Customers are used to getting free phone consultations from me which is my fault. I want to change this.

Heres the scoop:

Customers call me with equipment issues. I try to help them on the phone. Yesterday, I had (3) calls about the system not working right - average 20 minute conversation each call.

Some require cable box reboot, some require a follow-up visit for trouble-shooting which will be a paid service call.

Today (2) calls already. How do you handle these calls? How do you bill for them?

Im in same boat. One one hand, they are use to being able to call the phone company, ISP, electric, etc for free so they assume they can do the same with me. So I would understand a resistance on their part to get a bill. Granted, I answer in 5 seconds and not 50 minutes.

For the most part I chalk it up to customer service which in turn leads to referrals. But, the more referrals, the more calls. Catch 22 for sure. Since we are 100% referral based,,,,,,

For now, i have no plans to charge for phone. I do need to change my plans and charge for almost every truck roll. Im not even doing that. I ALWAYS have the choice to NOT answer the phone. ALWAYS.

I live in a seasonal town with Comcast as a provider. Clients don't use their cable box for 5 months and call me because I have an AV receiver in the system.

I'm tired of doing it for free. Looking for a fair way to protect my time from calls that have nothing to do with my equipment.

Install a wattbox with a service agreement. $x.xx per call. Do a discounted number off of what rolling a truck would be

I spoke to several dealers at CEDIA and this was a common discussion. We all feel the need for service agreements and network power strips.

"You signed off not wanting the service agreement....I'll provide a couple minutes this time to see if I can help otherwise we have to roll a truck which costs $xxx....if you'd like to reconsider signing up then I'll waive today's fee...."

It's universal "I bought from you for service....."

Sell a Service/Phone Support contract with every system then.

There are all kinds of ways to value add to a project that not only helps revenue, but provides you tools to diagnose and even correct issues from the office without rolling a truck.

we sell remote support with all of our Control4 and Savant systems. this covers the Control4 4sight and Logmein for Savant plus a little extra($100) to cover phone support for the year.

We also do Panamax/Furman Bluebolt Products and Ubiquity Mfi. They also get a "Remote support" sold along with them to help cover time involved in those phone calls. Tthe clients are generally thrilled the first time we are able to reboot their cable box, or HDMI transmitter without a truck roll.

I'm in the same boat. It is really hard to provide customers with enough service when the service is "free". It is interesting that most of my lawyer clients who never give anything away expect free consultations.

To some extent it is good customer relations to give free advice, but the the landscape is changing. In the old days not much could go wrong that one could not talk through in a few minutes -- "press the tape monitor switch". In the modern networking era, lots of things can go wrong and if you ever touch the customer's network, every little future issue will be your fault -- and you should warrant your work (forever).

I think we should be moving to a fee based remote network management model. This will be a difficult sell to the lower end clients, both for the up front step-up equipment costs and the monthly fees. Bottom dollar, commodity routers don't support this. The "smart" low end clients constantly remind me that they can purchase a router for a few bucks. Why should they spend a few hundred? Besides, they never had any trouble before. "It must be your fault," will be the claim at the first sign of trouble. Plus, we need to be available 24/7 because "network down" is an emergency that is worse than "TV down" (if this is possible).

It's a difficult pill for us to swallow, but I think that a 3rd party monitoring/first responder service is the best idea for the customer. We should document the system for the service and the service can be available 24/7 and take the first call. The service can handle the routine stuff. We can follow up as necessary. Naturally, there should be revenue sharing.

If we don't do this I'm afraid that the cable companies will use their "free service, no up front equipment cost" model to end around us. Long term, I don't think that this will work out very well for our core customers, because the cable companies keep their model as simple as possible. This is how they make their money. They have millions of instances of the same model -- all designed to minimize maintenance costs. Fundamentally, the cable companies are in the residual income business, while we are in the design-build business. We tend to do "one-off" systems that are intrinsically harder to maintain.

Unfortunately, for many of us the tradition is "free support" and it will be difficult for us and the legacy customers to get our heads around a fee for service model. But, if we don't make the transition, we will become another failed business model case study at the business schools.

This is the only way to do it ^^^

Phone company cable etc all charge monthly so its in their best interest to take the phone calls. Keep in mind thought that most don't have 24 hour tech support. All force you to prove your identity multiple times as you get bounced up to someone who can finally fix your problem...or not. Our clients have direct access to someone who knows them and who can actually fix their problem. This is a very valuable service in and of itself. No one with a windows problem gets to talk to Bill or Steve.

Sell a service contract. Features of the service contract include remote system troubleshooting and management...24 hour support etc. Customers not interested in the service contract can contact you during normal business hours.

How to handle all these calls? My cousins work as locksmiths. They have a mobile phone that gets after hour support calls. The locksmiths take turns keeping the phone all week. They are paid a flat rate to take the phone home. Then they are paid a percentage of whatever the service fee is even if its covered under warranty etc. This is HUGE motivation to have your employees agree to be the 24 hour support guy. The locksmiths fight over who gets to take it over the weekend.

for me it depends on the customer, amount spent and age of equipment. I have it clearly stated in my terms how long I provide free support vs charging. i also leave with them a reference sheet of "how to solve most common problems" and tell them to do these steps before calling me. it resolves 90% of the issues. for the remaining 10% they are usually caused but customer changing something in the system (new cable box) which is not covered by my warranty. we make money 3 ways - sell product, install product and service product. customers do not understand that we do not get compensated from the manufacturer for service.

I had a guy a few weeks ago who bought a decent system a year and a half ago. Guy is nowhere near technical and was referred to me. he also lives an hour away so i was hesitant to take on the job due to potential problems - and I told him that up front. I also told him what it would cost to have me come out and fix anything. well - lightning struck and here comes the calls. I told him my trip fee to come out and he wanted to pay half that and i refused (hes a long way from any metro are). a few weeks passed and he calls again after he got someone to come out and determine 2 set of baluns were fried - he wants me to replace. I told him OK ill give you a one time break on the service fee just to get him done.
when I get there he says "so and so only charged me $X and said it would only cost $x to replace them (about half of my rate). I said "ok if you go with them don't call me ever if anything else goes wrong". he didnt like that.
I got new baluns under warranty (thanks Atlona) .. on the way out he showed me the new Mercedes he just bought his wife.... pissed me off..I told him from now on here is the fee for service calls - no negotiation - no phone support.
now that was a rare occasion but it was a PITA all the way around.

Heres the kicker - he owns a liquor store in town so i went in last week and took a bottle of GOOD burbon ($45) to the counter and told him "I'll give you $25 for it. I pressed me for a break worth half of what I charge so I think this is overpriced as well.." He laughed and gave it to me for $25!!..

I charge $140 for service call, which includes up to an hour worth of work.
I then charge $85/hr in 15min increments.

While I'm in the same boat as all of you in that I don't charge for phone calls, if I was to charge for said phone support, I think it would be an easy sell.

Informing the client that I'm only charging my hourly rate in 15min, or even 5 or 6 min increments.
That way a 12min conversation would be $17 (.2x85) charge, instead of $140 truck roll fee.

Actually they ARE paying for this ability. It's just hidden in all those little monthly fees.


Good example:

TWC "leases" some damn near antique piece of equipment, the client is paying for that "free call".

Regardless, it stops what you are doing and there is almost always recovery time to get your mind back into exactly what you were doing.

All of those companies do not charge for phone assistance because the client is paying each of them a monthly fee for service which includes phone assistance. Perhaps the thing to do is to present a fee arrangement at the time of purchase, with a certain number of calls for free; or the decision to charge being yours where you'd not charge if they ask for clarification which you decide you could have presented to them in your training of them, but charges for information in other areas.


There is indeed a tipping point at which you cannot sustain the capture of referred clients in the same manner.


True.


Define at the outset what kind of phone calls you will do for free. Offer two phone calls for free at the start of the season as they settle back into this location, for instance.

We had phone support for our big dish systems at one time, this lasted till about 5-6 years ago, As long as the equipment was purchased from us it was ok. Plus the fact that many products were shipped out, it was basically a 3-4 hour call with a tech or home user to set things up.

i do not really know how much it was per hour, but the first hour was free and placed on the invoice with the 4dtv receiver. It was a while ago now, and man you need patience lol, talking to a 85 year old and following him through one step at a time could take a while.

Hundres of calls and only one guy messed up his system but the warning before we started and everything was charged to cc, should have covered even if he tried to do a charge back, he simple pushed the wrong buttons and at the time if you did a master reset the unit was worthless, and well that’s what he did, pushed buttons because he could not see well....

Ernie, that's good advice.

I have a widow client that is the most technically challenged human I've ever encountered. She called twice again today at 5:00 ish because she can't play a DVD. I'm done. Today, I will finally fire her. Why? She calls on average once a month, has a boyfriend who like to play with settings, and NEVER calls during business hours. Always evenings and weekends.