you can also look it from the other side: if you take it into account from the beginning than it isn't a problem.
something like: I want to give return customers a better price (small discount), put your initial price a little higher, that way you have some margin from the beginning.
And yes, I rather give a small bouncer for "free" to get a deal in, instead of giving them a bigger discount. Setting up those small ones (like a wacky mini bouncer or so) is rather quick.
Good Post!
Can you and others elaborate on examples of adding value instead of discounting. Ecspecially when your in an area where craigslist is so popular and seems to be a mainstream of free advertising for inflatables.
In the Dallas area craigslisters are renting bouncers for an average $75 and as low as $60. I do not advertise on craigslist frequently, but when I am slow or low on rentals I do. I only post the unique inflatables that I have and the cragslisters dont.
Although your market is saturated, you don't want to ever start out with a discount. That would lead all new clients to believe they will receive a discount on their rentals. I'm new to the Bounce House rental business but I've studied business's for a while now and understand how they operate. Adding value would simply be adding tables and chairs or maybe throwing in a snow cone machine or popcorn machine to show the customer there getting there monies worth. Keeping your rental price the same or even rising with those extras. A key items that will grab your customers trust is SAFETY. If you can obtain the customers trust you've got the sale no matter the price, especially when it comes to their kids.
You can look into having your equipment inspected by your State which would wow the customer in the since that your equipment is certified and reliable.
You can look into getting the Mad Dog siren system which sits in between the extension cord and blower. It emits a loud 120db siren when power failure occurs. They are about $100 to $200 bucks. An alternative is a GFCI lockout device. It's about 30 bucks at your local hardware store. Does the same thing as the mad dog just doesn't make noise, but still prevents your blower from being destroyed in the event of power lose or surge.
I'm not sure if you have employees or not, but you can hire a staff member to work the bounce house while the adults and kids enjoy the event. Just make sure to have insurance coverage with that.
Make sure to use 12ga extension cables and explain the benefit and reason.
To sum it all up, you must be able to provide excellent customer service with a bang.
I think this video will be beneficial to you for negotiating. I encourage you to watch it.