Flat rate is a pricing scheme whereby the customer pays a fixed price for a service regardless of how long the worker takes to carry out the service. Flat rate manuals are based on timed studies of the typical time taken for each type of service. Flat rate helps provide a uniform pricing menu for service work and helps establish the worth of the performance of a particular job.
The benefit to the customer is that if a worker takes longer than this, the cost does not rise.
The benefit to the worker is that it incentivises the worker to learn how to do the work more efficiently.
It can be difficult to compare prices between hourly-paid and flat-rate services, and this sometimes causes rejection of flat rate shops over hourly ones.
However, many shops do not use flat rate manuals and instead set their prices by evaluating what they believe the market will bear.
Famous quotes containing the words flat and/or rate:
“The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience there is no theater. Every technique learned by the actor, every curtain, every flat on the stage, every careful analysis by the director, every coordinated scene, is for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, our evaluators, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful.”
—Viola Spolin (b. 1911)
““Terence, this is stupid stuff:
You eat your victuals fast enough;
There can’t be much amiss, ‘tis clear,
To see the rate you drink your beer.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)