Quoting over the phone - following up to impress and win the work
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Through talking to our quality tradies over the years, we know that some businesses quote over the phone, and some businesses quote formally. This usually depends on what kind of business it is, and both types can be very effective. We've put together some guidelines on the best way to present your quote, but we also know that quoting over the phone is common. How can you quote over the phone and follow up to win the work?
With phone quotes, even though you're quoting over the phone, following up with a formal quote is a great process to follow.
Why would you want to follow up on telephone quotes?
- Keeping your business 'top of mind' during that initial decision process always helps to swing the vote your way.
- Even if they don't go with your company this time around they'll still have easy access to your quote and contact details to chat to you in future.
- Your customer then has a permanent record of what the quote was. Quite simply, they trust the quote more and therefore are more likely to choose your business.
- As you have the quote in writing, there's no opportunity for dispute later, as can happen!
- Organising to actually have the job done is as simple for the customer as possible - simply hit reply and say "Perfect, when can you do the work let's get it sorted?". Easy always wins.
- You're able to provide the customer with any additional information about your services and perhaps invite quotes on other services at a later stage.
So, how to go about it?
First things first is obviously the phone quote. You'll usually be saying the same thing to most customers, giving them a standard price based on their job and then warning them about potential extras - for example "The cost to treat your property for spider infestation is going to be X and this includes spraying the inside of the house, the exterior of the house, and the property line. But if you have a lot of dead wood and additional areas of concern there might be an additional charge of X". Or, your quote might be a straight hourly rate and call out fee where you give the customer an indication of how long the job might take. Whichever the scenario, you'll know how it goes for your business and act accordingly.
In all likelihood, the customer will either be waiting for competing quotes or choose to go ahead with your company immediately. If they're waiting for competing quotes, that's when a follow up is a proactive step towards making sure your company wins the work.
If you ask the customer for their email address (or postal address if your customer prefers) then you're able to pop off a quick email to the customer confirming what you've discussed telephonically.
Ways to make follow ups easier
- Set up a standard email or letter template - if you find yourself including the same 'conditions' on each quote, this is a good place to put them. All you'll need to do it personalise the template (pop their name and their quote in) and send it off. If doing the job also involves any contracts, attaching them to the email is also a great plan (although usually jobs that are quoted over the phone aren't contractual jobs, this may be appropriate for you).
- Grab the customer's email address off the job on Service Central's website instead of asking the customer - but remember to confirm it's correct and also that they're happy to receive that quote from you.
- When you get your customer's email address, you may also want to put it into your customer database if you have one. This means that future specials that you run can be sent to them (but obviously not for spamming them!).
- If your quote also includes a 'when we're available to do the work' clause, you can also include information on your standard turnaround times.
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