Customer Types

[THATgirl]

Ian, years ago when I only handlettered signs, that would happen to me. People were always telling me to charge more. I remember charging the amount of what bill was due back then. It was pretty funny. If my power bill was 49.34......that's what I would charge for the sign.

 

[Steve C.]

And the customers who tell you what they have already been quoted as if you'll drop your price to get the job.

Yeah Dave, I like to tell them "That's a real good price, I think I'll start gettin' my signs from them."

Steve C.

 

[supchaka]

I did a design for a girl that was going to be $30. I wasnt going to charge a setup or anything since she was a friend of my brother. She thought I was too high. She went to a mall an hour away and paid $25 just for the text. I guess she showed me!

 

[dccas]

a few years ago a guy wanted some signs duplicated, I gave a price of around 100 bucks each, he said "why, I had these made for just 40 dollars", I said that was a real good price and suggested he go back to the same shop.
He couldn't, they went out of business!

 

[nodrenim]

Fred, My friend, after 44 yrs. in this biz, I could go all nite on this one. How about the guy with the 4'x8' menu boards for his drive in joint and wants a better price because of all the "practice" you'll be getting? Or the one who needs a certain size letter on his truck so he can get through Canadian Customs easier, then goes to your competitor and gets half the size for half the price? Nuff for now, maybe I'll be back later. nodrenim

 

[Fred Weiss]

I was kind of amused by one I already posted about ..... under Outsourcing for Fun and Profit.


The guy that takes care of the vehicles for Atlantis Police had been going to an old friend of mine in the business for his graphics and installs but it's about 25 miles up the road and he hates the trip ..... on top of which the artwork he needed was never produced digitally and no one had a copy of it because the screen printer the other sign guy used went out of business and disappeared.

So the customer goes to my best friend, also in the sign business, who tells him it will be $150 to $200 to recreate the artwork, not counting the actual production charges for the decals he needs (which he would have outsourced to me).

Next The Atlantis Police guy calls me up and then comes in. I tell him the setup will be $150 to $200 also but while he's there I take a picture of the mounted decal on his car and write up the order. A couple of days later he picks them up.

I assume he is applying them himself. Tonight we played canasta with our friends who tell us that he brought the decals over to them and they installed them ..... for a fee of course.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

somehow, someone, somewhere thinks what happened was efficient, Fred- you can only grin!
Isn't it somewhat nice when the jobs & money get shared a bit though!

 

[Ladypainter]

I hate trying to explain the difference between vector art and bitmaps. People think that whatever they grab off the internet can be reproduced instantly.

LP

 

[Fred Weiss]

I hate trying to explain the difference between vector art and bitmaps. People think that whatever they grab off the internet can be reproduced instantly.

LP

You mean it can't?

 

[Dale Horn]

That's a good one, Fred

Usually what happens here is the customer applies it and screws one up. So we end up selling another one - and then it comes out " Hmm, there is a bit of a technique to applying it heh ? "

 

[jimdes]

My favorite was a tow truck I did for a repo company:

"I want my logo as big as you can make it on the side of the truck"

So just in case, I printed a layout for them . . .

"That big? I did tell you we were in the repo business didn't I?"

So, I resized it down to just the door, gave him the option of premium or reflectorized, got the job and picked up the whole fleet of five trucks. Premium.

The next month he comes back in and wants a quote to have it all done over in reflectorized. The quote amounted to about quadruple the original job. (Stripping the original job, cutter blades, special order vinyl and add conspicuity stripes)

"Holy (expletive deleted), you gotta be kidding me. Don't you just glass bead the stuff that's on there?"

Explained the details, benefits (again), process and got the job . . . again.

Sometimes I love it when a customer isn't happy (with their choices)