Warm air

[mike_s]

Anybody work on this much these days? Wondering if I could find much work in it round here if I added the appliance to my Gas Safe card as not many do. There are not many around here though and most are looked after by the council apparently so probably not worth it. I'll look into it.

 

[oldplumber]

I rip em out where possible, nasty dusty things

 

[quality]

I rip em out where possible, nasty dusty things

Exactly

 

[wnjswozo]

not seen one for 3 years,then get gsc ,with one there,decided to fail it,it was out of the ark.the condition was terrible,hopefully get a full c/h

 

[mike_s]

Yes, my dad ripped out hundereds years go for british gas, said they were deadly things with cracked heat exchangers pumping out carbon monoxide and everyone on that estate should've been dead. I'm quite facinated by how good they can be when working correctly however and well maintained.
People say it's more comfortable then radiators, and you can't even feel it's on, you just feel warm... apart from the noise maybe.

 

[Gassy]

We have thousands of these in Surrey. I probably see one every other day. They are as good as gold if looked after. But lethal, like all open flued appliances, if not.

Little bit of a niche for you if you can work on them.

 

[mike_s]

Just what I was thinking about the Niche market! That's if there are even enough around here, but I've done a little search and been pleasantly surprised.
I've never even seen one before outside of a college room, so I'd have to go looking for them! We are busy with central heating anyway but it's another string to your bow!

 

[Bernie2]

Hmm!

Johnston and Starley are the kiddos on warm air.

Must admit up here we did have loads, but I think many have been replaced now.

Perhaps everyones bottle went, when it became obvious that a faulty heat exchanger could easily duct carbon monoxide all over the house.

Must admit serviced loads of them. Might be a handy fill up for your company like unvented.

Perhaps though, looking for a niche may not be that easy in Plumbing work or heating unless you move over to lead work.

However offering all in prices for set jobs may work. The customer seems to like to know how much they are going to have to pay from the start.
So they probably feel comfortable with a set price.

Okay, I know its impractical to do that at times. I went to change a pair of bath taps one time and it turned into a 2 day job, if I had given a straight all in price I would have lost out.

But on some jobs you probably could do or have a variety of options to go with your set price. You know: Removal of bath panel then a price for the various type of panel.

If the prices are given in a straight forward understandable way it may get results.

I mean let's be fair, we all probably know the trepidation of asking a company to do something where prices are not up front. Take a car into a garage for instance?

Plumbing is the same.

But how often do we look at our pricing structures to try and get more work?

Lets be honest, if a company (not that they are likely to) offered a gas service for say £10 a time and advertised it.

You would probably require the police to stop the customer coming.

And why not make the service a loss leader and pick up on repairs?

Lets use a bit of what the supermarkets do with their prices.

Its a matter of balance though, you could not have a service at £10 and a change of thermocouple priced at £200.

I also think that if it was done right, the problem Plumbers/gas fitters would have is more likely to be handling the work, not having none.

 

[Gassy]

I believe creating a niche in the plumbing market is actually easy!

Let's be honest, there are literally thousands of us plumbers all falling over one another for work. It is easy for customers to buy on the best price, such is the competition.

If you are another plumber offering all things to all people, how can you justify charging more?

But think about this. If you are perceived as the local expert in, say, Powerflushing as an example, you will be able to hold a much higher price. If you give the customer the impression that this is all you do (even if it's not) then if they want the services of the 'best around', they are likely to pay a far higher price to get the job done right.

A bit of clever advertising and maybe a micro-website, which is a second website of yours only speaking specifically about powerflushing, with lots of free information etc and the niche is created.

The idea of Bernies' in the last response about the initial call-'loss leader' is a good shout. But not always necessary.

Why would you want to discount a customer who will spend money with you anyway? The objective must be to get more money out of the whole job. To make you a greater profit.

Giving a discount when a customer would normally spend £50 is not a good way of driving profitibility.

But £10 off for every £90 spent for a customer who would normally spend £50 a year is good business.

The challenge then is to keep this customer over a longer period. Repeat business is where the real money is. Once a customer comes back, they are showing you that they trust you and price becomes much less important to them.

 

[mike_s]

We always give a price for a job and that's that, the price very rarely goes up. Giving a customer a set price per hour in this business doesn't work out well in my opinion. Customers need to know how much they are going to pay and if you charge per hour you can charge for dragging the job on or when you make a mistake.

I am newly qualified but worked with my dad in the industry for 6 years, he's retiring soon and has about 40 years experience. He doesn't have to be the cheapest around but you get his knowledge and a proper job.

We have been putting more into the business recently and pushing on so i can get on my feet and he can retire, he is likely to be working for me largely for the next few years.

I have thought about offering a free safety check to show people the quality of our service but to be honest it's been the busiest year we've had since I began working for him so we don't need gimmicks or offers. Not saying it wouldn't help but just not sure about it.

I built a website but currently in the process of updating it and changing the host. Probably having one professionally built over the next month or so. Getting higher up on google, putting a bigger advert in the local paper plus some PR and getting in touch with friends now I'm qualified is how I plan on bringing in more business.

The sub section of the site on power flushing is something my dad has suggested, explaining the importance of it and how it can help. He wants to target a certin block of flats for instance which he knows could all do with a power flush, so maybe we'll drop some leaflets by.

Regarding the warm air units, I did a search on google for local houses with warm air and right move results came up, very interesting. Maybe I could phone them up or target newly sold houses.
Thanks for replies.

 

[Mbear]

I shudder when I find out I'm doing a warm air unit.

I hate them with a passion, always have.

Most have been ripped out round our way but there are little pockets of them still about.

Yet most custs who have them don't want rid of them, they seem to think they're the bees knees.
Crazy punters IMHO.


Wet central heating loyal !

 

[oldplumber]

Hmm!



Its a matter of balance though, you could not have a service at £10 and a change of thermocouple priced at £200.

.

Why not BG have been doing that for years

 

[JamesC]

I fit these every day of the week.
They are only dangerous if fitted incorrectly, just like every other gas appliance.

Seems to me you either like them or not. Personnally i think they're good.

However, there's a lot more to fitting them them than you would first think.