Do you know how to turn requests for free work into billable work?

Last updated by Ulysses Maclaren [SSW] over 1 year ago.See history

Often clients will call up asking for a short task to be performed. You need to know how to let them know that the time will be charged.

"Let me remote into the server to investigate"

Figure: Bad example - they don't know this will be billed

"If it was a quick 5 mins I would do it for free, however I need to do a little investigation. First impression is that it might take me a couple of hours... if that is OK, let me know."

Figure: OK example - Making sure you won't work for free

"Let me see if I can get you a booking for tomorrow"

Figure: Good example - Booking in a day of work minimises context switching, and trains the client to book you for 1 day at a time.

DealingwithClients Floodgates
Figure: Careful! One small free task can turn into a dam-breaking torrent of free work.

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