Estimates

I am getting so sick of waisting time on estimates for people who are looking for the cheapest job, over the last 15 years we have built up a client base that prevents allot of these people from calling us but with the "economy" every body will be price shopping which is fine, I do not mind being competitive if they are interested in what the quality of the job is. Who I am looking to avoid is the people who shop only on price and are usually a waist of time. I have thought of having a list of questions to ask potential customers to weed out these type of people. The trouble is how do you do it without pushing away the good ones. Any ideas?>>>

sorry for the mess up, must have hit the wrong button. anyway i informed the ho that we would have to deck over her exsisting 1 by's and that would cost extra... oh no problem she said, my insurance paid me for that too. She told me that she got bid from another company but the guy rubbed her the wrong way. She told me that she was a teacher and she wanted to wait till spring break to do it as she was going to go to arizona for that week... great i thought to myself, no ho around to bother the crew. ( spring break here starts the 10 of april) Drove by the job the day before yesterday and seen the roof loaded. Drove by yesterday at about 10:00 and seen that the competitor was just about done with the job. I know that they got the job because they didn't redeck and the ho got to pocket the $1,800. I called the city inspector office, but by the time they got there they were done and gone and there wasn't anything they could do about it unless the ho complained about the job. I'am still debating on calling the insurance commission.>>>

don't ask me what just happened cause i don't no . must have post aint working right>>>

I can relate.. i did an estimate 2 weeks ago on a house that was built in the 40's, 2 layers of comp. over space sheathing.. code here is if their is more than 1/2" gap between the 1 by it has to be redecked. I asked the ho if her insurance company had been out to look at it and she told me they had and also had paid her for a new roof. I>>>

LOL :laugh: shim :laugh: Now that's priceless Ole Willie. :laugh:>>>

Believe me rooferguy i know exactly what you mean. I went to give an estimate today for a roof replacement and when i pulled up i noticed the house had a 30 yr. shingle on it that was only about 2-3 yrs. old. So i knew something wasn't up to snuff right away. But im already there so i knock on the door and out comes some strange individual. I can not tell you if it was a woman or a man as i just simply could not figure it out. So from here on out i will refer to this individual as a shim. She/him. So anyways, the shim takes me into the house ( as in every room of the house ) and shows me multiple leaks all over the place. Some fat guy was lying on the couch and asked me about a dozen silly questions that i responded to with ease even though after all these years i'm not fond of being drilled if you know what i mean. After all that was finally over with the shim finally spits it out that her, uh his, uh whatever's "Lawyer" told her/him/it to get a couple quotes so they can try to sue the roofer who put this crappy roof on the house 2 years ago. I do not like getting involved in this kind of situation and had i known i would not have even visited this residence. So i pretty much know now that this is all a waste of my time. So the shim walks across the street in order to be able to see every little thing i'm doing on the roof and incredibly when i looked over there the next time the fat guy had lifted himself up off the couch and wobbled across the street for a good view as well. Then while im trying to figure all the numbers and stuff they are both drilling me again this time with several dozen silly questions while im trying to count and not phuck up the bid in the rare event that this becomes a hire. lol Oh yeah i forgot the company that did the roof had been back out several times trying to fix leaks, ( cheaply with black mammy ) and my tape measure with i just bought 3 days ago found the black mammy on the first 4 feet, on both sides, so i had to borrow a disposable rag from the shim and use some of the orange tar remover to clean the chit off of it. When all was said and done i had just wasted an hour and a half and was scrathing my head trying to figure out w.t.f. did i do this? I knew it was just gonna be one of those days! lol>>>

Some times it is good to be needed, and some times it is good to be used....Now cheap and used. boy, that is tough.

If you are doing shingles like everyuone else, it is tough to charge for the estimates. If you are doing the specialty products and the people know it and are asking for them, they expect to pay you for your knowledge. Differentiate and specialize. It pays the bills.>>>

Next Monday I have an appointment with a cheapster. He's a school administrator, they're all cheap. 28 years after I put the tile on his house, he calls and tells me he knows it's out of warranty but asks if I give free estimates to show him how to re-mortar two spots on the gable end. I told him my service charge is $92 and it would be easier to do it than to show him how to do it. He took two weeks deciding to have me do it.

I feel so cheap and used.

But the guy did get me at least 4 other reroofs back in the 80's.>>>

OLE Willie

While I agree that sometimes you will loose jobs you are sure you had and get some that you never thought you would, there is a whole different level of customer. THe type of customer that after you have invested an hour into there estimate and show up at there home to make the sell they have absolutly no interest in what you are doing, what material your using, or any other bit of info that would seperate you from the weakenders. There is a difference in people looking for the best value and people looking for a cheep roof. I am sure that I am just whining and there prabubly is no clear cutt answer that would fix the delema but hey we got to vent.>>>

More than half of the repairs that I did came out of leak calls. We informed a customer of our rates and charge them accordingly as we are always blind when we show up, we charged them from port to port as well. I will fix the leak and check the rest of the roof as the customer always ask. If they want a bid then I go to my truck write out a bid sheet as well as thier service call bill. You are not really charging the customer much extra, and at the same time you get paid to do the bid.>>>

Cheers tinner, start the trend, we all hate them T-kickers.>>>

I've been charging $25.00 per, for 2 years now. Get 2 out of 3 that way. No telling how many t-kickers didn't call. :laugh:>>>

I've been in this business for more than 24 years, and this topic brings to mind a quote from an old timer who was in the roofing buisness much much longer than I. He once told me this " Wille about the time you Know you have the job you'll never hear from the guy again and as soon as you think it was just a total waste of your time they will call and give you the job" lol And this has been my expeirence. You never know which one of the non-referred callers will hire and become your next referring customer!>>>

As already stated the only way to combat this problem is by charging for estimates. But how many customers will accept this? I don't have the answer because im too afraid to try it. lol However, i have charged for estimates in the past when its over 25 miles from the office. The last time i did that the guy thought my price for the roof was way too high and then didn't want to pay me what he agreed for driving 35 miles to give him an estimate. I had to argue with him and thought i was gonna have to kick his arse! lol But he finally shelled it out! lol I think if your gonna be in this kind of business your just gonna have to suck it up and realize it just comes with the territory. You will get sales and make your money. I ask them a couple questions but do not eliminate them based on the answers. Instead i prioritize them. Like, for example, what i think is a very serious customer i prefer he get 1 bid before mine and then i want to meet him for the quote and try to sell him on the spot. But if i think its a shopper, then i'll wait until i happen to be in the area of his job anyways and its not a huge inconveinence for me to stop by and do a quick quote. This might be bad but in that case i actually hope the suspected shopper is not at home so i can do this thing super quick at MY conveinence! If he turns into a buyer then thats great, if not then i didn't put too much into it anyways and so be it.>>>

well i have said this many years ago, and i still think that the whole industry should charge for estimates, and if they go with your company it will be credited to the price. I fully understand your frustration, i will be watching this thread to see if some one comes up with a brain storm..

Have a good season.>>>