Monday, September 02, 2013

Thoughts on trip charges

Once in a while I look at complaints in other industries to see how they're doing. A service call to repair a hot tub contained an add-on $50 trip charge. This infuriated the customer and caused a torrid complaint. Of course the hot tub company answered by explaining the reasons for the added charge such as the high cost of gasoline and insurance.

With all the chatter in the cleaning industry about trip charges on each invoice to cover increased gasoline prices, take time to think how customers will react. Most people realize that prices are going up regardless of what the official inflation rate is supposed to be. But they don't like having it crammed down their throats like a big pill in the form of a trip charge.

Raise your square footage or other pricing structure* a slight amount periodically to cover increased insurance and fuel costs, but don't wait until it becomes a burden on you or one of those obnoxious incidents for your customer. On written and phone quotes state the final full price with no break-out for any type of surcharges.

*This does not apply to bait and switch operators.

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2013 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.