So far the stuff that has qualified for the "Emergency rate" has been along the lines of "My server/website/software is down/badly misbehaving, and a simple re-

So far the stuff that has qualified for the "Emergency rate" has been along the lines of "My server/website/software is down/badly misbehaving, and a simple re-start won't fix it. I'm bleeding money, please help." It's the type of thing where I don't (and they don't) know what it will take to fix it, but getting things running again (and fast) is important. I can't give a quote without being able to see the actual situation, so an hourly rate to just band-aid the problem makes sense. I'll usually follow up with "Here's what the cause was, this is what it will take to fix it _properly_, and I could fit it in next week. Would you like to get it fixed?", which has been a great success at gaining me more work and very happy clients. In general, they are happy to pay the higher rate because when it gets to that situation, leaving it for longer will cost them more than paying a higher rate to get it running. Once it's done, then they're usually more than happy to talk about a longer term fix to ensure that it doesn't happen again.