Just curious as to what you do when you completely over estimate a job? I bid a residential CCU at $950-$1000 and it’s probably fair to say I probably over-estimated it by $300 when it’s all said and done. She didn’t even think twice about the price and asked me to schedule her for 2 cleanings a year.
Sounds like she was really happy. I wouldn’t lower the price. Sometimes you over estimate and sometimes you under estimate. That’s the nature of the beast.
What do you do when you underbid? Do you ask for more money or suck it up and do it for the price you quoted?
If she’s happy, then just smile and thank her for her business. Then give her a good price for the maintenance. If you feel guilty, go buy her a nice thank you gift.
The key is whether or not she’s happy.
Keep the $. For all you know you might have been the cheaper one. Your a business, a business is to make $. Don’t feel bad. I’ve done same thing and found out I was cheaper when I thought I over bid. You really be surprised what people pay to have windows cleaned. Bid high when busy, bid low when slow. I’ve also had clients hire me because I was the most expensive person in town and I keep them as well as they keep me. Then once you build up cliental, up the low paying ones before you weed out the low paying ones out. If they like you they will keep you. In this industry, most of the time they hire you because they like you.
The out you have is when you finish, you could tell the customer you completed earlier than you expected and you will knock XX% off the price
I feel that if you make them happy and they’re willing to pay, good and well. Just keep them happy.
Unfortunately, some higher profitable jobs even out some of the not-so-profitable ones, at least for me.
I give 95% of my prices over the phone, so if I’m low and give them the final price and it’s higher ,I don’t feel bad and explain why. Just about every time , they don’t have a problem because I estimated what they told me. Alot of the times , my price comes in lower also, and I adjust it down accordingly, which makes them happy. I’m usually pretty close either way. A few days ago , a customer mistakenly told me she had the old windows, thought she had storms. Final price was a few hundred less than what I quoted. She was thrilled and I was happy to be done sooner to move on to next job, being backed up the week before thanksgiving. If you walked house and gave estimate, I’d probably lower it a little because she seems like a customer that’s worth keeping .
Ditto
Drop your price??? Are you running a non-profit company???
She jumped to hire you, use her enthusiasm as an indicator that you are pricing everyone else to low! Raise your prices and use the “extra” money to grow the business or vacation or the wife and kids or rainy day fund or elk hunt, etc…
