers, here is why. Good customers are typically friends with people who are like themselves, if you make them happy, they will refer their friends and you will get more good customers. If you don't make them happy, then kiss those other potential good customers away. However, just as good customers have good customer friends, the same is true for bad customers. Cheap people typically have friends who are also like minded. If you make them happy, then they will tell all their other cheap/bad customer friends to come to you because you will "hook them up" but if you don't make them happy, then they tell those same friends not to come to you. HOWEVER, if you avoid bad customers altogether (obviously you will still have some) then you can just concentrate your efforts in winning over your good customers as well as their support and referrals.

In short, successful businesses charge what they are worth and target the market they want to work with. If you want bad customers, fine, thats your choice, but if you want a strong healthy company, then do it right from the beginning.

 

[jmatt]

"No call-out fee", perhaps? And I think your wife is correct.

I don't even know what a call-out fee is, I doubt my customers will.

Anyway, I guess we're gonna find out. I ordered the signs yesterday:

Valley Computer
------------------
Same Day Service
Free Housecalls

Phone number
Web address

The two selling points and phone number have letters 3" tall, company name and address slightly smaller. Yellow and white letters on a black background. Some will go up on telephone polls, some will be planted with wire sign holders. I won't leave any sign in place for more than a week or two, to minimize the roadside spam effect.

In the end, I decided that an advertisement should be an advertisement, something that initiates a conversation. And every marketing guide on planet earth says nothing attracts the eye and prospect attention like the word free.

At one point I was considering "Low rates" as a selling point but I decided I didn't want price to be the reason they call. Sales 101. Everyone will eventually ask, but I don't want it to the first thing they ask.

The few people who are silly enough to believe that there's a company out there giving away free computer repair: "Here's the phone number for Geek Squad, call them up and ask how much they charge for someone to come to your house. You might also want to google the words Geek Squad Review to see how happy their customers are."

"When you're done, call me back. We can fix your machine today and there's no charge for the housecall."

We shall see. Everything goes live around March 1st.

 

[PCX]

If you do use the word "free" its often better paired with something like "free with . . . "

Again, be very clear what exactly is free. You also do not want to waste a whole lot of time on the phone either if you can avoid it. There is a balance, you just have to find it.

 

[jmatt]

They are the same customers who want the whole world for nothing and will always ask the questions "while your doing that, could you also do this? and they will rarely be satisfied. ... Also, your angle should never never never be how "cheap" you are.

Thanks for the advice. I have no intention of being the bargain basement service company, that's why I tossed "Low rates" off the sign.

I also have no intention of working for free. Anyone who asks "could you just do this too..." will incur the hourly charge on his invoice. "That usually takes an hour, shall I add it to the work order?"

As I mentioned earlier, I've spent the last ten years in sales, five of them in the mortgage industry where people shopped and shopped and shopped the loan rate, then asked you to spend a month doing the processing and in the end, gave the business to their local bank. Never again.

As an aside, when you're looking for a loan, don't shop for rate, shop for integrity. Because if you shop for the lowest rate, all you'll find is the biggest liar. What the guy tells you on the phone is in no way connected to the numbers that will be on the paperwork when you walk in for your closing. I starved for those 5 years because I refused to lie to people. Thanks everyone for letting your greed eclipse your common sense.

 

[PCX]

The same goes for the computer repair industry.

The problem with being cheap, is that its harder to be honest and do things right, simply because you did not allow your self enough room to do so. The temptation to cut corners or do something dishonest is much higher when you do not charge enough to justify good quality work.

I personally refuse to do things incorrectly or dishonestly and for that, I will charge what is necessary for me to continue running my business in this manner. It is always better to go home having done less work for more money and knowing that you were able to do the job right without sacrificing your integrity.

 

[RockIT Man]

You could say "We come to you for FREE."

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Does the average person automatically assume there are additional fees for a house visit? I am not sure they do. So putting free on there doesnt sound like a good idea to me.

 

[jmatt]

My latest sign...

I wanted to update this thread. My first post was in Feb '12 but I didn't really open the doors until 6/16/12; so I've been open for about 13 months now.

Here was my first bandit sign:

Then I developed my mascot and logo and the sign changed to reflect that. My robot mascot pervades all of our marketing materials, eeeeeeverybody remembers the robot.

Oh, and in all of the hundreds of housecalls we've done, not one single person has asked me if the repair was free. And I tout free housecalls on the website as well.

Here's my latest sign, I'm kinda proud of it.

It is 48 feet wide and 14 feet tall; lit at night. It's on the most heavily trafficked highway in our area. And yes, this being PA I had to wade into a cornfield for the photo. lol

Monthly cost $5,000. (although I cut a waaaay better deal with the agency...)

Anybody who still thinks I'm trolling the board, please raise your hand. lol

 

[TenYardFight]

Nice job jmatt. Look forward to you posting more. I think you're a good marketer. I missed where you were called a troll, but I have a knack for avoiding threads like that

 

[jmatt]

Nice job jmatt. Look forward to you posting more. I think you're a good marketer. I missed where you were called a troll, but I have a knack for avoiding threads like that

Somebody speculated as such in a tag which appears at the bottom of the thread. Not sure why, I was answering in earnest throughout.

Anyway, back in February I started marketing the company in two fashions: Valley Computer Service for residential clients and Valley Network Solutions for commercial.

We picked up a handful of decent corporate clients along the way, that's what's paying for the billboard. The plan is to now bombard every house and business in the immediate vicinity of the sign with EDDM mailers. And in a month when the sign moves to a new location, I will redirect the mailers.

I'd like to share with the board just how I was able to do this since I could never afford five grand a month for it (other spots I can get into are $7500). Perhaps you can make a similar arrangement.

I had been playing footsie with this billboard company for awhile, trying to find a way into the "big time", as it were. (it remains to be seen if it will pay off)

They were suggesting much smaller billboards (they call them posters) on secondary roads in the area. Posters are like 20 feet wide and 10 feet tall and on roads with much lower traffic volume.

So one day I showed up at their office and said I noticed that some of these premiere, large billboards stayed blank for periods of time. They said it was usual for there to be some downtime on signs as they waited for the next big client to sign up.

I offered a deal: If they would give me a big discount, I would agree to take whatever spot happened to be empty at the moment in my area. They said $2800 a month, I said how about $2500. Deal signed. This is essentially free money for them, the boards would be blank otherwise.

Some of the particulars I negotiated:

I can get out of the contract at any time with 30 days notice. They can't.

I had them print two signs, one targeted toward commercial clients, one toward residential. A one time fee of $1300 for them to produce both signs.

Whenever I want during a given month, they will send out a crew to swap the signs (they have different verbiage and slightly different graphics). In that way, with one rental I can market to commercial and residential clients. No fee to change the sign.

I figure that once the sign has been up in a location for a few weeks, every commercial eyeball in the area will have seen it, so why not entertain bored commuters with a different message and target the other market?

Most of the signs this size (there are no larger) are occupied by billion dollar hospitals, GEICO, malls, etc. This makes me seem much bigger than my company really is.

The billboard has been up for 5 days. It's generated some attention in ways I didn't expect. My first call was from another IT company north of here, said they hate doing workstation builds and would I be interested in building boxes for their military clients.

The second was an email from a salesman at another, much larger IT company in the area. Said he saw the sign and is interested in breaking away and starting to build a sales team with another "aggressive" company in the area. He's been with them for 8 years and will bring his rolo-dex.

No idea if either opportunity will work out but I'm happy so far.

 

[mtech88]

Nice tag line. Great to see someone take a plunge and have it pay off. Love to hear more about how this works out for you.

 

[jmatt]

Nice tag line.

Their marketing guy had a totally different idea, it was a gag about somebody "hanging around" for IT support. While funny, it also has certain negative connotations I thought might upset viewers. The original didn't have the laptop, I suggested it was needed so people immediately recognized it had something to do with computers.

I didn't like it. I don't need a sight gag to capture the eye, the dopey robot is enough. I don't want any other "graphical ideas" between my viewer and my ad. I just want to push my "brand" and the robot is the embodiment of it. I also pointed out that people who hang themselves have toes that are equidistant from the floor; his kinda look like somebody jumping into the air or something; it confused me upon first glance.

I am a huge comic book fan (and collector). I know the human brain is wired to remember faces, which is why I developed the robot in the first place. He's like the GEICO gekko or Mr. Clean or the M&M's. People remember characters. It's in our DNA.

So I sat down one night and just wrote 30 different tag lines and presented them to the artist at the next meeting. The one on the sign was the last one I wrote and he agreed it was a great combination that left my mascot as the sole focus of the ad.

I then went off and secured the "ilovetherobot.com" domain, which leads viewers to a splash page where they can choose commercial or residential services. That way, I can have the same website reference on both signs.

 

[codegreen]

Things seem to be going well for you so far! Nice work on the billboard negotiation; I'll keep my eyes open for a similar opportunity. Also, good call on your ad. I think the "hanging around" idea is really bad. Personally, I hate suicide jokes (hits too close to home for me), and I know there are many people that feel the same way. I really like your "lovable robot" idea, and I think you're building a very positive image with it.

Here's hoping those opportunities work out for you!