Challenges with Inflation and Recruiting Cause Minimal Price Increase

TriState Water Works Stays Customer-Focused when Faced with Growing Costs

Labor shortages, material shortages and increasing prices are all over the news, and problems in the market aren’t being exaggerated. Last week, our main supply house had a list on the counter of well over 75 manufacturers that were having price increases. Most (if not all) of TriState Water Works’ product costs are going up.

As of right now, we are having a tough time recruiting new employees to grow our business. We have had to increase our rates of pay to retain our great team and attract new technicians.

Add it all up, and TriState Water Works is having a hard time making ends meet with our current pricing. We have become concerned that this will affect our promise to deliver exceptional, dependable service to customers.

To keep up with normal price increases and minimize the impact on our customers’ budgets, we generally raise prices on just one of our services a year. But this is no normal year. We find ourselves having to increase Winterization prices for 2021.

Fortunately, it’s a minimal increase, at about $1.00 per zone. So, a 10-zone system was $109.50 last year and will be $116.00 this year.

We are working diligently to manage our parts costs and minimize impact on customers. Even with our best efforts, you should expect to see minimal price increases across the board. A few items that were underpriced may have a substantial increase, but these are not needed in the general maintenance of your system.

We will evaluate the economy this winter to decide if we will need to raise Spring Start-Up prices.

New Upfront Pricing Model Makes Repair Costs More Predictable for Customers

When I started the business in 2012, our service work was billed as time and materials. This method of billing left the customer wondering how much something was going to cost, and the price to do a specific task might be different from one job to the next.

This year, we have started using upfront pricing. Each technician has a price book with set prices for the various services we perform. For instance, if you have a one-inch residential valve that needs to be repaired, all technicians will charge the same price for doing the work.

Occasionally, there will be times when we cannot give you the repair cost until we have performed a diagnosis of the situation to determine the best repair solution. Diagnosis work can be involved and time-consuming, depending on the complexity of the problem. We do bill for our expert diagnosis.

Thank you for being loyal customers of TriState Water Works. We take pride in being your Prompt & Proven Sprinkler Service (and landscape lighting!) provider.

Sincerely,

Sean Mullarkey
President