So, when was the last time you increased your service prices?
Your cost to run your company goes up – your insurance, vehicle costs, equipment and supply costs and so on. The question might not be should you but how should you increase your prices. Is it a tacked-on amount added to each bill of say $20 or a cost per foot or some other way? Let’s say you do 3 jobs per day x $20 = $60 per day, as an example. This amount may not seem like much but let’s now times that by 20 days of work, give or take per month, and that $20 per job just became $1200 per month!
Maybe your scale is larger, but no matter what size arena you’re playing in, you should consider how to get your profits back as our economy is eating away at it.
When Bonnet Pro started offering our $7 per case shipping program years ago, a 38-pound case going from Pennsylvania to California was about $28 dollars. Now I’m seeing shipping costs for 1 case as high as $50 to the East Coast. As much as I hate to increase my flat rate shipping, I now have to if I want to survive. It’s now the world we live in as the economy seems to reset costs, and so must you.
I think this is hardest for the newer company as they are afraid to lose customers. I get that, so add in a value-added service, something small that does not cost you much time but says to your customer that you care about them and that you are their best choice for the service you provide. Remove a spot on a step or chair. This might take you literally a minute or two but says to your customer “this guy is the best to work with and I don’t mind paying a little more for his great service.”
Be creative, but increase your bottom line.
