Keeping clearance costs clear and simple
Posted on | April 17, 2010 | No Comments
One of the questions every customer asks – for some strange reason – is ‘How do you charge?’
Well, one thing I learnt a long time ago is that customers do not want to be charged by the item:
“Right, that’ll be £25 for the fridge, £15 for the old computer monitor, £5 for the keyboard, £2.50 for the mouse … of course, I quite understand that you don’t have any mice in your house, yes, I’m sure it’s as clean as a whistle … no, I was referring to the computer mouse – it’s actually £1.75 for a dead mouse … and it’s £1.25 for ten newspapers, £0.75 for each pound of cardboard” (eh, how much cardboard does that amount to?), and so on.
The poor customer, who may already feel overwhelmed, is going to get a fright. Charge per item? Oh my God, all those things in the spare room – and the attic, and the garage!
No, customers don’t want any messing around – they like to be told an overall figure that covers everything. And, since we’re a clearance company, after all, we like to give them a clear idea of what the cost will be – straight off, no complications.
For the same reason, we don’t charge according to the length of time the clearance will take, or for each quarter-vanload, or half-vanload, or for that matter six-seventeenths of a vanload.
Imagine – you ring a company and the spokesperson says, “Well, we charge according to the amount of junk that has to be cleared. Now normally we charge on the basis of volume but in the case of heavy materials, we charge by weight.”
Then, as you’re trying to work out what that means (how heavy is heavy?), the spokesperson asks you where you live – and it turns out that the rate differs according to your location. “Right, eh, Birmingham, eh hold on a minute please, yes, the rate is £140 for a half-truckload …” “No”, you say, “I live in Southampton!” “Oh, right, hold on a minute please, eh, the rate for Southampton is … eh, £160.”
And then, while you’re wondering why Sotonians (yep, that’s the proper name for Southampton residents) have to pay more than Brummies, it turns out that the rate quoted – based on a heavily miscalculated estimate of the volume, or is it the weight, of rubbish to be cleared – is only a “rough estimate”. You won’t get an exact quote until the clearance team arrives at your property and carries out an assessment.
So that’s why, at Abacus, we quote an overall amount and keep to it. Customers want their property, and their minds, to be cleared of rubbish – so we’re not going to fill their heads with junk.
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