What to charge for an electrical service call

Three prices, one driveway

The trip is real even when the outlet was a tripped breaker they could have reset. The diagnostic is real even when the answer is “the panel is full and I will not add a tandem to make it look fine.” The repair starts only when both of you know what the repair is.

Say it before you drive

The fight happens when the first mention of money is after the cover is off. On the phone, use one sentence you can repeat without thinking. Example of the shape, not a rate: “The visit is a flat trip fee. If I have to test to find it, the diagnostic is separate. If you want it fixed today and I can, I'll quote that before I start, and the trip comes off the repair.”

Do not put a dollar on that example. Your fee is a function of your radius, your parking, and what an hour of the business must earn. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the May 2024 median wage for electricians at $29.98 an hour. That is wages, not a service-call fee. A shop that bills the median wage for a trip has not priced the trip. It has priced an employee who does not own the van. More on that distinction is in how to build an electrical pricebook.

What the trip should and should not buy

The trip buys presence: the drive, the knock, a look at what they described, and a recommendation you can say in a minute. It does not buy an hour of opening boxes, and it does not buy the part you happen to have on the van. If the look turns into testing, you are in the diagnostic, and you should say so before the testing starts.

Some shops fold the first minutes of looking into the trip and start the clock when the tools come out. That is a fine rule if it is the rule every time. Write it on the pricebook row so the person who answers the phone and the person in the van tell the same story.

The diagnostic is a product

Troubleshooting is the job when the symptom is “sometimes the kitchen dies.” Price it by the hour, with a first-hour minimum if you need one, and tell them the minimum. Stop at a natural break and report. A diagnostic that expands until the customer is afraid to ask the total is a diagnostic you priced badly.

Write down what you found, even when they do not hire you to fix it. That note is what makes the next quote fast, and it is what you will wish you had if they call another electrician and misremember your visit. If the finding is “I do not know yet, and the next step is opening the wall,” that next step is an estimate or a quoted exploration, not a shrug. The wording is in electrical quote vs estimate vs bid.

After hours, and the calls that are not repairs

Nights and weekends cost you a different evening than a Tuesday slot. If you charge more then, say so on the phone before you agree to come, in the same plain sentence as the trip. A surprise multiplier on the invoice is the review you cannot answer. A posted rule is boring, which is what you want.

Some calls are not a repair and not a mystery. The customer wants a price for work you can see: a charger, a set of lights, a panel. That visit is an estimating visit. Decide whether the trip fee applies, and say it. Many shops waive it when the visit exists only to quote, and charge it when the visit exists to fix something unknown. Either rule is fine. Having two rules and picking the one that feels fair in the moment is how the customer hears a different story from the person who answered the phone.

Write the rule where the phone is answered. If that is you, write it in the pricebook note anyway, because at the end of a long day it is easy to start discounting on the fly. Then put it on the quote as lines they can see: trip, diagnostic if you tested, repair if they want it, credit if your rule says the trip comes off.

If they decline the repair, you still did the trip and, if you tested, the diagnostic. Invoice those. Do not quietly delete them because the visit felt unsuccessful. Finding out the circuit is dangerous, or that the repair is a panel and not a device, is the work they called you for. Leaving unpaid because you wanted the bigger job is a habit, and it is an expensive one.

The repair is a quote, sent while you are there

Once you know the repair, quote it before you do it, unless it is small enough that your posted rule already covered it. Small and defined can be a pricebook line: a device, a breaker, a GFCI. Large or newly discovered gets a quote with lines, exclusions, and a way to accept. Doing the large one on a handshake because you are already there is how “service call” becomes a dispute about scope.

If your rule is that the trip is credited when they go ahead the same day, the quote should show the trip, then the credit, then the repair. Example of the shape only: trip listed, credit listed, repair listed, total equal to the repair. The dollars are yours. The shape is what stops the customer feeling the trip was a trick.

Send that quote from the driveway when you can. Waiting until evening is how a service call turns into a forgotten thread. The sequence is how to write an electrical quote on your phone.

Put the three prices where you will reuse them

The trip, the diagnostic hour, and the common small repairs belong in the pricebook as separate rows, with notes that match the sentence you say on the phone. When the row and the sentence drift, the customer hears one deal and the invoice shows another. Fix the drift the day you notice it. A service call is the job you do most often, which means a sloppy row taxes every week, not just the weird panel.

On the quote or the invoice, keep the labels boring and specific. “Trip,” “diagnostic, first hour,” “replace GFCI in the kitchen.” Avoid a single line called service call with a number that changed since the phone call. If the credit applies, it is a line too, so the arithmetic is visible. People argue with a total that appeared. They rarely argue with three lines they were told about before you left the shop.

Sources

The only published figure in this piece is the BLS May 2024 median wage, $29.98 an hour, from the Occupational Outlook Handbook page for electricians. It is here so you do not use it as a service-call price.