46 BUSINESS AND TRAINING
Do you charge by the job, or by the hour?
Plumbing Africa found this online article by Plumber in Wisconsin, US, interesting, as this debate still rages in South Africa, though not quite as publicly as this one!
Flat rate and hourly billing each have their proponents, but only you can decide what’ s right for your business.
Want to see a fight among plumbers? Start a rhetorical cage match that pits flat rate billing against charging by the hour.
Some contractors swear by flat rate pricing: it’ s predictable, it lets you tell the customer upfront what the job will cost, and it gives you and your crews an incentive to work efficiently.
Others insist that by the hour( or some other time increment) is the only way to bill. It fairly recoups your real costs and it ensures consistent profits( assuming a rationally structured rate, of course).
And each approach has supporters only too happy to tell you why their method is fairer to everyone.
“ Flat rate pricing is better for the company and for the customer,” says Brandon Simpson, owner of Simpson Plumbing in Tracy, California.
Jeff Paquet, owner / operator of Gas Man, an HVAC contractor in Ottawa, Canada, disagrees,“ While flat fee pricing seems ideal on the surface, it can actually lead to sloppy work from the contractor to get the job done as quickly as possible,” he says.
Hourly billing boosters“ In the service business, pricing comes from years of experience and hard lessons learnt,” says Mark Vice, coowner of Fayette Drain and Sewer in Fayette, Alabama.“ From my experience, 80 – 90 % of people want to know,‘ What is this going to cost me when you are finished?’”
That doesn’ t automatically dictate flat rate pricing, though.“ I like to quote jobs by the day or half a day, and if equipment is needed or not,” Vice says— in short, an hourly system, although in four- or eight-hour increments.
That’ s the best way to capture fixed costs, he contends, especially for labour.“ At the end of the day, my employees need eight hours, and I have to pay them.”
Adds Paquet,“ As long as you have confidence in the ethics of the contractor, the hourly rate is generally the best option to ensure the work is done properly with attention to detail.”
Jason Roberts represents My Handyman Services, a broker for home improvement trades, including plumbing, in London, England. It bills all its work by the half-hour— a one-hour minimum and then half-hour increments after that— and posts its rates on its website.
“ The issue with charging per job is that sometimes even if the job is complicated, the handyman may complete the task, let’ s say, in one hour,” says Roberts.“ Some clients might say,‘ He charged me so much and he was here only one hour!’”
Customers billed by the job“ believe that they have done you a favour by giving you some work,” he finds,“ so they’ ll push for return favours in the form of free add-ons:‘ While you are here could you please fix this pipe as well?’”
Flat rate supporters Bill Sanders has some pretty strong words on the other side of the debate.
“ Hourly billing is fundamentally unethical,” argues Sanders, a San Francisco business consultant whose clients include plumbing contractors.“ It puts the customer and the contractor at odds even before the job starts,” he says, because an hourly paid contractor“ is incentivised to stay longer.” Flat rates allow customers to decide on their investment upfront and“ realigns the interest of both parties.”
One Sanders client, a plumber, scored higher profitability and market penetration after implementing flat rate pricing( before Sanders began working with the firm).
March 2017 Volume 23 I Number 1 www. plumbingafrica. co. za