On occasion. we get comments and questions about how we establish our service area. Your comments, concerns, and patronage help us determine policies that will serve you best. An earnest YELP commenter motivated us to clarify our Service Area policy and try to explain better why we do things the way we do…
We like– and enjoy serving–all people. We do not discriminate by income, race, or any other arbitrary factor, as this would be contrary and corrosive to our values, and our sense of business and personal ethics. Such an attitude would be a direct contradiction of the spirit and mission around which we have built over 30 years of successful business relationships.
Brick Doctor job estimates, in conjunction with an on-site service call, are offered for $85 virtually anywhere in D/FW, but many times are offered free in certain circumstances. Please understand that “free estimates” are never free to Brick Doctor, nor any service company.
In the case of Brick Doctor, these are service calls, performed by experts with years of experience. Estimates take time on site, typically discussing and establishing a scope of work, drawing sketches, identifying matching materials, and often offering valuable advice.
Estimates are quite expensive to do right, and most trades charge a fee for such (For example, just try getting a “free” service call or estimate from a plumber!). The $85 fee does not cover our expense of providing an estimate.
So, our estimate process must be efficient if we are to stay in business. Through decades of experience, we continue to establish the areas where we can bid successfully, and serve to the best of our abilities.
Some areas are hard to serve and still provide our best efforts, because of poor proximity to our other jobs. Some areas we simply can’t give bids at all and still offer good service, because it may be too far away.
We have set our service area from years of experience. I assure you we have no ideological purpose when we set our boundaries; we simply go where there is significant demand for our services, within reasonable proximity to our facilities.
Our boundaries are not established by census data, but by the history of demand for our services. Boundaries are defined by zip code only because that is easy to delineate, easy to describe, and easy to understand.
Why does Wal-Mart or McDonalds or Cracker Barrel choose to locate in, and serve some areas over others? Similarly, there must be enough demand for our services in any given area to justify the expense of coming there with offers of “free” service (estimates).
We also have many customers who are willing to pay the one-time “out-of-area” estimate fee because they want to ensure they get quality work. And after all, the more your neighbors call us, the more we can justify serving your neighborhood with free estimates!
