Problomatic quoting and trusting a professional

Hello and welcome to another blog where we discuss all things landscaping and trades.

This blog will be about problematic quoting and trusting a professional to landscape your garden.

I am sure this will be a hot topic for a lot of people which will leave people wondering why they charge so little /a lot but also aim to educate on why some projects are priced the way they are.

Ill start with a story that I am sure a lot of landscapers have come across.

Imagine this, you have just been to a fantastic project, loads of interesting ideas that will transform their space into a wonderful paradise. They are as excited as you are to make their dream a reality.

You sit down when you get home and set to work working out the quantity of materials needed, machine use, access issues, labour and profit. You then send your quote off in anticipation that you will be given the go ahead but are then shocked to see the first line of the return email……sorry we have found someone cheaper……disaster.

These email replies are all too common in a post covid society that are having to ‘tightening their belts’. But also reading between the lines it often implies that value the cost over quality.

Now I would like to say here that not all cheaper quotes are bad quality, I often ask other landscaper to quote check my prices to make sure I am in the right area and to make sure I am being competitive which in turn gives you insight to other prices which often are lower or higher than I am.

I am however referring to the quotes that and are on the whole impossible to do for the price they have been given. I personally have been to price up a project with porcelain paving slabs, planters, new fences, artificial grass, and drainage which came to £30,000 (not the exact figure but using as an example). I got a call back from the client saying that are not going any further as they have found someone who can do the project for £15,000.

My heart sank…..not because I had lost the job but that this client was going to find out the hard way why there was a difference in the price.

For any of you out there thinking that I was charging too much I can assure you the material cost for the job came more than £15,000.

Like most of this cases you never hear from them, whether that be they cannot afford to fix the mistakes or out of embarrassment.

The next point I would like to drop on is extras.

Extras are any additional work or materials that wasn’t part of the original quote and should be made known prior to commencing the work.

I have been a victim of someone that didn’t understand why I was quoting them for extra work that wasn’t part of the original quote and after a few emails they asked for a breakdown….sighh. Often the add on extras can run to days of extra work me. And I ask, who is happy to work for free?

I have been running this business for 11 years and was landscaping before that and I have never come across an instance where taking your time to label out the materials and labour have helped. In fact it makes the matter worse. Mainly because the customer then wants to try and source the materials in the cheapest way possible, ordering from unreputable companies, ones that don’t give a definite delivery days, thus putting the project back. Hence why I have built many relationships with tried, tested and trusted suppliers.

If I told you the material cost of the paving was £1000 and you then went searching online and found the paving for £990 from an online retailer that I have no connection with and no control over when they arrive,there is no chain of complaint should items arrive damaged, or short delivered. The issues are numerable, I however have built relationships with merchants and understand how they work and the customer service they provide us in my book is invaluable.

A tradesman will often have connections with suppliers they have used many times and equally a supplier will know the quality a tradesman would expect.

At the end of the day when you invite a professional to view your project he is already seeing your dream come to life and everything that goes into it.

Sometimes a landscaper and a client just click and its the attitude they have towards each other ‘cements’ (love a pun) a trusting bond which you need to make dreams a reality.

He is seeing the ground works that will need to be excavated, he is seeing the drainage he will have to install,he is thinking about what waste removal is suitable, he is seeing what is possible and impossible.

All these aspects combined with material quantity, labour, overheads and profit all lead to the price you will then receive. Not to mention the hours already spent on site visits and the subsequent time spent writing quotes up, calling suppliers getting prices etc. All for free, so I ask again, how often do you work for free?

The Quote you receive off a tradesman is multifaceted, based off years of relationship building, skills building, knowledge and know how along with the tools and material to bring your project to life.

I hope you all enjoyed this blog and I hope you find these blogs interesting. If you have any recommendations of what you would like to read about in upcoming blogs please email me at k.w.slackandson@live.co.uk or comment below.