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I charged a flat fee for a bed bug job in Austin and lost $800, now I bid by the hour
Last month a family in Austin called me for bed bugs in a 3 bedroom house, and I quoted them my old flat rate of $1,200 like I had done for 6 years. The job took 19 hours across 4 visits because the infestation was way worse than the phone call made it sound, and I ended up spending almost $400 just on gas and chemicals. My buddy who runs a shop in Round Rock asked why I was still pricing like it was 2018, and honestly I did not have a good answer. Now I charge $95 an hour plus materials, and my last 3 jobs came out at $1,450, $2,100, and $1,650. Any other small shop owners here switch from flat rate to hourly, and did you lose customers over it?
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charles_kelly439d ago
Man, I felt that $800 loss in my soul. I did the same thing for years, quoted a flat rate on a two bedroom and the place looked like a bug museum when I showed up, spent two weekends there basically for free. My wife kept asking why I was running a charity for people with bugs, which, fair. Here is the thing nobody tells you, customers do not blink at hourly once you explain it upfront, because flat rate sounds like a guess and people can smell a guess. The ones who walk away over hourly were probably the ones calling six shops to find the cheapest guy anyway. Your last three jobs pretty much answer your own question.
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