Reader question: Should I put my service call fee on my website, or wait until they call?
An electrician asks whether to publish the service call fee or explain it on the phone. The plain answer, how to word it, and where it goes on your site.
The question: "I charge a service call fee that gets applied to the work if the customer goes ahead. Right now I only mention it on the phone. Some people hang up when they hear it. Should I put it on my website, or will that scare people off before they ever call?"
Short answer: put it on the website. The people who hang up when they hear the fee were going to hang up anyway. Publishing it just means they do it before they waste ten minutes of your day.
Here is the longer answer, and how to do it without losing the good calls.
Why hiding the fee costs you more than showing it
When the fee only comes up on the phone, three things happen.
First, you spend time on calls that were never going to book. Someone wants free advice about a breaker that keeps tripping, and they find out about the fee after five minutes of explaining.
Second, the fee sounds like a surprise. Even a fair fee feels like a catch when it is the first price someone hears. On your site, next to an explanation, it feels like a policy.
Third, you look less organized than the electrician who publishes it. Homeowners comparing two or three listings tend to call the one who already answered their first question.
Who it filters, and who it keeps
A published service call fee filters out:
- People looking for a free diagnosis over the phone.
- People shopping only on price who were going to pick the cheapest quote no matter what.
- Very small jobs that cost you more in drive time than they pay.
It keeps:
- Homeowners with a real problem who want it fixed.
- People who value knowing the price before you arrive.
- Repeat customers, who already know you.
That is a trade most electricians should take. The pricing and quoting guide covers why a published diagnostic fee works and how to apply it to the repair.
How to word it
Keep it plain. Say what it is, what it covers, and what happens to it if they hire you. A hypothetical example:
"Service call: $129. This covers the trip, the diagnosis and a written price for the repair before we start. If you go ahead with the work, the $129 is applied to the job."
Three rules for the wording:
- Say "applied to the repair" in the same sentence. That is the part that makes it feel fair.
- Do not call it a "trip charge." It sounds like you are charging for driving. "Service call" or "diagnostic" describes what they get.
- List what is not covered by the fee. If emergency or after-hours visits cost more, say so on the same page.
Where to put it
Put the fee in three places:
- Your service or pricing page. One short section, near the top.
- Your Google Business Profile services list. Add it as part of the service description for troubleshooting and repairs.
- The text you send back after a missed call. If you use a text-back, include a line like "Our service call is $129, applied to the repair."
Do not hide it in a footer or a terms page. If someone has to dig, it reads like you did not want them to find it.
Will it cost you calls?
You may get fewer calls. You will likely book a higher share of the ones you get. That is usually the better deal, because your time on the phone and in the truck is the scarce part.
Look at where the market sits. Across the 65,890 electrical listings we track, 34.6% list no website, and the median listing has 7 reviews. Plenty of electricians give homeowners almost nothing to go on. A site that answers the price question up front is a real edge, and the benchmark report shows how thin the field is in your state.
If you are worried about losing urgent calls, handle that separately. Make sure every missed call gets a text back within a couple of minutes. The calculator shows what missed calls cost at your average ticket, and it is almost always more than the few people a published fee scares away.
What I would do this week
- Write the two or three sentences above, with your real fee.
- Add them to your pricing or services page and your Google profile.
- Tell whoever answers your phone to say the same words, in the same order.
- Track bookings for a month and compare to the month before.
If the share of calls that book goes up and your phone time goes down, keep it.
If you want someone to set up and run any one service for you, there is a free 14-day trial with no card needed. Text or call (346) 496-4068.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, electricians among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor