Aaron's Experience of a Poor Quote

I’m in the process of looking for tradespeople because I need a new bathroom. My shower’s leaking due to a cracked valve. I saw this as a good opportunity to upgrade the entire suite bathroom.

The gas engineer I use regularly doesn’t do bathrooms so he recommended someone. The contractor came round at the agreed time. He was prompt, courteous and thorough. He then said, “I’ll follow up with a quote”.

I have received a quote. A WhatsApp message saying:

Cost for new bathroom suite, labour only: £3,600 (inc electrician)
Materials: Customer to decide and purchase.

I need to pick this apart!

Firstly, this tradesperson has come recommended by someone that I trust, so the chances of me giving this person the job was extremely high. Before I had even received the quote he was a front runner. But I have now received the quote and have to question the company’s professionalism.

The price was sent over WhatsApp so I don’t know the company name, I haven’t been given links to any previous work so I can’t research the quality of workmanship that this company can execute or look at reviews.

There are no payment terms. All I have is a price. There are no upgrades, cross sales or anything to allow me to visualise the work that he is going to do. I can’t tell from his message if he has fully grasped what I want with my new bathroom.

It has completely reduced the chances of me going with this individual. In fact, I’m currently researching other bathroom installers because what I have received from this individual is not sufficient for me to make an informed decision and to warrant spending thousands of pounds on a new bathroom that I want to last me a good 10 years or so.

My point is when you produce a quote for a customer, please make sure that you clearly communicate that you understand the customer's pain points and problems, alleviate those pain points and problems in a well-executed quote which details exactly what you are going to do (and not do!).

For me just to receive a text message saying “I’ll do the work for X amount of money” doesn’t make me want to part with any money and use this individual.

Please put time and effort into the quoting part of your business.

There is a timeline when you go from customer enquiry to money in the bank and it goes like this:

Customer enquiry/telephone call > home survey > producing a quote > accepting the quote > receive the deposit > do the work > final payment

The written quote is in the middle of the entire customer journey. At any point in the customer journey, the customer may decide not to continue to the next stage. Therefore, every part of the customer journey needs to be professional, on point, and in keeping with the job in hand.

What’s your customer journey?

How do you communicate to a customer that you are the right firm to do the job in hand?

Do you need help producing better domestic quotes, if so read The Quote Handbook. 

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