Charging a fee for a quote

derwoodii

A surprise the other day. Customer says a tree contractor he called visited and gave advice/quote upon the removal or trimming of a large back yard tree.
Tree guy gives him a verbal quote that was about double cost than others for removal then hits home owner for $65 costs for quote.
This quote fee was not explained in the initial phone call the home owner was understandably displeased.
I reckon must of worked as a lawyer or in the banking system.
Yer sure I wasted tons of time with clients but never had the nuts to touch em up a fee for just standing in a back yard.

KevinE

All my verbal quotes are free, but I've had a few nasty experiences where some smart arse wants a written quote which they then use to squeeze a better price out of the next guy who quotes the job. So now I charge $75 for a written quote, which is fully refundable if I am engaged to do the quoted work. Not surprisingly, I now deal with less smart arses than I used too. End result; I'm still turning over the same amount of $$$ with less time quoting jobs I was never going to get.

derwoodii

Good business sense. I kinda wonder now if thats what was going on & the chap failed to tell me the full details.

TrevMcRev

I dont think there is anything wrong with charging for quotes as long as you are up front about it. They might be free to the customer, but cost a lot more than most realise to provide them.

They grey area is where a quote should really have been a consult...

We try to carefully qualify the nature of the enquiry to establish if it is genuinely a quote or if they are really just fishing for an assessment and advice. About 1 in 5 appointments will be consults.

The conundrum then is how much knowledge are you willing to give away for free. It's not so bad if your assesment and advice leads towards recommending work that you will quote on. In that case your good advice can also be your sales gold, giving you a better chance at conversion over competing quotes that couldn't/didn't give advice.

But what if your true assesment and advice was to do little, or nothing, or something they could do themselves, like mulch & water?

Where is your integrity around being either an arborist or a business/salesman?

Are you willing to waste your time & costs of a free quote to tell them there tree is just fine as is?

Or do you create a sales opportunity by talking them into uneccesary work that is not truly beneficial to the tree, to put $$$ in your pocket?

If we can uncover in the phone call that what they really need is advice then that is a consult. That fee might save them $1100 worth of un-needed treework. Good value i reckon.

If the consult results in us quoting recommended works, then the fee can be credited towards the work. But it helps to keep the advice unbiased & objective knowing that our time is covered either way.

KevinE

You're correct Trev, it really is a conundrum! My problem is that I keeping getting caught by someone looking for free advice, which they then use to do the job themselves, or use someone cheaper. They don't even think they're doing anything wrong when they call you out to get your ideas & never had any intention of using your services. I'm a bit too trusting, but I'm learning! I had one recently call me regarding a hedge in poor health along her fence "can you come & tell me what's wrong with it & how I can fix it?" Now, that's a dead set consult! But not to her! She didn't want me to fix it, only to tell her how to fix it, so why should she pay me! (never mind that I would have to drive out there at my expense & in my time)

What I've decided is; if they know what they want, it's a quote. If they want advice on what to do, it's a consult. If they want hard copy plans of the project, that's $220, refundable in full if the project goes ahead with me doing the work.

I know that quoting & consulting cross over quite often, but I think those are usually genuine people who think they know what they want done until you tell them why they should do it another way.

Eric Frei

And they'll listen to advice from any old unqualified tree lopper fool too!

Ever found yourself having to argue with a tree lopper primed expert? "Oh, you're the only one that says taking the top off is no good."

This is right on the money.
Just last week I fell for it, yeah I cop it all the time too. "Hi, my trees aren't looking the best and I need a quote on what has to be done, can you come and have a look and give me a quote?" Then you get there and discover the interrogation.

In addition I checked the trees (for free) on this one then told me how the last tree lopper didn't mention or notice any of that.

So now the client is fully informed, but can price shop for the work.

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Drouin Tree Service

Ive got a bit cold with it all,"what do you want done to YOUR trees"If it rediculous ill get back to them maybe in a year or two

"Fax me a quote"(not likely) I always ask what they are looking to have done before i go driving all over the country side.

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Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

Garry Brockley

Ah yes well it was heaving down with rain on friday and went to a quote turned out to be 350 sq m of 1.5 m high bamboo on a hill side and he wanted it totally removing roots an all doh!!! you need an excavator driver not an arb thanks!

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KevinE

I did one of those in January! I'm a gardener/landscaper, so for me it was all good, but why on earth would they call an Arborist to do that? Mine was a backyard full of golden bamboo ("I planted it to screen off the fence" she says) It was all through the lawn & coming up through the pavers in the footpath & patio.

Best way to deal with it is to use a chainsaw to cut it off near ground level & have a 2nd body standing nearby with straight glypho, which they pour into the cut as soon as you've cut it. Gravity pulls the glypho down into the rhizomes with the sap as it falls. It's not 100% effective, but if you keep at it, you'll win! Whatever you do, don't try digging the crap out until it's dead. Each piece of rhizome you leave behind becomes a new bamboo plant

I told my customer that, so there's another consult lol!