Most techs who present one price are making a quiet decision on the customer's behalf. They look at the house, the car in the driveway and the age of the system, and they guess what the homeowner will spend. Sometimes they're right. Often they leave the better repair, the protection add-on or the replacement conversation in the truck.
Good, better, best (three options on every estimate) fixes that by handing the decision back to the customer. Done well, it raises your average ticket and makes customers feel more in control, not less. Done badly, it feels like a sales trick. This post covers why it works, how to build tiers that hold up, how to present them on a phone, and the math.
Why three options work
Three well-documented habits of human decision-making explain most of it. You don't need the research vocabulary to use them, but it helps to know what you're doing.
Anchoring. The first number someone sees becomes a reference point for the rest. If the first price on the screen is $1,150, a $790 option looks moderate. If the first price is $450, the same $790 looks expensive. That's why many shops present the top option first.
The compromise effect. When people face a low, middle and high choice and aren't sure, many choose the middle. It feels safe: not cheap, not extravagant. This is why your "better" tier deserves the most thought. It's the one most customers will look at hardest.
The decoy effect. An option that's clearly worse value than its neighbor makes the neighbor look better. In practice, it's the reason you'll see a "best" tier that costs only a little more than "better" but includes noticeably more. It's legitimate when the extra value is real. It becomes manipulation when an option exists only to push people elsewhere.
There's also a simpler effect: people like to choose. A single price is a test the customer can only pass or fail. Three prices are a menu, and the customer is in charge. That shift alone lowers the temperature of the conversation.
How to build the three tiers
Build tiers from the outcome the customer wants, then attach the parts and labor.
Good: the proper fix
The good option solves the problem the customer called about, correctly, with your standard warranty. It's not a patch you'd be embarrassed by. If a customer picks "good," they should be well served, and they shouldn't be calling you back next week.
Better: the fix plus prevention
The better option solves the problem and addresses the likely next one. On an AC repair, that might be the failed part plus a coil cleaning and a surge protector. On a water heater, it might include the expansion tank and a flush. This is the tier most of your customers will consider seriously, so make the added value easy to explain in a sentence.
Best: the fix plus longevity and peace of mind
The best option is everything in better, plus the items that extend the life of the system and reduce future surprises: a hard-start kit, an extended labor warranty, a first year of your maintenance membership. For older equipment, "best" is often the replacement conversation.
Rules that keep tiers honest
- Each tier changes the outcome. "Lasts longer," "prevents the most common next failure," "covered for two years." If the only difference is a longer parts list, customers will see it.
- Price gaps should feel proportionate. If better is $340 more than good, the extra value should be easy to see at that price.
- Keep your margin consistent across tiers. Don't make the good option a loss leader you're hoping people skip.
- Build templates, not one-offs. For your 10 most common job types, prebuild the three tiers in your pricebook so techs adjust rather than invent them in a driveway.
Monthly framing without overpromising
For larger tickets, a total like $1,150 lands differently from "about $48 a month over two years." The monthly view helps people compare options against their own budget.
Two cautions.
Only show financing terms you actually offer. A monthly figure next to a price implies a payment plan. If you work with a lender, use their real rates and required disclosures. If you don't, frame it as a comparison ("works out to about $X a year over the expected life of the part") rather than a monthly payment.
Always show the total. The monthly number goes next to the total, never instead of it. Customers who feel a total was hidden behind a monthly figure don't come back.
TradesWork shows a monthly-payment figure next to each option's total on the estimate. It doesn't connect to financing lenders yet, so any financing offer runs through your own lender and its terms.
Presenting on a phone
Most options now get presented on a tech's phone or tablet, in a kitchen or on a porch. A few things make that work.
- Start with what you found. Show two or three photos of the problem before any price. Customers buy a solution to something they've seen.
- One option per card, top tier first. Each card has a plain-English name, a one-line outcome, the total and the monthly figure. Detail is a tap away, not on the main screen.
- Hand them the phone. Let the customer scroll the options themselves. Then stop talking for a moment.
- Make deciding easy. Selecting an option and signing should happen on the same screen, right there. A decision that requires a follow-up email often doesn't happen.
- Leave a copy. If they want to think about it, send the same options by text so the spouse at work sees exactly what they saw.
In the TradesWork technician app, good/better/best options are built from the pricebook, and the customer picks and signs on the phone. Techs can also describe the job by voice and get draft options matched to the pricebook to confirm, which helps on days with ten calls.
Common mistakes
The strawman "good" tier. An option no reasonable person would pick tells the customer you're playing games. Every tier must be one you'd stand behind.
Pre-judging the customer. Techs skip the best option for the older homeowner or the modest house and are wrong often enough to matter. Present all three every time.
Too many line items. A screen of part numbers reads like an invoice, not a choice. Group items under outcomes.
Discounting on the spot. Cutting the price because the customer hesitated teaches everyone that your prices are negotiable. If you offer member pricing, show it on the card from the start.
Tiers that look the same. If better and best differ by one small item, customers notice the decoy. Make each step mean something.
Measuring only close rate. A tech who presents one cheap option can close almost everything and still lag on revenue. Look at revenue per opportunity too.
A worked example: what options do to the average ticket
All numbers are hypothetical. Replace them with your own.
Say one of your techs runs 10 AC repair calls with the same diagnosis.
Before: one option. The tech presents a $450 repair every time. Six customers say yes.
- Revenue: 6 × $450 = $2,700
- Average ticket on sold jobs: $450
- Revenue per opportunity: $2,700 ÷ 10 = $270
After: three options. Good is the $450 repair. Better is $790: the repair plus a coil cleaning and a surge protector. Best is $1,150: better, plus a hard-start kit, a two-year labor warranty and a first year of membership. Seven customers say yes: three pick good, three pick better, one picks best.
- Revenue: (3 × $450) + (3 × $790) + (1 × $1,150) = $1,350 + $2,370 + $1,150 = $4,870
- Average ticket on sold jobs: $4,870 ÷ 7 ≈ $696
- Revenue per opportunity: $4,870 ÷ 10 = $487
$270 → $487
The close rate barely moved. What changed is what customers chose once they had a choice. That's the whole case for good, better, best, and it's why "revenue per opportunity" and "share of estimates with three options" are better coaching numbers than close rate alone.
One honest caveat: your mix won't look like this on day one. Techs need practice, and tiers need a few rounds of adjustment before they feel natural. Track the numbers monthly and tune the templates that underperform.