Friday, March 2, 2012

Getting Paid by Guest Columnist John Howell of Grogan Clean Care Nacogdoches, Texas

When we think about work we have to think about how to express to the customer the cost of the services in question, how to give them an invoice once the work is done and how we expect to get paid.

The best way that I have come up with to actually talk to a customer is to offer to come look over the job in person for FREE. I know this may be hard to swallow at first, but customers who really are interested in letting you do the work for them are not just price shopping, they want to meet you and ask you questions to see if they even want you to come near their home.

Once the work is agreed upon it is important to let your customer know if there are any changes in the price different than the estimate and your expectation of the completed job. The only thing I can say here is to under promise and to over deliver.

Give an invoice as soon after the work is completed as possible. This does two things: it makes you and your customer go over the invoice immediately and you are less likely to forget the details of the job or even worse add work that you didn’t do. This might seem easy, but when the work is on and it’s from job to job to job for 8 hours a day even for a week trying to remember something you did on Monday on Friday is harder than you might think.

Collecting. It’s almost unbearable to think about. That is why “payment is due when services are rendered” signs are made. No one likes to hassle anyone for money especially when it’s been 3 months and you can barely remember the job anymore. Stay on top of receivables and those awkward phone conversations won’t be needed.

No comments:

Post a Comment