Passed up a waer removal job--sorta?

We have a minimum charge for going out to the home and even assessing it.

"Mr Homeowner I understand, and you are very right to be in a hurry. The faster the water is removed the less possibility you have of further damage to your home. I can be at your location in an hour (more than reasonable btw). I have a minimum charge of ($175+gas+your time) to come out and assess your property, which I will apply to your invoice should you decide to use my services."

Being a good person and trying to help someone out quickly is a good thing, but it still costs your business money. CYA

That potential job could have been Servi*******'s nicest flood of the week, but you have to handle all suspect calls just the way you did. By your gut feeling. Key word..."hemhawing". Move on to the next real custy that values their home, and your service, and wants to have their home restored correctly.

I would have at least brought up insurance coverage. Explain the potential dangers of not drying properly and timely. Ask a few question about insurance coverage. Then likely could have let him know that fees above his deductible would be handled by his insurance carrier. In this economy, many are thinking about what comes out of their pocket.

After that discussion, you would have a better fell for how to proceed.

When ever i get a call that begins with the statement "I've got" i usally know its not worth the hassle, the fact that he said he call serve*** means he probably already know the price

Good points by all who have replied so far. Sometimes you can talk to a potential customer about the severity of water damaged property and they still do not get it!! They think about the cost factor. It is tough to pass up money, but you did as I would have.

Had a similar call this morning. All she wanted to know was "how much". I explained that it was impossible for me to know the extent of the damage over the phone. I offered to come out and inspect the damage to give her an idea of cost, for our inspection charge of $250.00 applied to her bill if we got the work. She said " $250.00!!! ARE YOU INSANE???" and hung up. Glad I didn't go out to that one.

I have to agree with Gary. You have to decide how much risk you're willing to take in order to make a profit. If we think about it we are constantly doing risk management in this business. Simple things like corner guards to prevent property damage to ensuring that you're going to actually get paid for the services rendered. I would have handled it the same, with a smile.

I would have gone out to at least extract the standing waterand begin the mitigation process, especially if I paid $175 for the phone call.

I would inspect the job with the homeowner and show what areaswere wet and explain how much money I could save them by properly drying thestructure. It might be a gold mine, it might be a dud. It might be covered byinsurance, it might not, but you will never know for sure unless you go andLOOK. I would then give them a timesensitive estimate for properly drying the structure.

If they chose to only do light wand extraction for $300 anddry the structure themselves I would document that on the work authorization.