Transcript
Baker Plbg: Okay, we had a lovely experience on Friday. Out of nowhere, a property management group out of Quebec gave us a call and wanted to just do a bunch of work, which we did. We probably did four or five calls for them, probably billed them ah seven or eight grand, which is great.
Baker Plbg: ah but If you have worked for these property management companies, there's like there's no room. for you to make any money. And ah we probably fielded close to 20 phone calls for those five service calls that came our way because they were so ah worried about margins and profit and when we were gonna show up and make sure we call before we get there and make sure we call once we're done.
Baker Plbg: It's so regimented and i just don't have time for it. um and they asked us to repair a backflow. There's don't know what size is, six inch backflow.
Baker Plbg: And so we gave him a price to do that. And he's like, oh you're, um I can get it cheaper. I'm like, I'm sure you can. I get it cheaper than you, but I have to put my markup on it. And so long story short, we had a engaging conversation.
Baker Plbg: Or by the end of it, he wanted me to talk to my accountant, his accountant, so that he could explain to me how markup works. and I'm like, dude, I don't work off of markup. I work off of margins.
Baker Plbg: And he didn't know what margins were. He's like, margin, what is that? I'm like, just Google margin calculator. Here's what this product cost me. And here's is what I'm going to charge you.
Baker Plbg: And he's like, that is that is outrageous. I'm like, that's what it is. And if you don't like it, there's 600 plumbers that you can use. So we'll see if we actually do that work. He was mad when the conversation was over.
Baker Plbg: um But As I said to my daughter, who now does all of our dispatching, um you know i've worked for I've had the Home Depot contract. I've had the PetSmart contract. I've had the Walmart contract. I've had like all of those for a very brief moment in time, like you know four or five months before they're like, you're too expensive. I'm like, I know.
Baker Plbg: You guys are like, it's the race to the bottom. Who can do this the cheapest and for the least amount? And it's that classic thing. The volume is incredible. i'm like, is it incredible?
Baker Plbg: the the The base customers that we have call us four or five times a day. I don't need volume. I don't need, I do understand that I'm a bit of a unicorn when it comes to that stuff because ah we don't do any average advertising. We've been doing it a long time. we have a very established client base that love us, that call us all the time.
Baker Plbg: And it took a long time to get there. But if those property management companies don't,
Baker Plbg: phone you or those big companies phone you, please know that that is the only thing that matters to them is price. And there's always someone that'll do it cheaper, always.
Baker Plbg: And you know they like I said, they probably phoned us you know 20 um to discuss billing and they's like we love your response we love your results we love that we can communicate you with you we just don't like the price I'm like listen man it's the package deal you want communication you want results you want response times comes with price.
Baker Plbg: I encourage you not to relinquish that. Particularly now as the game is changing um to the point where as I've said a hundred times they need us more than we need them.
Baker Plbg: and if And if you will stick to your guns and and be confident in how you speak of your services and of yourselves you There's no stopping you.
Baker Plbg: And I wish you luck in those endeavors. My thoughts, not yours. Shout out to the group. We'll just leave it at the group.
