Let’s face it — you may be one of the best asphalt professionals around, but are you good at business? Are you good at customer service? And most importantly, do you make it easy for people to do business with you?
I work with and observe a lot of contractors. Many are dear friends. What I’ve noticed over the years is a wide range in how people conduct business — especially when it comes to making the process easy for the customer. And remember, the customer is the one spending their money to buy your services.
Amazon Figured It Out
We’ve all likely bought something from Amazon. One of the best things about Amazon is how simple they make it to do business — almost too easy. In my area, they’ve rolled out three-hour delivery, and I’ve seen items arrive in as little as 42 minutes. That’s impressive.
But it’s not just delivery speed. After your first purchase, you no longer must enter your billing address or card security code. You can even opt for one-click purchasing. It’s crazy — but it works. Nothing is more frustrating than visiting a website, trying to log in with a long password, completing two-factor authentication, and still having to re-enter billing information at checkout. Yes, it’s manageable — but it’s not easy.
So, what does Amazon have to do with the pavement maintenance industry?
Quite a bit.
Commercial customers already deal with enough variables — weather delays, tenant complaints, access issues, striping schedules, and budget constraints. Residential customers are concerned about weather delays, scheduling, disruption to their life and neighborhood, damage to surrounding plants and structures, and cost.
The last thing either of these groups want is confusion or difficulty in the buying process. When we remove friction on our end, we separate ourselves from contractors who make everything harder than it needs to be.
There are two simple ways to clean up estimates and make them easier to read -- and easier for customers to respond to.
Don’t Itemize Administrative Costs
Let’s first consider administrative costs such as fuel surcharges, mobilization fees, cleaning fees, environmental fees, and credit card fees etc. I’m not saying these costs aren’t real – they are and you should certainly know what all these types of expenses are for your company.
Over the years I’ve witnessed numerous contractors who delineate these costs as line items in a bid -- either in a misguided effort at transparency or an effort to justify the final bid number. From the customer’s perspective, itemizing these expenses feels like death by a thousand cuts. Pavement work already feels expensive to many clients; don’t make it feel sneaky or confusing.
Instead, these types of administrative expenses should be considered part of the overhead that’s included in every estimate. Roll those costs into your pricing and present one number. These expenses are simply the cost of doing business.
Simplify Service Options
The second way to make estimates easier to understand is to reduce the options offered. This is especially true in pavement maintenance, where customers generally don’t want to decipher the difference between crack filling versus crack sealing, sealcoat types, oil spot priming, or mix designs.
Admittedly this will vary depending on the customer and customer type (and probably the market). It might not work on commercial projects, for example, where delineation and pricing of each service provided might be required and even recommended. But even in those situations your bid should be as easy to understand as possible. And if you offer options, consider limiting the choices to two options – with all other support work being the same.
I recently received a quote from a window washing company that offered multiple pricing tiers with different discounts based on how often I committed to using them. It became so confusing that I almost walked away. I wasn’t interested in commitments — I just wanted their best price, out the door. I needed to see the quality of their work first.
I’m not suggesting avoiding the “good, better, best” approach many contractors rely on, but if you use that approach to estimating, each of those options should be written cleanly and easy to understand and easy to compare. And maybe not all your customers need or want three options.
To reference my window washing experience, don’t offer three different approaches to the job, each with an early-signing discount, plus additional discounts options depending on whether the client commits to a one- two- or three-year plan. It’s just too much!
Property managers and HOA boards, in particular, value simplicity. They manage multiple properties, multiple vendors, tight timelines, and strict budgets. The contractor who provides a clean proposal, a clear scope, and a straightforward price often wins — even if they aren’t the lowest bidder
On a residential driveway, consider offering one clear price that includes crack sealing and sealcoating instead of breaking everything into multiple line items. (You can list everything you’ll do – just don’t price each service as a line item.)
And if you want to get that residential client for another year or more – track that in your system and reach out to them periodically. Don’t ask them to make that commitment up front.
The more complicated your bid, the greater the chance of frustration. And frustrated customers hesitate, delay decisions, or walk away. The goal is to ease the buying process by removing confusion.
Make Getting Paid Easy, Too
Once the job is complete, send the invoice promptly so the customer can pay you. It’s unbelievable how many contractors sit on invoices for weeks or even months. That doesn’t help you or your customer. They’re expecting a bill – and have made budgetary plans to pay it – and you need the cash flow. Prompt invoicing shortens payment cycles, reduces disputes, and keeps momentum during the busy season.
If you accept credit cards, treat the processing fee as a cost of doing business. Is Apple Pay an option for you? What about Zelle or Venmo? PayPal? These all aren’t options for every contractor or for every job but offering them to customers does make the payment part of the transaction easier for your customer. And it makes it more likely you’re going to get paid more quickly.
Here's a real-world example: About 10 years ago a friend hired a snow removal service to plow his driveway and sidewalks every time snow reached 2 inches. When he first hired the service, the crew would plow and he would receive a paper invoice in the mail about 10 days later. He wrote a check and mailed it back when he got around to it – usually when he paid his other bills., whenever that happened.
After a few years the snow removal company started sending invoices via email, which he was asked to print and return with payment. So, one step forward, one step back.
But this year – eureka! – invoices arrived via email within 24 hours and with an Apple Pay option. My friend pays as soon as he receives the invoice, and the contractor has his payment in less than 48 hours.
Tell me, who is not happier in that situation? That contractor couldn’t make paying his invoice any easier.
In an industry built on timing, follow-through, and reputation, that simplicity and ease of doing business matters more than most contractors realize. After nearly 30 years in this business, I’ve seen it proven over and over again. Customers may forget the exact details of the job, but they will never forget how easy — or how difficult — you were to work with.
Keep it simple. It will pay off more – and sooner -- than you think.
