As people grow increasingly “connected”, a lot of my clients now communicate almost exclusively by email. In fact, I’d venture to say that 30-40% of my work is done remotely, by email, or on the phone.
While the benefits of working remotely are immediately evident (less gas, less time spent on the road, easier on the environment), I am increasingly taxed by smaller requests that could’ve been resolved by a simple google search, or checking an application’s help menu. I would often not bill for many 1-2 minute things, simply because they went by so quickly. For this reason, I am adjusting the way I bill for remote assistance.
Until now, I have always billed by the minute for remote support, which includes email, phone, and remote assistance. With the new billing method, remote support billing will be done in units of 6 minutes (1/10th of an hour). I will now be able to be more thorough with electronic responses, and I encourage them, as email correspondence doubles as documentation when problems can be resolved with a few instructions.
This new billing method is now in effect.