"Quick Decisions" "Quick Bids" No Way!

[Big G]

Yesterday, we come home from mowing and check the answering machine. Potential client says "my name is____, my number is ___ & I need a price on lawn service." The message was left at 515pm.

I call them back at 630pm same day. He says "Oh, thanks but I already got someone." I said "didn't you just call 1 hour ago?" He says "yes, but someone already called & they will be out to cut tommorrow"

Seems to me that the guy that is going to be cutting this property called the client and the client said "how much?" and the lawn guy says "$25 I'll be there tomorrow" "oh yea, what's your address?"

Give me a break! I measure EVERY lawn before I give my price. That is the only fair way for both contractor and client. Talk about SCRUBS! I only hope this guy calls me back in a few weeks and I get the opportunity to charge a bit more than I would have otherwise. I keep records of all calls, especially the ones that get the neighbor boy to do it after they find out what a professional lawn service costs.

Thanks, needed to vent.
:mad:

[TGCummings]

Big G,

Happens to me all the time in this area, and there are two sides to me on this:

Side One says who would want these kinds of customers? They're quick to make decisions and you could be out just as quickly as you are in.

Side Two says these are the people who are looking for the first bid, instead of the low bid. Getting there first might mean getting any price you want.

However, in a situation like this there's just no win for you. This type of customer was looking for the first guy who said he'd be there the next day, and didn't care less about price or quality. He bought it 'sight unseen'.

[Brickman]

I agree with Cummings. I too have had a ton of this sort of thing. Any more it doesn't bother me, I have enough work to do. When I first started this biz I hated having this happen.

I have caller ID on my phone. This spring only about 1/3 of the callers are leaving a message. The rest just hang up. There again, if they didn't want to leave a message, I didn't want to talk to them. I have enough work without them.

[proline32]

Yea, I was getting that all the time, someone calls, 40 minutes later I call back and they allready have someone! I'm sorry folks but I;m just to busy to drop doing a regular customers job to come look at your place right now. I put a message on my voice mail that monthly lawn service starts at $125 for small yards and larger yards cost more based on the sq footage of the yard. This has helped to weed out the cheapskates. I am getting fewer messages due to this, but at least the ones that leave a message are knowing what it may cost and are still looking for a bid.

[gogetter]

Keep in mind that things may not have happened the way you layed it out in your scenario.
It's possible that the other guy had his cell phone in his ad or call forwarding to his cell phone. And perhaps he was nearby when he received the call, ran over and gave an estimate after looking at the yard.

I'd suggest call forwarding.