- Quote service call, labor and parts as one total on the phone, before dispatch.
- Calculate your monthly fixed cost divided by real billable jobs. That is your floor.
- Drive time is unpaid unless you price a travel zone.
- You cannot beat a bait price. Compete on certainty and say so in the first thirty seconds.
The three part quote
Every job breaks into three parts. The service call covers getting there. The labor covers the work. The parts cover what you leave behind. Quote all three as one number and the customer hears a price rather than a meter running.
The service call is not a formality. A mobile locksmith spends a large share of the working day driving, and a call out that does not cover fuel, vehicle wear, insurance and the time to reach the door is a job that loses money whatever the labor rate.
Set different rates for standard hours, after hours and holidays, publish them, and hold to them. A customer told on the phone that a two in the morning call is charged at the night rate almost never argues. A customer who discovers it on the invoice always does.
Knowing your break even
Add up everything that happens whether or not you take a job today. Vehicle payment, insurance, general liability cover, licensing, tool replacement, software subscriptions, advertising and phone. Divide by the number of billable jobs you actually do in a month, not the number you hope to do.
That figure is the floor. Any job priced below it is subsidized by your other work. Most locksmiths have never calculated it and are surprised by how high it is.
Drive time is the hidden killer. Two jobs an hour apart is a day with four hours of unpaid driving in it. Either price a travel zone or decline the outlying work. Being busy and being profitable are different conditions.
Competing against bait pricing
You will lose price shoppers to advertised nineteen dollar service calls that become four hundred dollars on arrival. You cannot beat that number and you should not try, because it is not a real number.
Compete on certainty instead. A firm total on the phone, a named technician, a marked vehicle, a license number where the state issues one, card payment and a written invoice. Say all of that in the first thirty seconds of the call. It is exactly what the bait operator cannot say.
And tell the customer why the cheap quote is not real. Not bitterly, just plainly. A customer who has heard the mechanism explained before it happens to them remembers who explained it.
Common Questions
Should I quote a price on the phone?
Yes, one firm total including the call out, the labor and the parts. If a job genuinely cannot be priced blind, say what it depends on and give a range you will honor.
What is bait pricing?
Advertising a call out under thirty dollars and finding reasons to raise it on arrival. It is the practice that made customers distrust this whole trade, and it is worth refusing on those grounds alone.
How do I compete with a cheaper quote?
By being the one whose number does not change. Say the total, say it is the total, and put it in writing before you start. That wins more work than matching a price you cannot deliver on.