Gas Work Pricing

[hammers4spanner]

I charge betwen £60 & £80 for a service. For those customers who don't want to take up the offer, I'm happy to walk away.
Last week, I was doing a service in Kenly (Surrey), three yrs old WB boiler. I asked the customer where his gas meter was located and he wanted to know why? I said there are tests I need to carry out there. His response: 'In the last 3yrs, no one servicing the boiler has asked where the gas meter is, so I don't see what the meter has to do with the boiler? We just want you to service the boiler''.
So he grudgingly proceeded to empty sink cupbourd where meter was located. In effect, someone charging £40 may decide to ''rush'' the job and just tick the boxes

They have just been servicing the appliance then .

 

[stevetheplumber]

Service has to Include gas rate to know it's safe

 

[hammers4spanner]

Service has to Include gas rate to know it's safe

Here we go are we talking a BG service or a service service???

 

[AWheating]

gas rate or operating pressure must be checked even if its service by god.......i mean BG.

as for gas work pricing compared to plumbing, for me a good plumber is worth the same as a good htg engineer as a good service engineer.

 

[hammers4spanner]

I find sometimes people will pay more for water works as you can actually see the damage water causes , AR SOMETHING ON A BOILER AND PEOPLE JUST DONT GET IT IMHO.

 

[Ray Stafford]

I charge £50 for a service mainly because if i went higher i probably wouldn't get much work due to the fact nigh on most around here charge around £50.

I was thinking about this today.

The problem with a gas boiler service, is that it has become a commodity. No one differentiates between a good service, and an ordinary service. Or a convenient service vs an inconvenient service. Believe it or not, but there are dozens of books on pricing strategies that help solve problems like this.

In reality, hammers will be half right, and half wrong. Sure, there will be people out there who are very price sensitive, but not all. Others will be sensitive to quality (so long as they understand what quality means in this context) or to convenience or to other things. We all know that some people are very sensitive to "reputation of service provider" - hence using BG.

I don't know enough about the job to define this exactly, but I am guessing that there is a difference between the bare legal minimum and what most responsible engineers would consider "best practice" ?

So create three products:

Basic Service (bare minimum)
Service Plus (best practice)
Deluxe service (best practice, plus some items that are not necessary, but might be useful, or put customers minds at rest)

Given the choice of 3 options, SO LONG AS THEY CAN SEE SOME VALUE DIFFERENCE, most people will take the middle option.

Then price in convenience:

09:00 - 16:00 weekdays. Basic service £50, Service plus £75, Deluxe service £99
07:00 - 09:00 or 16:00 - 18:00 weekdays. Basic service £60, Service plus £85, Deluxe Service £109
Weds evening 18:00 - 21:00 or Sat AM 09:00 - 12:00 Basic service £90, Service Plus £110, Deluxe Service £130.

It doesn't matter what the actual prices are - the important thing is to get differentiation.

Sure, most will still go for the £50 option, but some will trade up. Some will trade up a long way.

If you only offer a cheap option, 100% of your customers will get the cheap option - even those who would have paid more. You have to give them the option to pay you more!

 

[Masood]

I was thinking about this today.

The problem with a gas boiler service, is that it has become a commodity. No one differentiates between a good service, and an ordinary service. Or a convenient service vs an inconvenient service. Believe it or not, but there are dozens of books on pricing strategies that help solve problems like this.

In reality, hammers will be half right, and half wrong. Sure, there will be people out there who are very price sensitive, but not all. Others will be sensitive to quality (so long as they understand what quality means in this context) or to convenience or to other things. We all know that some people are very sensitive to "reputation of service provider" - hence using BG.

I don't know enough about the job to define this exactly, but I am guessing that there is a difference between the bare legal minimum and what most responsible engineers would consider "best practice" ?

So create three products:

Basic Service (bare minimum)
Service Plus (best practice)
Deluxe service (best practice, plus some items that are not necessary, but might be useful, or put customers minds at rest)

Given the choice of 3 options, SO LONG AS THEY CAN SEE SOME VALUE DIFFERENCE, most people will take the middle option.

Then price in convenience:

09:00 - 16:00 weekdays. Basic service £50, Service plus £75, Deluxe service £99
07:00 - 09:00 or 16:00 - 18:00 weekdays. Basic service £60, Service plus £85, Deluxe Service £109
Weds evening 18:00 - 21:00 or Sat AM 09:00 - 12:00 Basic service £90, Service Plus £110, Deluxe Service £130.

It doesn't matter what the actual prices are - the important thing is to get differentiation.

Sure, most will still go for the £50 option, but some will trade up. Some will trade up a long way.

If you only offer a cheap option, 100% of your customers will get the cheap option - even those who would have paid more. You have to give them the option to pay you more!

That's a very interesting persepective Ray. It does hold true in so many areas - people will turn their nose up at supermarket own-brand goods and pay a premium for branded goods that are made in the same factory, to the same recipe and process.

I'm going to adopt this tiered pricing strategy. I will report back!

 

[Masood]

I don't diiferentiate. My rates are:

Mon-Fri:
8:00 - 18:00 £65/hr
18:00 - 08:00 £97.50/hr

Weekends and bank holidays:
08:00 - 18:00 £97.50/hr
18:00 - 08:00 - £130/hr

Boiler service (not back boiler) is £75 + parts
Landlord cert is £75 for boiler and hob / freestanding cooker. Fires additional £25 each.

 

[jtsplumbing]

A lot depends on your location & the amount of completion that you have, makes no difference what you charge someone will always undercut you.