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I have researched various other web sites and some do some dont.
Interesting topic, and well timed from my point of view.
We hope by February to have a password protected area for our customers to view prices and availabilty of stock, along with online ordering.
I am not happy about online ordering for a couple of reasons. Firstly a brick is a brick is brick, whilst with a plant is unique, everyone grows to a different standard. It is impossible to compare plants online, you need to view and inspect quality, always. I just replied to another post about Dan sending us an enquiry in the future, I would really prefer him or anyone to visit, and actually see what we do.
We are not the run of the mill Nursery growing only 2-3 litre and as we only grow in larger sizes, some customers do say that we are expensive. However judging from the Surrey meet up last week, we are around £1.50 cheaper for a 10 litre plant than Surrey.
It is like everything, it must be compared like with like.
I know that there has been a lot said about them, But they are ideal for me for starting up.
If I can manage to create one I'm sure everyone can.
Have a look www.danpearcegardendesign.co.uk
ROWLY HILL said:
they've phoned me a few times ........ :-/
another site ive looked at a few times in london also has a template of daily prices @£150 /day etc
saves any time wasters , although i dont like to lose out so will Always have a look before quoting to see how much Potential work client may have..
I am slightly different that I sell physical products and providing the off the shelf items suit the customer in terms of size there is a price by the product. The variables are delivery costs which can be tricky out of area (which is covered). The one offs are sometimes a little more difficult, customers can't understand that sometimes, something half the size can take twice as long to produce and whilst they are quite content to pay £75 plus per hour to have their car fixed £30 an hour for another skilled tradesman is a problem.
Would an explanation of charges help with typical prices in the case of services?, could you for example say, garden tidy ups start from £? per day, we would be pleased to have a look at any job (within a fixed area close to base) and give you a free estimate.
At the end of the day to a degree we all compete on price. Some potential customers are put off by seeing prices, my arches cost more than the tubular chinese ones, however I haven't lost them as customers. Three or five years down the road when their current arch or obelisk has rotted out or fallen down they know where to find an alternative and how much they need to pay for it.
Steve and Tina are different in that their customers don't want customers of their own seeing the cost price of plants. The password idea is a good long term solution in the meantime you could ask trade visitors to send them you their details via a contact form and if they are kosher email them a price list, you then have their details to send them any promotions you might want to run in the future.
I believe that if you are offering a 'definable' product, you can/should be able to show prices on a website as people are looking at a 'unique' offering and will decide depending on their desire to purchase that product.
When it comes to offering services (such as maintenance) I believe it is not advisable to do this for many reasons (some already said), otherwise you just get into offering a 'labour day rate' approach.
You then have no chance to add your "value" or other offerings/add on services.
I went to a talk about negotiation last month, - very good and his suggestoin was that like car sales, you always put your starter price on the outside (on your website) - then you can negotiate from there.
i.e if you'd like to get £150 for a days work, then put £175 then you have a bit of wiggle room.
for maintenance i'd suggest putting something like
an average size garden in xxxxx area where we do lawn, borders and hedging costs an average of xxx per visit, please ask for a individual quotation.
that way, they have a starting price (so they don't waste your time) and you can say, - ooh, you've got more weeds than an average garden, or your lawn is bigger etc