You drive 35 minutes to a house. You spend 40 minutes finding the problem. You explain the fix and give a price.
"Thanks, we'll think about it."
You have just worked for an hour and a half for free, and that slot could have gone to a paying job.
A call-out fee (also called a service call fee, trip charge or diagnostic fee) fixes that. Charged the right way, clients accept it. Charged the wrong way, it loses you work.
The short version
- A call-out fee pays for your time and travel to show up and find the problem, whether or not the client goes ahead.
- Set it from your real cost of a visit, not from what competitors charge.
- Say it up front, before you book: on the phone, on your website, in the booking confirmation.
- Credit it against the repair if they go ahead. It turns the fee into a reason to say yes.
Why a call-out fee is fair
Every visit has a cost before you pick up a tool:
- Drive time there and back
- Fuel and wear on the truck
- Diagnosis: finding the problem is skilled work, and often the hardest part
- The slot: an hour that could have been a paying job
Without a fee, the clients who go ahead pay for the ones who do not. A call-out fee puts the cost where it belongs, and filters out the tyre-kickers collecting free quotes.
How much to charge
Work it out from your own costs. An example:
| Example | |
|---|---|
| Average drive time, both ways: 0.75 hours at $45 | $34 |
| Diagnosis time: 0.5 hours at $45 | $23 |
| Truck: fuel and wear | $15 |
| Overhead share for the visit | $30 |
| Cost of showing up | $102 |
Add your margin and round it: $119 to $149 would cover the visit in this example. Your number depends on your trade, your area and how far you drive.
Consider different fees for different calls:
- Standard hours: your base fee
- Evenings and weekends: higher
- Emergencies (no heat, flooding): higher again, and clients expect it
- Outside your normal area: add a distance charge
How to explain it so clients accept it
Most complaints about call-out fees are not about the amount. They are about surprise. So:
Say it before you book. On the phone, on your website and in the booking confirmation: "Our service call is $129. It covers the trip and finding the problem, and it comes off the repair if you go ahead."
Say what it includes. "Travel and up to 30 minutes of diagnosis" is clearer than "service fee".
Credit it against the work. If the client goes ahead, the fee comes off the repair. This is the single best way to make a call-out fee feel fair. It rewards yes, and only charges the people who say no.
Put it in writing. The client should see it on the booking confirmation, the quote and the invoice.
When to waive it
Waiving is a tool, not a habit:
- Maintenance plan members: no call-out fee is one of the best perks you can offer
- A return visit for something you fixed and that did not stay fixed
- A big job quote, like an install or renovation, where the estimate visit is part of selling the job
Decide your rules once, so the office and the techs give the same answer every time.
How crewduo helps
- Put the call-out fee in your catalogue as a service, with its own price, and add it to visits and invoices in one tap.
- Your AI receptionist can tell callers what you charge to come out, so nobody is surprised.
- The client gets the quote on the spot from the tech's phone, accepts and signs, and can pay a deposit in the same step.
- Credit notes (Crew plan) take the fee off the final invoice when the client goes ahead.
- Recurring contracts make it easy to waive the fee for plan members.
See how quotes and payments work, or read about maintenance plans.
Quick answers
Will a call-out fee cost me jobs? Some price shoppers will hang up. Most of them were never going to book. Clients with a real problem expect to pay for a visit.
Should I charge it if I cannot fix the problem? Usually yes, because you still came out and diagnosed it. If it is your mistake, waive it.
Can I put it on the invoice if they do not go ahead? Yes. Send the invoice for the call-out fee with a pay link, so it gets paid while you are still on site or that same day.
