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Advice on some changes I plan to make.
New year, New start and everything.
I’ve picked up a few tips from the boards, I am fairly confident on the production side, except for illuminated signs, its more the background business I am looking at.
I am proposing a few changes for 2012.
Firstly no more giving a fixed price for a job without knowing what’s involved design wise.
Secondly no putting designs together without getting paid anything. Pointless spending time on a design not to get a job.
So intention is to complete a design brief with the customer, find out what they want and their budget. Take a small fee for us to put together a choice of designs that are within their budget, each design accompanied with a price.
We’re getting our Terms and conditions re-written properly, and ideally need a way for the customer to accept the T&C’s. So either sign the quote, or pay via our website with our new pay by link service. We will take a 50% deposit at this stage. Payment will confirm they accept the T&C’s.
When we send the final proof, customer will be prompted to follow a link, check it is correct and pay the remainder. Again payment indicating the designs good to go.
We plan to kill two birds with one stone, weed out time wasters, and stop printing work that never gets collected and we don’t get paid for!
I am also looking at our cancellation policy. Obviously people do change their mind, but our business means most things can’t be reused!
Not that we’ve had any complaints but I think maybe we need a procedure should a problem arise.
Firstly am I making hard work out things? Is there an easier way?
And what is your policy on cancellations?Been bitten a few times this year so would like something in black and white, so the customer knows how we operate and why. Displayed in our shop, website and as a leaflet. I think being honest from the onset is a good start!
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8 Replies
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Just my 2 pence worth david but paying in full before the job is done might put quite a lot of people off, your 50% deposit should be enough to cover most of your time and material costs. If you take a 50% deposit I would want the rest payable on completion/collection.
For most of the work you are doing it should be possible to give a fixed price before the design has been done. For the majority of the work I do I know pretty much how long it should take me to design. Only more complex jobs or some logo designs may take longer.
Good that you are looking at ways to move the company forward, you have already started to turn the business around from what the previous owner was doing. Something else to look at is where you made your money. Manybe concentrate on promoting the work that made a good profit for you in the last 12 months.
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up front payments:
depends who it is, what they’re having.
I always make sure to cover the cost of materials and then some if it’s a new customer, with an illuminated or dig print that may be as much as 65-70%,
if i’m unsure of the customer / have doubts, its 100% up front.
I do however, offer a 5% discount if they pay ‘in full’ at least 7 days before the work is due to be carried out, 14days where fabrication by a third party is concerned.
I don’t think i’ve ever lost a job based on no deposit. if they’re serious about it then it’s no different to paying after, except I have some security and they can’t walk away leaving me in the lurch on a whim!
as for the rest of your words, seems fair to me. though that said, I rarely charge up front for design, though I make it clear that after the initial ideas, it’s all chargeable at £30ph, customers focus beter when they know that!
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Hugh, that’s interesting, I would never have thought to charge 100% up front for any job & would have thought it would put people off although I don’t really know why.
Deposit to cover material costs I never had a problem charging, not after I got caught out a few times. 50% was always enough, never had a job where it was as high as 65-70% but at that sort of percentage I am guessing that would have been supply only which I never really did a lot of, always fitting charges etc included in the prices. -
Thanks for the advice.
Trouble I find with pricing is that I go through patches, november I did loads of vans, I hadn’t touched a van in Months!
I don’t have the experience to give a price off my head, and most customers don’t know what they want whether full colour, 1colour etc. I tried giving prices but found things changed, the customer wanting more, or logo’s needing re-drawing. Then when I explained the extra costs I always got the ‘but you said it was £x’
I quite like hugh’s idea, spend an hour putting something together for free then fire it over on e-mail, from that point on it will be charged p/h.
I am trying to kill two birds with one stone.
Get paid a deposit and terms accepted
Get paid remainder and artwork approved.I think the fact payment is required at both stages will keep the customer on their toes!
Is it possible to point blank refuse a refund? And if so from what point?
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At the beginning mate. When or if you do a written quote state that deposits are none refundable. When they sign the artwork off make sure this is also stated once more and maybe put aat the top of the page "Please ensure you read our t’s and c’s!"
Why should you refund when you have done the work? If you did that then there’s no point in taking a deposit in the first place. 😉 -
I never give a price off my head either David, no consistency that way, (well I don’t think there is). Prices I quote are from the mock visuals I have which also help the customer decide what they want.
Also helps if they decide they want something extra, easier to charge for it, as for logo’s I always tell customers that there will be a fee if I have to redraw their logo but this is a one off and won’t be included in any future work I do for them.As for what work you do & having spells where you seem to be doing the same sort of job, think that sort of thing can happen in this industry. Sometimes it’s down to the fact that you have done a good job & other people ask your customer where they got the job done.
I used to do quite a lot of work for Take away’s because the family members use to pass my name about.As for deposit’s, why would the customer want it back?? If you have agreed a price for a job & they have paid the deposit they must be happy to go ahead with you.
Like Karl has said make sure it’s in your terms & conditions, after all that only covers the work you have already done. -
quote Martin:Just my 2 pence worth david but paying in full before the job is done might put quite a lot of people off, your 50% deposit should be enough to cover most of your time and material costs. If you take a 50% deposit I would want the rest payable on completion/collection.50% is good 100% is better…… But I have never had a problem with this, even on jobs a large as £4-£6k…
It’s natural to be afraid of losing a job because you ask for payment up front, that in my opinion is what puts the doubt in the customers mind, mostly your fear of asking.
When you can get over the fear it’s not normally a problem. I know this is always going to be controversial, but hey, i never was one to tow the line! All I’m saying is 75% of my customers pay up front, the other 25% I know well enough to extend credit!
I have lost count of the times in the first year when I took the order then spent weeks chasing the money… More wasted time and effort. I know from reading other posts, lots of people are aggressive in their collection of money when the job is done, why not be less aggressive and get it first.. saves embarrassment and losing the customer after the sale…
I must be doing something right, we have already had a pre order placed that will cover over 50% of our required turnover next year…I know the company will pay for each batch up front and that’s over £15k per order. i send the invoice and i have the money in my bank inside 3 days!
You are only limited by the limitations you place on yourself!
(I don’t take cheques iether) 😎
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Mo I’ve never been afraid of losing a job just didn’t think it was the done thing that was all. I didn’t use to give credit to customers they paid either the remaining 50% or the full amount on collection/installation. Use to remind them when they dropped the van off to bring the cash when they collected or if a shop went armed with the invoice and handed it to the customer before it was installed so they had time to make arrangements.
Have even run a couple of customers down to the bank when they turned up to collect a van and forgot to bring the money :lol1: :lol1:
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