We have had similar pressure from clients before. Jay is right.. the cost to produce the product is only increasing. The problem, as I see it, is that these companies are bidding out their services lower and lower to gain market share, then they come to us expecting a break on our fees to cover their own shrinking profit margin. The way I see it, if that client looses the work, another of my clients will pick it up. I won't help any client start a trend of decreasing prices. They may promise volume, but they won't guarantee it. Even it happens, what happens when the industry slows down? Our profit margins would be too thin to survive; and just try to increase your prices in a down market (LOL).

We all know that there are people out there, without the experience, E&O coverage, etc... that will undercut our prices, but we shouldn't ad to the problem. If they want to use sub-standard abstractors, they will not be able to keep the business anyway. We have gotten clients back who switched providers solely based on price; they learn the hard way.

I think we need to educate our clients as to the the benfits of experience. We spend money traning and re-training our staff to continually provide a top quality product. That is worth something; and it certainly costs more.

Just my $0.02.
Robert A. Franco

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