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Q: Does flat rate pricing really work and will my customers really like it? A: Yes and yes. It can make you more money for a lot of reasons and it can give you happier customers and employees.Q: Can changing to flat rate pricing solve my business problems? A: It cannot fix all your problems if you have a poorly run business. See all of our training products to help you in the many other areas of your business.Q: How often do you update your flat rate pricing information? A: When you buy from us, you will receive the most up to date information available because we manufacture the CD’s “in house” in our state of the art production facility, and your CD is produced the day you order it. We update our master copies throughout the year to always ensure up-to-date and accurate information is achieved.Q: Prices on parts on constantly changing, especially going up in price, how do I handle annual parts pricing updates? A: We suggest you increase your parts prices at whatever the average inflation rate is once a year (about 3 or 4 percent a year) and reprint out your price books (takes about five minutes to do this).Q: Maybe I pay a little more or less for a part in my city than another contractor does in their city, what I do about that? A: The parts prices in the software are set at a national average. You can change them up or down to reflect your local market conditions (takes about 5 minutes to do all of them globally). You can also change a price on an individual part at any time (takes about five seconds to do).Q: Some repair jobs may take a little longer to do or a little shorter to do, what should I do about that? A: You can adjust your labor task times to reflect the worst case scenario or you can do what most contractors do, they set their prices to the average labor times to do a task (the software already has this programmed into it as a default). Remember with flat rate you can earn more money overall than using time and material but you need to realize that the very nature of flat rate pricing is that you will make a little more or less profit on all jobs, but every job will be profitable.Q: How much should I charge by the hour for my work when I enter my hourly rate into the software? A: The software comes with a default at $90 an hour and we recommend you change it to suit your company (takes less than five minutes to do). Please become educated in how much an hour you need to charge to stay in business and earn a fair profit. This hourly cost of doing business will vary greatly across the USA. There are many books and software products available that will teach you what to charge (“Know What To Charge” is one such book by Ellen Rohr).
Q: How much should you charge for the diagnostic fee?
Q: Should I increase what I charge when I go to flat rate? A: Probably. Most contractors have never been trained in how much to charge per hour, so they are currently charging ridiculously low rates. When they discover what it really cost them to run an excellent company with excellent employees, they are amazed. That is why they NEED to use flat rate pricing, so that they can stay in business! For example, a lean and mean low overhead contractor in Dallas, Texas needs to charge at least $90 an hour to make a ten percent profit. If he was using time and material pricing he could only charge the “going rate” in town, which is about $70 an hour, because customers would think he was a crook if he said he charged $90 an hour. The only way he can stay in business and not work for “peanuts” is to hide his needed $90 an hour price in the flat rate price. It is sad that things have to work this way in our society, but that is how things are. Customers are just too ignorant to realize they can’t get an excellent, highly trained technician to come to their home or business at “the going rate.”Q: How do I get my technicians to “buy into” using flat rate pricing? I don’t want any of them to quit. A: Have a meeting with them and discuss the benefits to the customer and the benefits to them by using flat rate pricing. Most technicians are willing to accept change if it benefits them and benefits the customers they serve. Realize that very few contractors in the USA will be able to compete and survive in the future unless they go to flat rate pricing. Q: What operating systems does this software work with?
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