Roman Cab Ride

The Fear of Open End Pricing & Getting Take For a Ride

Have you ever arrived in a city and worried about the cost of a cab from the airport into town?  Try it in a foreign country where you can't speak the language.  In my case, the foreign country was Italy.

My wife, in-laws, and I left Dallas at 7:00 p.m. and arrived in London the next morning.  After clearing European customs, we spent the next several hours in Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5, which may be the only airport terminal in the world where it's enjoyable to spend a few hours.  Late in the afternoon, we caught a flight for Rome and arrived, wrung out from traveling, at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in the evening. 

Upon arriving, we discovered that the in-laws' 50 pound duffle bag was waiting while our luggage stayed in London, adding frustration to weariness.  We completed the necessary forms with British Air and hit an ATM before figuring out how to get to the apartment we rented for the week.

We planned on taking a taxi to the apartment.  The guidebooks all recommend taxis from the airport to take advantage of the fixed 40 Euro rate for four people and luggage.  By contrast, an airport shuttle to the main train station in Rome costs 11 Euros per person.  Not only is it more expensive, but once you're at the station, it's still necessary to figure out how to navigate the subway and bus system (or take a taxi) to get to your final destination.  As a party of four the cab was a no-brainer.  In fact, I never really considered anything else.

At the cab stand, I learned the flaw in my plan.  The fixed rate was to central Rome only.  The apartment was in a neighborhood located outside of "central" Rome.  When I tried to argue that the apartment was still in Rome, the guy at the cab stand's English started to disappear.  I felt like we were getting played.  Though our apartment was closer to the airport than central Rome, cab stand guy said it was going to cost us more to get there.    

"How much more?" I asked cab stand guy.

He shrugged and held out his hands out to his side as his English suddenly improved.  "Could be 80.  Could be more."

I did some quick math.  At 1.4 Euros to the Dollar that was $112 bucksplus.  Plus how much?  I didn't know.  

"You want a private driver?" cab stand guy asks.  "You save money.  You share a ride."

Cab stand guy motioned to a guy standing beside an unmarked van and engaged him in an fast dialogue, where the apartment's street was mentioned several times.  

Unmarked taxis are not recommended by the guidebooks.  

"Avoid unmarked, unmetered taxis," warns guidebook author, Rick Steves.  "These guys will try to tempt you away from the taxi-stand lineup by offering an immediate (rip-off) ride."

They didn't need to tempt us.  Cab stand guy was doing it for them.

"Quanto?" I asked, showing cab stand guy I memorized a few phrases in Italian.  This was a mistake.

"Cinquantacinque," he said.  I wasn't sure if this was either five, fifteen, fifty, or five hundred.

I switched back to English.  "How much?"

"Fifty-five."

Standing there, wrung out from travel, irritated by the lack of luggage, hungry, and uncertain, I had two choices.  We could take an official taxi that would cost who knows how much or take the unmarked one that cost a flat 55 Euros.

The driver of the unmarked taxi was better dressed and cleaner cut than the taxi drivers.  His van looked in better shape than the official taxis too.  He had an official looking photo ID hanging from a lanyard around his neck.

I bucked the advice of Rick Steves and went with the unmarked car.  We had to wait while he added other passengers heading to a hotel near our apartment, and then he took off.  The guy's driving skills lay somewhere between a NASCAR driver's and a lunatic's, but he got us to the apartment.

After helping take the luggage out of the van, the driver presented a card and offered us a special price of 50 Euros for the return trip.  At the end of the week we took him up on it.  We never even considered another option.

Standing in front of cab stand guy, I was in the same position as most consumers who are standing in front of your field service personnel.  They're anxious.  They're frustrated.  They're worried about getting taken for a ride.

The most reassuring thing you can do is offer them a fixed price.  It takes most of the uncertainty of the unknown away.  This can be complemented with a professional appearance, photo ID badge, and clean, late model service vehicle.  Each is a tangible clue that reassures the consumer about your legitimacy.

Some aspects of the service business are not hard.  Give a price upfront.  Wear uniforms.  Use ID badges.  Take care of your trucks.  Make the customer feel at ease.

Winning a customer's business the first time is the biggest challenge.  Once he's had a good experience with you, it's easier to do business with you again.  However, don't take it for granted.  Like our driver, ask for his business and give him a reason to call you back.  Give the customer a bounce back coupon or other repeat business incentive.


(c) 2011 Matt Michel

The Service Roundtable Business Alliance Will Support Solar Contractors

The Service Roundtable (www.ServiceRoundtable.com), an Internet based contractor business alliance is launching a dedicated business support program for solar contractors, company officials announced today.

The “Solar Roundtable” will be headed by Jim Hinshaw, one of the top sales trainers in the solar industry. Since 2007, Hinshaw has trained over 1,000 solar contractors on the sales and business side of contracting.

“Most solar contractors know the physics of solar,” noted Hinshaw, “But my experience is that many have questions concerning sales, marketing, advertising, that sort of thing. The Solar Roundtable can help solar contractors answer their questions and solve their problems on almost any topic: business, application, engineering, employees, compensation, advertising, marketing, and sales.”

Since 2002, for a $50 monthly subscription, the Service Roundtable has provided contractors with sales, marketing, and business management tools served over the Internet. Examples include direct mail letters and post cards, consumer newsletters, social media marketing pieces, service agreements, eBooks, training tools, business forms, operations and management tools like pricing calculators, recruiting ads, interview guides, policy guides, employment applications, and more.

The Service Roundtable also hosts moderated peer support groups where contractors post questions about their business and receive input, guidance, and support from other contractors and industry consultants.

In 2010, the company added a free buying group, called Roundtable Rewards. Members receive discounts and cash rebates based on purchases from a variety of vendors who use the program as a way to boost sales and reduce marketing costs.

In addition to solar, the Service Roundtable serves HVAC, plumbing, and electrical contractors. The company also operates Service Nation Press, the Retail Contractor Coalition product and company branding program, and Service Roundtable MoneyMail turnkey monthly email marketing program.

Service Roundtable contractors hail from all 50 U.S. states, most Canadian provinces, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, the Caribbean, and Oceana. For more information visit www.ServiceRoundtable.com or call 877.262.3341.

Solar Can Brighten Your Company’s Outlook

Are you tired of fighting economic headwinds?  Why not try a business opportunity with massive federal, state, and utility tailwinds?  Why not add solar to your business mix?

Solar is a natural add-on for HVAC contractors.  You’re already well positioned as home energy experts with consumers.  You already have relationships with your customers.  You know how to sell high ticket items.  You know how to use financing.  You know how to utilize government and utility incentives.  Plus, HVAC contractors tend to be the best marketers in the service trades.

Read More at Contracting Business

Message to the California Solar Industry... Shut Up!

Electric rates in parts of California are staggering.  Try PG&E's punative 50 cents per kilowatt hour for heavy electricity users.

Apparently PG&E has a five tier rate structure.  The top rate gets slapped on the biggest homes in the hottest areas, which are owned by the most affluent.  Get tagged with $0.50/kWh and the affluent will invest in all kinds of energy reducing technology, creating a bonanza for California's solar industry even without additional rebates and tax credits.

PG&E wants to simplify the rate structure from five tiers to three.  The proposed change will dramatically reduce the top rate from $0.50/kWh to $0.30/kWh, but expand the number of people paying $0.30/kWh.  For solar contractors, this should be good news.  The market has broadened.  A lot more Californians just became candidates for solar, especially when the tax credits are figured in.

Unfortunately, some are griping.  ""It feels like this is PG&E's way to thwart the solar industry," complained a solar contractor in a Silicon Valley Mercury-News article. "If the rate changes go through, the savings I am experiencing now and those projected into the future would decline substantially."

A solar manufacturing executive ranted, "I'm very concerned about it.  I don't think this was done with any consideration of how it will impact solar in California. California has sent a strong signal to the market that we want to promote solar. But if you implement rates that discourage solar, it undermines all of the hard policy work that has already happened. You can't have one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake at the same time."

It's one thing to be seen as pro-solar.  It's another to be seen as pro-electricity price gouging.  Why not lobby the state legislature for an unfunded mandate to require every homeowner to buy solar?
 
Everyone likes solar, right now.  It's as warm and fuzzy as a stuffed polar bear.  And if individual homeowners are independently assuming the first costs for solar installations, there's little basis for anyone to object (though some still do, as noted in an earlier post about homeowners associations and solar).  Solar's got great PR!
 
Lobbying for artificially high, punitive electric rates to make the technology feasible in the market is not good PR.  It's horrible PR.  It's akin to Toyota lobbying for $5.00 per gallon gasoline to get Prius sales back on track.  It's like kicking puppies.  It's the type of action that will cause a backlash against solar and the green movement in general.
 
The California solar industry needs to to the rest of the solar industry a favor and SHUT UP!

Do Homeowners Associations and Solar Mix?

Few people should have a beef with homeowners installing solar, right? It's not like your neighbor wants you to pay for it (though you do through the tax code, but that's another issue).

Oh sure, some claim it's an eyesore. So are those whirly things on the roof and no one gets worked up about them. But to appease the architecture Nazis in positions of power within homeowners associations, the homeowner who wants solar can install the panels on the back of the house. Who could object then?

Apparently the Wellington subdivision of Flower Mound, Texas could. When a homeowner installed 44 solar panels on the back of his roof, the HOA sued. People can see the panels from a jogging trail/bike path than runs behind his house.

Check out the photograph. It is a lot of panels, but it is his private property. The HOA should get over it.

It's appropriate to question the economics and reliability of solar power for utility base load generation. However, if an individual wants to make the investment, shouldn't he be able to?

Here is the energy delima. The Feds force much of the country to buy high efficiency air conditioners with paybacks that are far longer than the life of the equipment. HOAs prevent homeowners from installing PV panels.

I think the bigger issue is liberty. I don't like someone telling me I have to buy 13 SEER air conditioners or 1.6 GPF toilets. I also don't like someone telling me I can't install PV panels. I want these decisions to be my choice, not some HOA Nazi or government bureaucrat's choice.