“Can you just add this while you’re there?” It sounds small. Often it is small. An hour here, a small change there, one extra trip because the customer was not ready.
You look at it and think, it is only a small extra. We will just absorb it.
Often, that is exactly the right call. Looking after a good customer matters, and not every minor change deserves a variation.
The issue starts when those small extras disappear as soon as they happen.
One is easy to absorb. Ten across a job are harder to see. Fifty across a year can change what the work actually returned.
So the useful question is not whether you should ever absorb an extra.
It is whether you know how many you are absorbing, and whether those choices are being made deliberately.
Small does not mean free. It means the cost is easy not to notice.
The difference between generosity and leakage
Here is the simplest distinction I know.
Generosity is when you choose the extra. You know what is being given, roughly what it will cost, and why you are happy for the business to absorb it.
Leakage is when the extra happens by default. Nobody really decides, nobody notes it, and the same thing can happen again without the price or scope changing.
The customer may experience both as good service. The difference sits inside your business.
A customer asks for another site visit. If you say, “We will absorb this one. It will cost us about two hours, but the relationship is worth it,” that is generosity.
If the team simply goes back, nobody notes the extra time, and the same thing happens on the next job, that is leakage.
The difference is not whether you charged. The difference is whether you chose.
How small extras can reduce job profitability
A job is quoted at a price everyone signs off. The scope is clear. The margin looks right. The customer says yes. Delivery begins.
Then the small extras start. An extra site visit. Another hour to finish something. A senior person pulled into a difficult call. Urgent freight. A section redone to keep the customer happy. A fifteen-minute meeting that runs for an hour.
Individually, none of those has to be a problem. They are the kind of commercial judgements you and your team make every day.
Added together across a full job, though, they can be significant. Two hundred dollars here, four hundred there, an hour here and half a day there. The job can leave much less behind than anyone expected when it was priced.
That still does not mean you should charge for every extra. It means you should know when you have chosen not to.
One test is enough
When something extra comes up, ask: are we choosing to absorb this, or is it just happening?
If you choose to absorb it, make the choice visible. Note what was given, who approved it, and why. That gives you something to review if the same extra keeps appearing.
If nobody makes the choice, the extra disappears into the job. When that keeps happening, a customer can receive a bigger discount than anyone ever intended to give.
You do not need an elaborate system. A simple note against the job or customer is enough if it lets you see the pattern later.
Before the next job
Think about the last significant job your business completed.
Could your team tell you what was absorbed outside the original scope, who decided to absorb it, and why?
If they could, you can see the generosity and decide whether it was worth it.
If they could not, the next step is not to charge for every small thing. It is to stop the extras from disappearing without a decision.
Good customer service and good commercial discipline can sit together. You can be generous without letting the cost disappear.
Murray.
