Indie

Not sure where your at, but 50 an hour is not that unreasonable here. If he advertises 50.00 and adjust his mark up to compensate, then he still makes what he needs. Another thing, what if he just advertises 50.00 but gives out quotes for most of the work he does.
Yet another possibility, he is a one man show with minimal overhead, and can live on 50/hr.
Personally, I think he is just making the numbers look different. 50/hr with 50% mark-up

ROCKSTARPLUMBER

I did one radio ad last year during college football season on a local sports station. I had 2 calls from it, and it only ran 2 weeks. It was 200.00. One of the calls was a dead end, the other call was a great customer for which i have done over 2k in sales with. I will probably do it again at the start of this season with all the new coaching changes, I for one will be listeing more than often. As I expect others will too.

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ChrisConnor

I tried an offer of "On Time Or It's Free" Service in July 2009. 30 second jingle professionally done, lyrics by yours truly.

Not one call. ZERO! I always ask every customer how they found me and they all were either repeat customers or referrals. Lots of friends told me they heard the commercial, but ZERO calls from it. I had compliments from friends and I even had my competitors wife sing the jingle to me, because she heard it so many times.

This was on the number one station for my top demographic(women) and it ran all M-F daytime spots with heavy concentration in the morning starting at 7a, lunch and afternoon drive, no later than 6p. This radio station is the one that plays at most dentist office and most restaurants.

I started off at about 30x a week for the first two weeks and then went to about 13x a week.
Have I given up on radio? No, but will reconsider the content of the message and also I factor in the national economy during that time.

Redwood

I'd do it for 50 the first hour and 360 the second hour....

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DUNBAR PLUMBING

In marketing, this is called the saturation period.

Cut your competition down, force them to pay attention to you, offer pricing that is guaranteed to pull clientell off the competition.

If the competition matches, that proves the competition is hurting.

It's a "limited time only" promotion to get the masses through the door. It'll work but eventually it'll tick back up out of the honeymoon phase.

If it's a huge plumbing company that time frame could put quite a few out of business, which is probably their goal.

Some of the best marketing strategies will be played during this economic downfall.

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Miguel

I dunno, a "foot in the door" at a breakeven (or breakeven minus promo costs) could pay off. I'm sure the tech that shows up for that first hour is well versed on sizing up the situation well enough that they could either do a minimal repair and be on their way in minutes before the HO has time to say, "Hey waitaminit.", or talking the upsell for anything else that looks viable.

At the very least it's a potentially quick way to establish a clientel in a new market area.

:shrug: Or something.

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stillaround

Lately if they want t&m Ive jacked the 1st 1/2 hr up a little and lowered the rest but not quite 360.

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stillaround

Its not affluent here but theres no way $50 is good for anything except a show up fee . I pay my sons $60k which is the minimum to own a house and a car and start a family. At 5 hrs billable per man and overhead the math doesnt allow $50. Its 1/2 of the high end of the going t&m rate. Some are at $75...$95...$85 and I flat rate except when pressured.
At $50 /hr for an optimistic 5hrs billable..$250 x 5= $1250 less overhead which has to be for him a minimum of $30k with truck expense. Living on $30k can be done here but not with a family or home.

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mselkee

A couple of thoughts

I have a new competitor who advertises lowest rates, 24-7 service within a 65 mile radius. He has been very successful at cornering the bottom feeder budget market segment.

He is now finding out that if a newer guy in town advertises for $1 less per hour this market segment will treat him like a child molester trying to get a job at a preschool.

He is now getting tired of cheap whining customers that are back to calling us again and complaining about his attitude and new "adjustable" rates.

There will always be someone to take his place and learn this lesson.

I've seen this pattern repeat itself at least 10 times in our small rural area in the last 15 years.

Compete with excellent service, the best equipment and the market you want will come to you.

service guy

Right on. I don't want the bottomfeeders anyway. My van, insurance, tools, ads, sewer camera, etc. don't pay for themselves magically. Certainly $50/hour isn't going to cut it when I show up to every job with a fully stocked, tool-loaded van PLUS $15,000 worth of drain equipment. I make a lot of customers happy, but the ones that want the "cheapest plumber in town" don't use my services, and that is fine with me. Their loss.

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