Published December 2007

The Great Phone Quote Debate

By Erik Gunn (page 94)

Contractors and sales experts disagree on whether you should elaborate on service fees when customers call and ask for a price.

“How much is this gonna cost me?”

That one question can be frightening, especially if asked by a disembodied voice on the phone. Almost every contractor has heard it too many times to count. The standard prescription of industry experts is: Don’t quote over the phone, no matter how much the customer presses you.

“Just like a doctor will not write a prescription over the phone if he or she has no direct knowledge of you or your body, I will not diagnose a system over the phone or quote prices,” says Danny Kleinpeter, owner of Ranger Sewer on Long Island, N.Y.

He contends that callers who want a quote over the phone are just price-shopping — period. “In their mind, every company is the same,” he says. “They’re thinking, ‘Who can we get to be the cheapest out there?’ I am not cheap, and I’m proud of my ‘high prices.’” Kleinpeter is successful in his approach, but it doesn’t work for everyone.

Think like the customer

Martin Sparkes, owner of Sparkes Septic Service in Agassiz, B.C., asks, “How do you operate a Yellow Pages-based business without giving the customer an answer to his question, which is always the same: How much is it to have my tank pumped?”

Drain cleaners run into similar challenges. “I don’t like to give prices over the phone,” says George Simpson, who runs Drains R Us of southeastern Wisconsin and Bert’s Sewer Service in Wilmot, Wis. But when push comes to shove, he will explain where prices start and the kinds of problems that can drive that figure up.

Contractors say it’s important to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. A caller who wants a quote may not just be price shopping, they say. The first thing to remember is that someone calling for service is, more often than not, upset and anxious. Your caller is thinking: Will the neighbors be upset by the smell? Will my property be damaged? Can I afford this setback?

Kristian Vieceli, who operates Northwest Sanitary in the northwestern Wisconsin community of Radisson with husband, Ron, says they no longer think people who asked about prices on the phone simply want the cheapest service. Often, the person is on a fixed income: “Price is a huge issue for them,” she says. From that perspective, it’s no surprise callers will want some idea of the cost of service.

Experts say phone personnel can get a lot farther by simply being understanding. Their voices and the phone answering script, if you use one, need to communicate empathy and a helpful attitude.

“When a customer calls and wants a septic or holding tank pumped, we first find out the service location in question,” says Vieceli. The greater the travel distance, the higher the price. “Then we quote them our average or starting price for that area. We then let the customer know what conditions might cause that price to increase: digging more than 10 minutes or 12 inches, and excessive foreign debris in the tank. Usually these are the only two reasons our price might be higher than anticipated.”

Too many variables

Sparkes tells callers the base price for a pump-out, but also emphasizes how worst-case scenarios can drive that price up. “When I have to locate and dig a lid, then spend two hours trying to empty a solid tank, the price can really climb,” he says. “If they decline to hire us, I have probably saved myself a headache, and if they do hire us, I can charge for all the time I spend with a clear conscience.”

Of course, some jobs are highly unpredictable. Ed O’Connell, who owns O’Connell Plumbing in Marin County, Calif., is firmly against phone quotes, and warns against even telling customers a range. “We have tried that,” he says. “What happens is the customer always hears the low and never the high. And then he says to our plumber or drain technician that we said the price wouldn’t be more than the low.”

O’Connell’s dispatchers are trained to handle phone inquiries skillfully. “It is up to our field personnel to make the sale,” he says. His business charges a flat diagnostic fee that is sometimes wrapped into the total cost of service once the technician gives a quote for the job onsite. “We always get the diagnostic fee whether we do the work or not,” he says.

Simpson takes another approach. His Yellow Pages ads boldly state a starting price for power rodding service. But he takes pains to explain to customers what can drive that cost up, and why a service technician has to see the problem before giving a solid quote.

Simpson doesn’t charge a trip fee, unless the call comes on Sunday or after 8 p.m. on weekdays. He believes his technicians get more work by being willing to go to the customer at no charge. “There’s always a chance they’ll find something else the customer didn’t see,” he says.

Staying flexible

Lawrence Snow, a business coach for Quality Service Contractors, a division of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association, acknowledges that a no-quote-rule is standard in business, and one that he teaches.

But when the customer is about to hang up and you’re at risk of losing the job, Snow counsels being flexible and replying, “Let me give you a ballpark.” Then, he says, estimate the bottom number high enough to be realistic, and emphasize that the actual figure could be more.

Snow isn’t enthusiastic about trip charges, either. He formerly ran a plumbing business that did not use a trip charge, and fully 98 percent of the time customers accepted the service once a worker showed up and made an onsite estimate. Meanwhile, he knows of businesses that charged a fee where the close rate was less than 80 percent.

In the end, only you can decide how best to respond when customers want a quote over the phone. The answer depends on your particular market and your comfort level, contractors say. The most important thing is to be honest about it. If you try to give your caller some idea of what the bill will be, make any uncertainties crystal clear. If you’re just not willing to give a phone quote, be clear about why — and understand why the caller wants to know.