Reg,
Specifically are there things that boil your blood, or get under your skin?
We all deal with some amounts of the same things from customers. Probably people have strategies.
If you have to feel like you have to prove yourself, maybe you could take another approach. I don't know. You're a man of skill and experience, but not a blowhard. Maybe tooting your own horn will be better than subtlety.
If you go in and look a big tree, and start off with, "Ok. No problem," then do your figuring, it can be a different customer perception than if you go in do all your figuring before saying a word.
If someone asks how a job will be done, rather than a lengthy explanation about, maybe it goes maybe something a bit more of "professionally, predictably, and safely."
or
"Well, this looks like a big tree, but it a medium tree, run of the mill work. We will bring in $75k in equipment, lots of insurances that we don't use, 50 years of collective professional experience. Bang it out. Move onto the next tree. Its not like its 250' tall.
I feel like a short order cook sometimes...remove a couple 150' trees in a tight space, homesite clearing job, hazard evaluation for the council (whatever it is called locally), strucutural pruning of some young trees, prune some trees that some early structural pruning would have set up for a longer life and less maintanance, ham and cheese on rye, cheeseburger, 2 over-easy with hash browns...kinda blurs together when its no big deal work."
Tell the homeowner the time for the bid, beginning to end, as you have lots more to do in your day.
"We are scheduling, XX days out. Busy all the time. I can get in in for a site visit to for a bid from 8-830 Tuesday morning, or Friday 5-530. Can one of those two work for you?"
When people ask if I have a slow season, I say 'hopefully from Christmas until the second week on January I get some time for a week of dedicated maintenance, and week of vacation. If you do what you say, at a reasonable price, all things considered, safely and predictably, there are always people calling. I mostly don't/ can't answer my phone, or I wouldn't get work done. All my repeat customers will email me or leave a VM. If someone doesn't care enough to leave a VM, they clearly wanted someone to do the work, not clearly wanting us to do the work. It helps us both out."
How far do you travel for jobs? How is traffic? Are you prequalifying by phone before arranging site visits?
I'd rather weed out a mismatch, rushed job, tire-kicker, low-bid wins customer from wherever I'm sitting.
When people call me and I'm at my computer, I ask for their address and use sattellite imagery.
I will ask people to send a couple pictures and details in my outgoing VM message. If they can't be bothered to take a couple pictures from their smartphone and write some details/ goals/ etc, especially with the other decision makers in mind (spouse/ partner/ person with the wallet), I tend not to bother with them. Weeds them out for me, telling me they aren't interested in me, just someone.
When you do the good work you do, there are usually neighbors that want bids. This can be hard, when you have to get across town for a bid at the end of the day, versus walking next door.
To me, booking way out is a pain in the neck. I'd rather leave my secured equipment in the neighbor's yard/ driveway and be able to add on a job the next day. Easier money.
Do people up there expect a date and time? City people are different to deal with for sure.
I try not to give people a specific day, where they will want to be home and whatnot, which so often slows things down. I have plenty of customers who trust me to work without them home. If people make big deal about being home, I'll usually accommodate, but there is nothing that says I have to do the work on a specific date and time on my contracts. Things come up. Might have a sore knuckle or shoulder and want a day of lighter work. When things are scheduled too tightly, I feel pinched/ pressured/ and don't care for it.
