Going Residential

[offdutyfireman]

I'm doing rental house condensers now for a PM.

I don't know how you guys do it. I had two renters today that asked me to knock on the door to let them know when I'm starting and I couldn't even concentrate on what they were saying thinking about all the time I'm losing standing around talking.

I agree Tony. I tell my guys to not knock on the door or try to collect. Wash, leave an invoice on the door and get the check in a few days. Talking to each customer at each job easily adds an hour to the day for me and each crew. I like residential, but I like the commercial end where you don't have to chit chat.

 

[Tony Shelton]

One other thing.... Residential customers understand Value and will pay your price, even if the other guy is a fourth of your price.

What about the issue of time? If, left alone, you could finish the job in 1/4th the time why would you have to keep the price so high? I don't know anything about the kind of stuff you do, I'm just asking questions.

Is the process already as fast as it can go? Is there no room for advances that will speed the processes up and bring in more money in less time?

We just started with this residential thing.

We have to price coil cleaning at a "worst case scenario" pricing. I have to take into account the time for driving, gate codes, locked back yards, dogs, parking, etc. Armed with that information we've determined what we need to charge to make our nut.

Everything is routed on trackroad, we time out a day's worth of work and load it into the GPS. Once the route is completed once or twice, all the kinks are out and it's gravy from there. (This is all stuff we learned when we ran the dry cleaning routes.)

Now, here's what happens when a customer comes out to yak.

1) It slows down the work trying to talk with them.
2) You find yourself subconsciously slowing down to let them know they are getting their money's worth. (Your mind forgets about the $75k in equipment parked out front or the office and billing, insurance, etc that you've got to pay and for a moment all your mind wants to do is slow down and make it look like this guy got good work (time) for his money.) It's all subconscious.
3) By allowing the homeowner to watch, you've opened yourself up to the owner trying to do it himself next time, not realizing all the safeguards (careful not to hit live wires, careful with capacitors, putting the unit back together correctly, not destroying the fins by hitting it at the wrong angle, etc.)

All they see is us spending 3-7 minutes and maybe a little visible difference in the coils. To do the same thing would take them an hour and they would probably mess something up. Yet still, your mind tells you to slow down to let them think they are getting their money's worth.

I would rather just take the face to face out of the equation and we try to time our route with that in mind.

 

[Christopher]

I have done some 32 unit townhouses and condo's and I agree about the time wasting there. Some people come out and want to talk, they did get the memo and know when we are starting but still feel that they have to come outside and chitchat.

Each person that comes out is at least 5 to 15 minutes of time that could have been avoided since the messages were sent out, flyers on their doors and some were told in person but some people feel that they just have to come out and talk to you even when they know about the work being done. I don't think that you can avoid this without being rude so you would have to figure that into the equation.

I had a few people come out and talk to me about moving things when I am about to start washing the property saying that they did not get a memo on their door telling them what time and day I would be there, another guy that was a realtor told me to just wash everything and don't worry about the personal property and another told me to come back another day.

I told the lady that the memo's were sent out and to have everything off the patio if they wanted the patio washed and that the work would start on Tuesday morning and be finished no later than Thursday so everything must be off the patios by Monday if they want their patios washed or it will not be washed. Those memos were sent out Monday the week before.

The guy that was the realtor.....I mentioned to him as politely as I could that the memo was sent out and where people did not move anything we could not wash there because we were not moving anything, did not want the liability of getting things wet or damaging anything so those patios would not be washed but if they wanted it done and forgot to move things in the week since the memo came out we could come back if it was in the 3 days that we were still there for an additional charge since we would be at another part of the property but if we were done with the job we would not be back unless it was for a lot more of a charge (way across town).

The person that told me to come back another day......I went back before I left the last day of the job to take care of their property but they still did not move anything, they had 1 week and 3 days to move stuff and they still did not move anything and they had a patio that really needed washing badly, I guess they will do it themself. O Well.

In a perfect world we could just go there, do the job and then have a check waiting in the mailbox or under the mat or other predetermined location to speed things up but this world is far from perfect and we just do the best that we can.

 

[Chris Tharpe]

Danny, the info that you need is in your back yard... lol

Contact UAmCc or Delco Cleaning Systems of FOrt Worth
2300 Cold Springs Road
Fort Worth, Texas 76016
Phone: 1-800-211-0290
Fax: 1-817-624-4409
Web: www.uamcc.org

They have plenty of training courses.

If i am not mistaken you have to sign a non-compete if your a texas resident to take a delco course. Maybe Larry or someone will chime in

 

[Danny Bates]

If i am not mistaken you have to sign a non-compete if your a texas resident to take a delco course. Maybe Larry or someone will chime in

That is correct. However I was told as long as you don't go after their customers you are ok, but thats just hearsay.

 

[Christopher]

Sigh a non-compete for the whole state or just that immediate area or how big of an area????

Wow.

 

[Chris Tharpe]

Sounds like a good way to detour competition from your customers and area, however a scheme if you live there. They will sell you the equipment, teach you how to use it, then take you to court when you do what they taught you.

Sounds like something the government would do