I have heard over the past decade that raising service rates or increasing the hourly repair rate was very difficult due to a poor economy. Well, the economy is humming. People are back to work in record numbers. Wages are growing at a respectable rate. The stock market has increased wealth in this country by trillions of dollars. I believe it is time pool service techs shared in this income and wealth improvement.
It is always difficult to work against fear, and fear is usually the brake on income and wealth improvement. However, with the improvement to our economy, I am hoping some will take their foot off the brake.
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It isn’t necessary or even advisable to try and become wealthy overnight with service and repair rate increases. It is more likely you will experience greater success with measured increases over a longer period. However, once you have a business plan in place, you must stick to the plan without hesitation. Of course, a recession can derail a good business plan; but there are ways around nearly every obstacle to reach your business goal. Finding ways to circumvent every obstacle is what it takes to stay on course.
For instance, if you have great service and great communication with your customers, even during a recession, you can experience income growth. Most customers will not want to lose a great service tech, even during a recession. Customers are afraid they will not find another “good” service tech once the economy rebounds, and the economy always rebounds.
Isn’t it sad that the state of our industry is such that customers are nervous about firing a poor service company because they are uncertain they will find another company to perform the service they expect? Well, this is good news and bad news.
If you are a respectable company and you perform your work in a timely and professional manner, you can benefit from the sideway work performed by others in our industry. You are the company that can weather recessions and other negatives in our economy. You just cannot put your business plans on hold waiting for something magical to happen.
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Since we are not in a recession, you might wonder why I mention this business executioner. The reason is proactiveness. We will see another recession. For those of you who rise and fall on the economy, start your business improvements now in expectation of the inevitable. Raise your rates, service, and repair. Make the changes to your service plans while customers are more receptive. If you are a procrastinator, read the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper. However, before you start any income enhancement program, be certain you have well-satisfied customers. If your customers are dissatisfied with your service and you start increasing rates, you may lose a large portion of your current income stream.
For those of you who run companies that have no problem weathering a recession, make your larger changes now and leave the smaller changers to implement during rougher times.
There are two magical wands you should and must wave during an expanding economy or a recession. They are the wands of great service and great communication. If you make these two principles the bedrock of your operation, you should not only experience an expanding business, regardless of the state of the economy, you will be doing what is right for your customers and your employees.
To learn more about pool technician business tips, visit millionairepoolman.com or call our the office to speak with one of our specialist, 1877-766-5757.