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site surveys

Geneva Olson

Geneva Olson

Expert Storyteller
Does anyone here charge a site survey (for when you are doing graphics for venues) and if so, how much?
 
Signscorp

Signscorp

New Member
We charge them for third party installs, or sometimes if we need the bucket truck and the job isn't guaranteed to go forward. Otherwise they're part of the sales process
 
G

GaSouthpaw

Profane and profane accessories.
Yes, you should absolutely charge for site surveys, whether it's as its own line item, or it's worked in as part of the job's cost.
As far as how much to charge, only you can decide how much your time (or your employee's time) is worth.
 
kcollinsdesign

kcollinsdesign

Old member
For most local jobs, we will build the survey expense into the price estimate (if we don't get the job the expense is added to overhead). For some complex jobs (wayfinding systems, jobs requiring extensive analysis and /or engineering, etc.) we will sometimes charge for the service up front (usually adding the agreed upon charge into the final proposal as a line item if they choose to move froward with us, or billing them for the agreed upon amount if we don't get the job – in any case the client gets the results of the survey). With sign forwarding companies, it is usual to have an agreed upon survey charge, again payable whether the company accepts our final proposal or declines.
 
Jean Shimp

Jean Shimp

New Member
Yes, we charge a fee if someone wants us to come out to their site to do a survey or determine their sign needs. Consider all the implications of putting an employee (or yourself) on the road, which includes labor cost, vehicle expense, gasoline cost, insurance cost, liability...why would you do that for free? It can be a separate cost or absorbed into the job cost if you get it. There are times, when work is really, really, slow and we get a good lead, we will take a chance on going out to look at a potential job. But I believe it hurts the sign industry as a whole to give away services. People begin to expect free services this way.
 
J

jimbug72

New Member
We're in a small town so most surveys are close by. If it's far enough away to keep me out of the shop for an hour+ round trip I tell them up front there will be a site survey fee of $X depending on the distance and an estimate of my time round trip. If it's nearby I just work the time/mileage into the installation portion of the estimate.
 
N

netsol

Active Member
i kind of assume the "free estimate" is part of customer acquisition cost

having been on the other side of transactions, i have never paid a site survey fee, (of course i am talking about initial visit, not something requiring engineering drawings, etc)

i have done plenty of surveys over the years for network & telecom wiring & never charged a fee to provide an estimate
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Okay, I'll ask it, since these answers so far, seem to be from every-which-way.

What do you actually mean by a survey and what does a venue have to do with it ??


If we need to go out and do a site survey we have 2 basic costs. One needing a man & a bucket or one with just a regular truck and 1 man. If pictures are needed, there's a slight increase. If captions and measurements are needed more cost. Normally, they're around $285 to $385.00. If they get the signs from us, those costs are soaked up in the project. If they go elsewhere for the job, they pay the invoice for aa site survey.
 
ADVANCED DISPLAY

ADVANCED DISPLAY

ADVANCED DISPLAY
Yea we don't travel more than a half hour from our shop, lately I've had companies ask for site surveys and one is going to be submitting art for installation and I'll charge double normal price usually because it's ajob I don't do the production on therefore don't make the real margin on.

This one company though, really pissed me off. So submitting a formal proof of insurance form through my insurance gal isn't unusual, I do that a lot. THIS company however, wanted to be added to my policy! even on the auto policy for my company work van! anybody ever heard of such a thing? I told them to fuck off more or less.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
ADVANCED DISPLAY said:
Yea we don't travel more than a half hour from our shop, lately I've had companies ask for site surveys and one is going to be submitting art for installation and I'll charge double normal price usually because it's ajob I don't do the production on therefore don't make the real margin on.

This one company though, really pissed me off. So submitting a formal proof of insurance form through my insurance gal isn't unusual, I do that a lot. THIS company however, wanted to be added to my policy! even on the auto policy for my company work van! anybody ever heard of such a thing? I told them to **** off more or less.
Click to expand...
Yes, it's not uncommon. It's called "additional insured". but if you're busy to it's up to you if you want to mess with all that.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
So, if someone has 14 signs at various places on a few acres of land, they're all different sizes and different materials, all have similar, but not the same copy or pictures and some are electrical and some are on top of a roof or second floor level...... you survey all that for no money ?? If you get, let's say only one request a week like that...... with drive time, that's about 2 days worth of time, you don't charge for in a month ?? Never heard of that....... meaning, if you don't get the job(s).
 
Eforcer

Eforcer

Sign Up!
Gino said:
So, if someone has 14 signs at various places on a few acres of land, they're all different sizes and different materials, all have similar, but not the same copy or pictures and some are electrical and some are on top of a roof or second floor level...... you survey all that for no money ?? If you get, let's say only one request a week like that...... with drive time, that's about 2 days worth of time, you don't charge for in a month ?? Never heard of that....... meaning, if you don't get the job(s).
Click to expand...
Gino HELL NO! LOL If there was that much to figure out, it wouldn't be in our strike zone. Most we ever had to survey was 3 locations We came in at our price, with survey embedded. So I guess we do charge, but not listed in quote.
 
Zendavor Signs

Zendavor Signs

Mmmmm....signs
Being able to read your customer and just use some common sense can go a long way here. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. Sometimes we can overthink things. I believe most customers realize we cannot afford to invest oodles of time into something with no commitment. On the other hand, charging to measure someone’s cabinet seems to be off putting. I tend to error on the side of cutting customers some slack. I believe it has benefitted me much in the long run. How do customers hear of you? Were you top of the Google search? Or did they actually look at your website and like what they saw? Positive comments about signs/projects on our website go a long way with me. That tells me they actually checked out what we do and vetted us a little. I think we can all smell the time wasters pretty early on. What do we do with them? Treat them kindly, but be firm on not wasting your time either. Shoot ballpark pricing to them. I know some of you frown upon that, but I find, if well qualified, it can be helpful to weed out those that are not even in the ballpark budget-wise. I have asked for survey or consulting fees before, but they have never been accepted. I am pretty certain those customers were just kicking tires and wanted to suck information out of me. We do business with people we like, and vice versa (for the most part). If you don’t like a customer from the get-go, it probably isn’t going to go anywhere positive.
 
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