Comments on: Do You Charge For Your Phone Time?

By: WebWorkerDaily » Archive The Sounds of Web Working: Do they Hurt or Help You? «

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:47:04 +0000

[...] November 12th, 2008 (10:00am) Celine Roque No Comments When clients call you and hear a baby cooing or a kitten meowing in the background, they can’t help but remember that you’re human. You’re not just an invisible web working slave that does their bidding. You have a life, a family, and pets. Your clients know this because they can hear voices and home background noise when they call you. [...]

By: John

John — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:25:48 +0000

We do bill for time on the phone mainly because it’s time we could be using to bill another client. You only have so much time to give. And regardless of what medium you use to communicate your expertise, you need to bill for that time. In other words, if you don’t bill for your phone time, you are decreasing your billable time.

By: Melissa Donovan

Melissa Donovan — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:38:27 +0000

When I first started my writing services business, I tried to build a phone consult into my rates but most clients didn’t take advantage of it. However, a select few would want to do a call and stay on the phone forever. I felt like the way I was charging wasn’t fair to those who didn’t want or need a call. Now I do charge separate for consults but I am thinking of reintroducing a fifteen-minute call with each project.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:00:25 +0000

Great post and an interesting point. I tend to build it into a quote, but would certainly bill the client if it was above and beyond my expectations.

I would however, make it very clear that I would be doing that, as otherwise I would foresee some problems.

Skydeck looks great and have already emailed them saying UK service please!

By: James

James — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:42:09 +0000

I bill in days, or half days, so usually phone time gets included. Initial set up calls, or short calls when I am not working for you get ignored though.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:42:07 +0000

I track phone time, and time spent on email as well. I typically bill in quarter-hour increments, but I’ll log (decimal) .05, .10, .15 hours as well.

By: Rayanne Langdon

Rayanne Langdon — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:02:03 +0000

Well, at least you got to thinking that your time spent with your clients on the phone is valuable! : )

Thanks for this, Aliza.

By: walter wimberly

walter wimberly — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:33:38 +0000

I build “normal” phone/communication time into my project price, as I expect an honest amount of communication about a project. This way, small phone conversations don’t get too nit-picky when bills are presented.

Sometimes, I have to bill extra though for long conversations. A couple of months ago I spent almost 90 minutes on the phone with a client, which I should have taken only 15 minutes. He got billed for the time.