Stick to your guns (not a gun thread)

[Joe Diaz]

We had a pretty decent size client a while back come in and try to convince us to make an exception for them and lower our prices. Someone else had quoted out their trucks for a much lower cost. They wanted to see if we would match that price. We knew we might be able to come close to that price if we used cheaper materials or made it a smaller size, even then we would be making very little profit on those jobs. We made the decision then to not budge on our prices. Since we had already done work for them in the past, if we used cheaper material or found other ways to cut corners they would be unhappy even if the price was lower.

So they went to the other guy (or gal... or a combination of gals and guys). We were a little upset to lose a good customer, but we felt like their wasn't much we could do. Well, a few weeks ago they came back. The graphics the other place had installed are already failing. They couldn't match quality our printer was able to produce and the customer was all around unhappy with their service. The customer now actually said they understand why our prices are what they are. And now we have the first of many more trucks in our shop ready to be worked on. A good start to the morning.

 

[rjssigns]

Excellent post!

Like my "Uncle Dave" says: Can't tell nobody nuthin'. Gotta find out the hard way.

 

[John Butto]

You have a good business model, great to see you have your customer back.

 

[SignManiac]

Joe glad it worked out well. I've been in the same situation many times before. I've been preaching to the choir about this for my entire life, and yet all too often, shops cave in on price. If you offer the quality and service, there's no need to cheapen yourself like a street hooker.

 

[signage]

Joe glad it worked out well. I've been in the same situation many times before. I've been preaching to the choir about this for my entire life, and yet all too often, shops cave in on price. If you offer the quality and service, there's no need to cheapen yourself like a street hooker.

 

[Gino]

I just really like happy endings.

 

[TheSnowman]

I've seen this over the years too. I've just decided to tell the customer to go use that company because I can't touch that price, and 75% of the time, they'll use me anyway.

 

[Jillbeans]

Good on you, Joe.
I love it when this happens.
I lost a fleet to a hack and I have to wait on the customer at my "real" job that I was forced to get.
It's embarassing...but I still wouldn't do it for cheaper.
Love....Jill

 

[Joe Diaz]

Man the other guys used some really crappy vinyl. We're removing it now. Funny how some of it wants to fall off on it's own, and the parts that are still holding on for dear life are a real pain to remove. I feel bad for the client because their trucks are going to end up costing much more to do than if they just stayed with us in the first place. Even though the other guys were less, the graphics they installed didn't even make it a year, so really they overpaid, then we are charging to have it removed, and then charging our normal price to do it over. It was a costly lesson to learn.

 

[thewood]

I love stories like this.

 

[Mosh]

Funny how cheap vinyl that starts to fall off on it's own is hard to get off a vehicle.
You would think it should just come right off, but it's usually a gluey mess!!!!

 

[Caitlin]

We had a fairly regular client in the promotional side of my shop come to us a while ago saying he had found a product we had quoted for much cheaper, and the other price was hardly more than cost. The girl here told him we wouldn't be able to match that and we were surprised the other company could even stay in business operating like that. To our great shock, we recently discovered that company has gone out of business.

 

[SignManiac]

I've been out taking photos of cheap work where the vinyl is committing suicide. I'm going to put together a portfolio of bad work and keep it on my counter in the showroom. I'll use this to illustrate and educate potential clients who might question our pricing. Here's an example of what I plan to show them.

 

[SD&F]

Yes.....Good News for those of us who stick to our guns.

 

[Gino]

Ya know, you really can't blame the customer in this case.

Many of them are given such a load of crap about how good their sign shop is and to the average customer, it's probably one size fits all. They don't realize until they experience it first hand.... how many variables there really are in our field. Heck, I don't even know some of the lower end vinyls.

When someone comes back with a price match, I'll usually tell them they'll have to go to the other guy if he's that much cheaper. I go on to tell them, that with that much difference, you have to realize we're not comparing apples to apples anymore. It's not a difference in shop hourly rates or other shortcuts. There has to be a better explanation than we're all doing the same thing and his price is half of mine. Common sense dictates this in anything in life.

Many of my experiences have been, they are too embarrassed to come back and go on to look for another hack, before spending a ton of money due to their own misguidance.

 

[Mainframe]

Good Job! Nice to get a win once in a while!

 

[Baz]

Allways rewarding when this happens. Good on you Joe!

 

[James Burke]

Well said! Price, quality, service...choose any two.

 

[binki]

We have had that happen several times. We had one customer come to us when he was in a pinch but all of his bigger stuff was with someone cheaper. I raised his prices when I found out and he left only to come back a few months later.

 

[Sign Up Graphics]

Sign Up Graphics

Good story!!!

 

[Jane Diaz]

When they brought their first truck in, we were very understanding about their problem. They came in and they stayed and chatted a while. I told them while we hated to lose them earlier, we understood how they wanted to save money and be economical. But as they could see, cheaper is not always a better idea. We really valued them as a customer and couldn't feel right if we went "cheap" on them. We use high performance materials and we do things right or we do it over! The last guy didn't want anything to do with them when it all started to fail after a couple years.
When they came to pick up the first truck they were SO happy. We had 7 total vehicles to do (or redo in a few instances)....for now.