Advice to an electrician: How to protect yourself from greedy and stingy customers?

The reason for writing the article was the story of my friend colleague - an electrician, who recently had some, to put it mildly, misunderstanding with the customer. Simply put, the client “threw money” (did not pay in full for the work performed).

For 15 years of work in this field, I managed to avoid such unpleasant situations, and therefore I want to share a few simple tips. These tips will help not only an electrician, but also any other craftsman working in the construction industry for hire.

Council the first.

To begin with, the client should not be given a reason not to pay for your work due to ... poor quality of the work performed. Do your best. It is better to work slowly, but qualitatively. The client must be satisfied!

If he likes your work, he will certainly share your phone number with his friends/acquaintances. And this is advertising, and free and effective :)

Tip two.

This advice concerns the preparation of estimates for upcoming work.

Agree - an unpleasant situation when you come to the customer to discuss the details of the upcoming work, count the materials, make sketches, advise how best to do it, etc. etc., and then some time passes, and the client either hired another person, or decided to do it himself, using your advice.

With all this, you spent your own time, which is measured in banknotes. It's a shame? Undoubtedly!

Getting repeatedly into such a situation, I somehow took the advice of one friend of the "gypsum plasterer". I liked the effect :)

So, before making an estimate, discussing the details and making calculations, tell a potential client:

You know, my time is worth money. I can't afford to waste it. If you agree to hire me, I will now calculate the amount of materials needed, calculate the cost of my work ... Drawing up an estimate will cost (for example) 1000 rubles, but when you pay for the work performed, I will give you a discount on this amount. If you change your mind about hiring me, 1000r. will remain with me as payment for the preparation of calculations.

That's all.

Surely, some of you will say that such a speech can scare away a client. Maybe…

But on the other hand, you look like a pro in his eyes. In the end, you don’t take an advance for the work, but a payment for the preparation of an estimate (besides, this amount will be subsequently included by you in the total cost of the work and the preparation of an estimate for it will actually be FREE).

Tip three.

Divide your work into several stages, agree in advance that each stage will be paid upon completion.

For example, you are making a 3-room apartment ... So take it separately for each room, separately for installing the introductory shield ... or for each day of work. In order not to get confused later - mark for what they took, for what they didn’t.

If he refuses to pay and you do not come to some kind of compromise, you will lose a little. Although such a division of payment for work has never left me without money ...

So I recommend!

Tip four.

If, nevertheless, a conflict is brewing and you have made concessions in some way, and now you are afraid of being left without payment, you can play it safe and make some ... how to softly call it ... a “preparation”, due to which at one fine moment everything will stop work. It’s not a fact that this will sober up the client and he will immediately pay you off, but you will get a little moral satisfaction. And what can be done - read here . Although I am not a supporter of such radical measures.

Tip five.

In general, to avoid any conflicts, work officially. Make an agreement with the person. In case of disagreement, you can always go to court.

However, practice shows that with this approach, it rarely comes to court - everything is decided on the spot.

I wish you "fat" objects and adequate clients. Good luck.