If you want to charge him more, it's not a good idea to get done in a third of the time.
:confused2::confused2::confused2::confused2:
My post was in response to qapla solution to "level the playing field"
I am talking about how to go about charging more (when it takes MORE than book time) and NOT having an upset customer, NOT just charging more in general.
It all comes down to basics. If a customer comes into the shop for a repair, and you dont give him a quote, only tell him I charge XX per hour and I will bill you for however long it takes, 99% of them are going to ask "how long do you think it will take?"
That is why "book-time" is a very usefull tool vs the later. Because it allows ALL shops across the country to charge the same hours per job. (or are at least supposed to).
The following are the MAJOR benefits of book time:
1. Keeps ALL shops on a level playing field with eachother. If you price a repair at several different facilities, the ONLY difference should be in labor rate. $75-120/hr is about the norm.
2. Gives the ability to give the customer a solid qoute of XX price to do job YY. Regardless of time involved. Just a flat price for the job at hand.
3. Allows the better techs to make more than the not-so-good techs.
The following are some problems in a system without book time, and only an hourly rate they charge for ACTUAL hours:
1. Customer will accuse you of taking your time and milking the clock. If you try to be timley, they will say you rushed it.
2. Cannont give a customer a firm quote. Imagine you are a shop owner with two employees. One is great, the other is slower. A customer calls for a quote. The better guy can do the job in 2hrs, the slower guy takes 3hrs. How do you quote the job? Is it fair that the customer that gets the slower-not-as-good tech has to pay more than the other guy that gets luckey to get the good tech??
3. Is if fair that the better tech gets paid less to install the same part as the slower guy?
4. As a business owner, how do you pay your employees so that they remail productive, instead of "milking" their time.
5. In general, in a system like this, there is NO incentive for either the tech OR shop owner to be efficent and productive. What about a slow day, with only a few jobs. Normally may only take 3 hours. Hey' why not milk them out all day??
Bottom line, IMO, book-time is the fairest way for ALL parties involved. The customer should not even be informed of what the "book time" is. All it is, is a way for the dealer to quote a price for the job at hand.
But what brought this all about was the fact that the shop fudged up the book time by double. Maybe that explains their 1/2 priced labor rate??? Maybe not. But If they had told JJ book-time was 1.5hrs, and they finished in ~1 hr and for the agreed upon price, I dont think this thread would have even been started. But that is just IMHO.