Tips & Tricks

How Charging More Creates Happier Customers
by Damian Zawacki, Technical Training Manager

"My profits are getting smaller",

"It's getting harder to compete with XYZ competitor",

"My competition is too cheap".

I hear these complaints all the time. Well, here is a way to separate yourself from the competition and save the homeowner money. How, By charging more? Yes, by charging more.

Now, before you call me crazy, let me explain. How can we charge a more money and yet save the homeowner money? By installing better products that save the homeowner money in the long run. Better products are available today and yet not being utilized, actually I hardly see them being used at all.

You can save your customer easily, (yes easily) 15 gallons of water PER SPRINKLER, PER WEEK. And this is a conservative number. 15 gallons per sprinkler per week means a great deal of water conservation, and puts money back in the pocket of the homeowner. I don't believe for one second that customers are not willing to pay for water savings. Most customers would jump at the chance to save 15 gallons of water per sprinkler per week! Also, most cities charge for water usage and water disposal or sewer. Thus, the customer can save twice as much money (once on the use and once on the sewer). And the best part is, you can confidently charge your customers more for these efficient, smart improvements.

Now, what product am I talking about? Pressure Regulating Spray Heads. By reducing the pressure from 40 PSI to 30 PSI on a 15' radius half-pattern spray head, with an average run time of 60 minutes per week, pressure regulating spray heads will easily save 15 gallons per week, per sprinkler.  Remember, this is based upon reducing the pressure only by 10 psi. This is easily a conservative number. Imagine the savings with a 20 or 30 PSI reduction.

Lets work through a typical small residential installation. Suppose you are bidding a job that will have 10 spray heads. Each spray head will be a 15' radius, half pattern spray head. Each will run 1 hour a week. This will be a savings of 15 gallons per sprinkler (times) 10 sprinklers (equals) 150 gallons of water per week. Now, multiply this by how many weeks a year you irrigate.

If you want to work out different scenarios, please visit Rain Bird's water savings calculator at http://www.rainbird.com/calculators/4steps.htm.

Installing pressure-regulating spray heads is one of the simplest ways to save you homeowner customers money. It cost no additional labor to install and it sells itself to the customer. Imagine telling the homeowner "You will save 15 gallons per week per sprinkler" compared to my competitors bid of using a "traditional" non-pressure regulating spray heads. It's a win-win situation for everyone.