Maintenance Contracts

[andfield1]

Hi, I`m looking for some advice on pricing maintenance contracts ? I`ve been working in the industry for 10 years and have decided to set up my own company. I have been approached about tendering for 2 maintenance contracts one fridge and one ac. Can anybody give me any advice on how to price these ?? Tried looking online but nothing found.
I hope someone out there with more experience of this kind of thing can give me a few pointers. If you don`t want to discuss on the forum please PM me.
Cheers.

[r.bartlett]

Hi, I`m looking for some advice on pricing maintenance contracts ? I`ve been working in the industry for 10 years and have decided to set up my own company. I have been approached about tendering for 2 maintenance contracts one fridge and one ac. Can anybody give me any advice on how to price these ?? Tried looking online but nothing found.
I hope someone out there with more experience of this kind of thing can give me a few pointers. If you don`t want to discuss on the forum please PM me.
Cheers.

You can price to do it properly or price to win it...it's vary rare these days to do both.

[andfield1]

Was actually looking to price sensibly to win the contracts and do the work properly...........

[charlie patt]

r bartlett how very true reguarding the contract when you start up you need to take what is available you need to consider is the equipment already being looked after /is it your bread and butter work /can the customer have connections for other customers to pass your name on,cost will get you the work but service will keep it just remember are you includeing the energy efficientcy certificate

[nevgee]

We don't offer contracts of any form. They may seem good in that you can get money up front for the service. However, why not just offer an agreed service response with fixed rates and charges. That way the client knows what it will cost if he calls you out he will know what a standard / custom designed service / PPM visit will be. You could also fix prices for standard service parts etc.

So in this way you will know how many visits you're going to do and also any callouts will be charged at the agreed rate. This way you get paid for the calls you make and the client pays only for the visits you make.

[charlie patt]

certain customers need to know there labour costs in advance and when you start up it is a customer in the bank for twelve months

[r.bartlett]

certain customers need to know there labour costs in advance and when you start up it is a customer in the bank for twelve months

Talking about maintenances -did you get my email regarding that little job?

[andfield1]

Nevgee, I like your concept, i had a similar pricing plan to yours in mind. My aim is to build up reputation through quality of service and value for money. Let customers i do work for spread the word.

[doormaster2008]

hi.firstly good luck in starting your own business.regarding maint.contracts,have you worked on the equipment before,if not why is the customer changing companies.is it on price.i have worked for myself for 26 years and talk customers out of contracts due to the cost.customers these days are'nt always loyal as you will find out.offer to call twice a year to service them.it will be cheaper for them and safer for you.anyway good luck to you.

[andfield1]

Hi doormaster2008, thank you for your good luck message, I have worked on some of the equipment before. Not for the present maintenance provider, i was approached directly to solve a few ongoing issues they had. Customer is changing companies due to poor service from present company and also say the competency of engineers they are sending is poor, also they never get familiarity, never same engineer twice.
Was thinking along the lines of offering them a price for a maintenance visit, also recommending 2 per year. Then after first maintenance visit coming to an agreement on hourly rate for further works, response times to call outs, parts/materials charging etc
Basically not wanting get myself tied to contracts that i can`t honour or make money from.

[FEISTY]

Second one to wish you well on your own. The 1st thing you need to look at is manpower. 1 man companies put themselves out of business with contracts. You usually need to give a response time from service request. Miss it and you default the contract. Hard as we try, you just can't be everywhere at the same time. You find yourself rushing the call you're on to " make the timeout deadline " of the contract. That's not fair to anyone including yourself. "Back up on line " is another point of contract. Can you provide most of the parts needed ASAP? My experience is this...when you have a floater tech available, start looking at contracts. When it's just you and/or 1 other tech it's just not worth it. I don't advertise in print, trucks are not lettered and I work 5-6 days a week 52 weeks a year. Word of mouth is best advertising there is. Try to schedule jobs with a " fudge factor " for time and bump calls based on priority. Let customers know " Today your call was most important...tomorrow someone may come before you ". I find honesty works better than promises not kept. Finally remember..24-7 is just a slogan. 100% completed jobs means happy customers. Even techs have to sleep !!! Best of luck. 19yrs self employed and still kicking. Just not as high !