Suggestions Rush fees

[White Haus]

I'm sure this has been discussed here before, but search feature isn't currently working so...............

How do you guys handle rush fees? Mostly referring to B2B sign shops.

Most of our customers are great and reasonable and give us lots of warning, especially for larger projects. But lately there have been more rush requests(demands) that are starting to get on my nerves and disrupt things.

Historically we've done whatever we can to look after our existing customers and always go the extra mile. I don't plan on changing this but I feel like we need to be compensated for having to re-schedule days due to poor planning by customers.
Our staffing situation is about to change and we're going to have to start pushing for longer lead times and start scheduling jobs/managing customer expectations carefully so that we can keep up until we hire another production person.

Yesterday afternoon, get an email for (1) cling decal needed today. This morning, get an email for (4) coroplast signs and customer says "hoping to pick up today". Followed up already by text................at 7:30am.

Normally I would just say sure, we'll get it done but I'm starting to be less inclined to accommodate these avoidable rush jobs. Part of me always hates the thought of turning down money and them potentially going somewhere else but then again no one else is going to jump on these tiny last minute jobs...

Long story short, do you charge rush fees? How do you calculate this and do you make exceptions for good clients? Off the top of my head, if I were to charge rush fees for a same day order I'd probably double the normal price, especially for such a small order like (1) decal or (4) coroplast signs..........those jobs are killers unless you can batch w/ others which isn't easy when they come out of nowhere.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ikarasu]

Adding a rush fee was the best thing we ever did for our shop.

You wont make it rich, or even make a noticeable amount of money off of it... but as a byproduct of it... most peoples jobs that were rush, end up not being a rush anymore because people are cheap.

We had one guy who was piss poor at planning... He'd give us artwork on Friday for trade shows or whatever his company did on saturday and expect it to be done for end up day... No matter what we said to him, it happened every other week...

Then we started to add a rush fee - We explained that everything is scheduled with a lead time for a reason - It's not as simple as hitting print, and his stuff gets printed with everything else. We print on 10+ different materials, which are scheduled for certain days... So his "rush" Sign makes us have to rush writing it up and puttig it into our system... We have to have a mini meeting explaining theres a rush... our printer has to load a material that wasnt planned for the day, putting everything else "behind", we have to load the laminator that wasnt planned for the day.... We have to cut up whatever material it is, then our finisher has to stop what he's doing to put it together... Then our shipper has to stop what theyre doing to package it... That a "Rush" seems like a small thing to him, but it throws off multiple departments, and usually ends up in overtime... So from now on there would be a rush fee. We'd tack on a $40-50 charge depending on how big the order was to recover all the extra labor to squeeze him in.


Haven't seen a rush from him since.... And half the customers who call in asking for something "Today", as soon as we say sure, there will be a rush.... Well, they end up saying they can wait a few days, it's not a problem.. they would have "liked" it earlier, but its not truly a rush... At least not one they want to pay $20 for.


Our rush's have dropped 90%... we pull in maybe $100 a month from rush jobs, but we save so many hours not having to deal with them. We still do rush's for our main clients when it's truly a rush, and we dont charge the fee... or if its a customer that is in a bind and something came up, so they need it right away...we'll still help out.

Realtor who has an open house on Saturday and didnt order the sign until noon on Friday though? You'd be amazed at how many of them say they'll run the open house with no sign and pick it up the following week because they dont want to pay an additional $20...

 

[Notarealsignguy]

It seems like customers have become chronically behind and more demanding on delivery time in the past year. We never charged a rush fee and try to accommodate legitimate needs but do agree that it has become annoying and intrusive. As ikarasu said, it throws off everything and tends to make all of your regular jobs get behind then everything you have becomes a rush job. Not a real fun predicament to be in and it's extremely inefficient.
To a certain extent you are right that nobody else will take these little rush jobs but in reality there is always someone waiting for an opportunity if the customer has future potential. I think that is where the underlying stress of it all comes into play. Nobody cares about losing the realtor that only orders cheap stuff the day before they need it but losing the actual profitable B2B customers that start pushing time lines are the ones you lose sleep over.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

double post

 

[Gino]

This has been a problem for as long as I'm in business and before that. I remember my first boss yelling at people to get their sh!t together because other than the screen printed stuff, all signs were furnished by hand. As more and more agencies and other types of brokers came along, the deadlines just piled up and the computers, printers and cnc's did nothing but make the crap faster for us, but at the same time, all the idiots, knew they could wait longer to order, thus letting them keep more money in THEIR pockets. Had a guy last thursday order a bunch of signs and said he needed them for friday and to have the bill ready and he'll pay right away. He showed up tuesday and forgot the check. Then, he ordered a bunch more and said he'd be in the next day with money in hand. I finally sent the invoice directly to a/p, but not before raising the total cost $175.

 

[Gino]

Double post

 

[Gino]

Double post

 

[Gino]

Double post

 

[Owen Signcraft]

Unless there is another shop in your area willing to do it just as fast or faster, I would simply extend your lead times as required and let the clients decide if they want to wait. I think you will find that clients start planning in the necessary lead times when you stop accommodating the rush so often. And sometimes its not the purchaser's money (especially with larger clients), so the rush charges do nothing to discourage late requests.

 

[ikarasu]

A lot of people seem afraid to lose a customer.... If it's a huge customer, I get it. But even then... if the customer is always putting in rush's and slowing down your production for everyone else, you're pissing off other customers to meet this customers needs... stressing you, and your employees out. We be realistic and tell most of them no, or introduce the rush / overtime fee... Even if there is no overtime. If a needy customer takes their shit and leaves... Kind of a win win, theres plenty of other customers. If its a reasonable customer... or someone who spends XXXX dollars every month...sure, eat the additional labor cost of producing the signs fast, but you need to realize you are spending more money to make those signs...so you should be compensated for it.


If you're a big shop, of you primarily spend all the time in the office, spend a day in production. Follow a work order from Write up, to packaging - Time how long the order is in every employees hands.... Then send a rush through and follow that order... I think you'd be amazed when you see it ends up taking twice as long because you're not efficiently grouping it with other stuff. Thats free labor you just threw out... Again, worth it for the good customers, worth it to be nice... but if you have a customer that always does it... charge more. We find 90% of our re-prints come from rush jobs as well... Whether its art mistakes, or other failures.

 

[JBurton]

Double post

 

[Zendavor Signs]

Absolutely charge rush fees, or turn down the work. Customers will drive you into the ground if you don't set up some boundaries. Unnecessary rush jobs (which is most of them) are so exhausting and most often hurt your bottom line.

 

[ddarlak]

I never ca

 

[ddarlak]

I never call them rush fees, you want my time, it'll cost you whatever is appropriate at that time.

 

[visual800]

if I have the materials on hand and the color of vinyl Ill do it and charge a rush fee but if not YOU are gonna have to wait. YOU are the one that didnt come thru on time dont try and push that sh@t on me

 

[thesignpost]

I'm sure this has been discussed here before, but search feature isn't currently working so...............

How do you guys handle rush fees? Mostly referring to B2B sign shops.

Most of our customers are great and reasonable and give us lots of warning, especially for larger projects. But lately there have been more rush requests(demands) that are starting to get on my nerves and disrupt things.

Historically we've done whatever we can to look after our existing customers and always go the extra mile. I don't plan on changing this but I feel like we need to be compensated for having to re-schedule days due to poor planning by customers.
Our staffing situation is about to change and we're going to have to start pushing for longer lead times and start scheduling jobs/managing customer expectations carefully so that we can keep up until we hire another production person.

Yesterday afternoon, get an email for (1) cling decal needed today. This morning, get an email for (4) coroplast signs and customer says "hoping to pick up today". Followed up already by text................at 7:30am.

Normally I would just say sure, we'll get it done but I'm starting to be less inclined to accommodate these avoidable rush jobs. Part of me always hates the thought of turning down money and them potentially going somewhere else but then again no one else is going to jump on these tiny last minute jobs...

Long story short, do you charge rush fees? How do you calculate this and do you make exceptions for good clients? Off the top of my head, if I were to charge rush fees for a same day order I'd probably double the normal price, especially for such a small order like (1) decal or (4) coroplast signs..........those jobs are killers unless you can batch w/ others which isn't easy when they come out of nowhere.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TinFoilHat]

We typically do next day rush charges additional $50 +30% of the whole entire order excluding rush fee!

We do same day for $100 minimum rush fee +50% of the order, excluding rush fee.

Only for print ready artwork submitted before 1 PM.

Seems to work for us!

 

[unmateria]

We put a 3 meter sign in the sign counter. "Urgent jobs will be charged with 50% increase over standard prices".

That was lile 20 years ago, maybe more. Since that, everything has been negotiation and budgets with both prices. Urgent - nonurgent. And 99.9% of jobs has been nonurgent since that.

 

[Ron at Forest Litho]

Adding a rush fee was the best thing we ever did for our shop.

You wont make it rich, or even make a noticeable amount of money off of it... but as a byproduct of it... most peoples jobs that were rush, end up not being a rush anymore because people are cheap.

We had one guy who was piss poor at planning... He'd give us artwork on Friday for trade shows or whatever his company did on saturday and expect it to be done for end up day... No matter what we said to him, it happened every other week...

Then we started to add a rush fee - We explained that everything is scheduled with a lead time for a reason - It's not as simple as hitting print, and his stuff gets printed with everything else. We print on 10+ different materials, which are scheduled for certain days... So his "rush" Sign makes us have to rush writing it up and puttig it into our system... We have to have a mini meeting explaining theres a rush... our printer has to load a material that wasnt planned for the day, putting everything else "behind", we have to load the laminator that wasnt planned for the day.... We have to cut up whatever material it is, then our finisher has to stop what he's doing to put it together... Then our shipper has to stop what theyre doing to package it... That a "Rush" seems like a small thing to him, but it throws off multiple departments, and usually ends up in overtime... So from now on there would be a rush fee. We'd tack on a $40-50 charge depending on how big the order was to recover all the extra labor to squeeze him in.


Haven't seen a rush from him since.... And half the customers who call in asking for something "Today", as soon as we say sure, there will be a rush.... Well, they end up saying they can wait a few days, it's not a problem.. they would have "liked" it earlier, but its not truly a rush... At least not one they want to pay $20 for.


Our rush's have dropped 90%... we pull in maybe $100 a month from rush jobs, but we save so many hours not having to deal with them. We still do rush's for our main clients when it's truly a rush, and we dont charge the fee... or if its a customer that is in a bind and something came up, so they need it right away...we'll still help out.

Realtor who has an open house on Saturday and didnt order the sign until noon on Friday though? You'd be amazed at how many of them say they'll run the open house with no sign and pick it up the following week because they dont want to pay an additional $20...

Yes, Customers will say they need it right away because they are used to pushing thing with people that don't produce. If you respond with, "OK, I can do that, but the rush-job fee adds $260 to the job." Usually elicits the response of... "No, don't do that, you say you can have it in 3 days... OK that will be fine."

 

[Ron at Forest Litho]

Yes, Customers will say they need it right away because they are used to pushing thing with people that don't produce. If you respond with, "OK, I can do that, but the rush-job fee adds $260 to the job." Usually elicits the response of... "No, don't do that, you say you can have it in 3 days... OK that will be fine."