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Point value changed by question poster.

My thought on retainers, is what benefit will this arrangement provide for your customers?

And, how will this be different than if they just called you, or any other service provider, on an "as needed" basis?

Chas

Depending on the services required by the client I have set up contracts with monthly retainer fees, but it will depend on what they want/need as compared to what you can provide.
For example, I put an inventory management database together for a manufacturing company that recieved its shipments between 2:30 and 6:30 AM. I told them that they only way I could be 'on call' during those hours was with a monthly service contract.

I have also been putting together a retainer porject for some of my clients
so that I can balance the needs of my client with my need to pay the bills this is what I have done:

-reviewed my billing over the past 4 months
-taken an average of $ billed to a particular client
this is now a baseline for me
-take the number of computers, peripherals and network hardware and divide that into baseline

this number ends up being how much I get paid per incident if one piece of equipment goes down

then I decide if i cna live with that and if so i bump the avg cost up 10% and take it to the client.

then i let the client talk me down or i offer him 10% off because he is such a good client and he goes away happy.

now this only works for me because most of my clients have very simple networks and pretty standard pc's nothing fancy or challenging. i have only had to eat my own time twice undewr a retainer but the steady flow of money from it justified it in the long run. I have also popped in toward the end of the month and done som simple maintenance if i havent been in all monht just os they feel like they are getting their moneys worth. hope it helps!

The Retainer fee (& success) depends on the following factors: the clients requirements, skills you have, the competition and of course the quality of your proposal and presentation. I would suggest you to see past archives at techrepublic for standard templates, agreements and formats and some very good articles and templates. They have done an excellent job at compliation and still if you have unanswered questions, please email me at oics@aoberai.com or anil@aoberai.com Best Regards OICS Consultancy

The Retainer fee (& success) depends on the following factors: the clients requirements, skills you have, the competition and of course the quality of your proposal and presentation. I would suggest you to see past archives at techrepublic for standard templates, agreements and formats and some very good articles and templates. They have done an excellent job at compliation and still if you have unanswered questions, please email me at anil@aoberai.com Best Regards OICS Consultancy