Vent: A renter told me my rates were unfair and it made me rethink everything

Back in March, I had a guy moving out of a 2 bedroom apartment in Tucson. He said my quote seemed high compared to the company down the street. I got defensive at first, told him we include packing materials and insurance. He just looked at me and said "But your hourly is 20% more and you take the same amount of time." That stuck with me. I spent the weekend actually checking what other movers charge and realized I had not updated my prices in over two years while everyone else adjusted. I dropped my rate by $15 an hour and started itemizing extras separately instead of bundling. Business actually went up. Has anyone else had a customer's complaint turn out to be good advice?

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1 Comment

blair_gibson781mo ago

Oh man, this hits so close to home for me. I had basically the same thing happen a couple years back with my handyman gig. A customer pointed out I was charging way more for materials than the hardware store down the road and I got all defensive at first too. But after I calmed down I actually went and checked and yeah, I was overcharging without realizing it. I dropped my markup on supplies and started being upfront about it and my repeat business went up a ton. It's crazy how hard it is to hear that kind of feedback in the moment but it can really save your business. I think sometimes we get stuck in our own little bubble and forget to look around at what everyone else is doing.