10314Ok we all have our rates, and we've all decided what those rates are, based on what you think you are worth versus what the competition is charging. We've all had calls from those eBayer types expecting their newly bought wardrobe from Glasgow to be transported to Devon for a tenner, but i'll discard them cos they know no better.
My latest gripe is towards those that fully understand what it is we do, but still expect there to be some "room for manoeuvre". That I find insulting and is something I will not do. You may think i'm mad, that i should look at the bigger picture, afterall a 10% margin is better than nothing, but i'd feel cheated on every job i took, and resent picking up the phone to them.
Maybe I should quantify what i'm talking about.
Two years ago I got a call from a company looking for a courier company to help them cover a potential contract. Rates were discussed, and an account opened, but no such work ever came our way... Until Monday. On Monday an urgent, must go now, no phaffing about kinda job was called through. It was subsequently done with no fuss, no hassles. A nice, easy straight forward collection and delivery we all do, day in, day out. The pod details were automatically sent... Job done. On Tuesday a call asking if something could be done about the price as they were "stuck" with a contract and it would be useful if we could discount our normal charge. There was the usual "because we expect to get a lot more work" and "we'd love to give you more". All the sales chat you've all heard before.
I didn't bite. I listened, nodded and smiled in the right places (difficult to do on the phone) and let him tell me about how he'd love to be able to pay more, but market forces blahblahblah.
Anyway to cut a long story short (ok medium) i politely told them that i believe we are competitive, offer a service level that reflects our price, wished him well in finding a more economical courier, but told him we were here should he need us as a back up.
My point is this, if you negotiate, it will always be down, not up, and when covering your lower priced job, supposing a customer paying the right price comes along?
We all know the big boys can undercut us, but are they cheaper in reality? Because we charge a fair price, and pay a fair price to our couriers, if there's a 10 minute wait, we don't mind. If its 20 mins we don't mind. Other supposed cheaper courier companies may start lower, but their invoice will have extras.
I dunno about you, but i'd rather be busy becasue we're good, NOT becasue we're cheap