Price shoppers, and the quote you won't give over the phone.
Trades have argued about this for years: ballpark it, charge for the estimate, or refuse outright. Each choice costs something different.
On a plumbing forum there is a thread simply called Price Shoppers. It has been running for years.
Everyone has the same complaint. The phone goes, somebody asks how much, and it is clear they are working down a list.
An electrician on another forum described quoting eighteen hundred and fifty pounds for a job, and being told other people had quoted between eight hundred and fifteen hundred over the phone. Could he be more competitive?
The three answers trades give
Read enough of these threads and everyone lands on one of three approaches. Each has a real cost.
1. Refuse to price on the phone
"I would have to see it." Protects you from quoting blind, which is fair, because you genuinely cannot see it.
The cost is that you lose people who were not price shopping at all. They just wanted to know if you were in the right range before booking a morning off work.
2. Give a ballpark
"Usually between a hundred and a hundred and fifty." This is what most experienced trades settle on.
The cost is that some people hear the lower number and remember only that. Which is why the sentence after the range matters more than the range.
3. Charge for the visit
Forty pounds to come and look, taken off if they go ahead. It removes tyre kickers almost completely.
It also removes some good customers who are simply not used to paying for a quote. Works better for specialists than for general trades.
What separates a shopper from a buyer
This is the bit worth getting right, because it is not the same thing as asking about price.
Everyone asks about price. A serious customer asks about price and then asks something else. When could you come. How long will it take. Do you clear up after.
The pure shopper asks the number and rings off. You can hear it in about twenty seconds, once you know to listen for the second question.
Say the number with its reason
A bare number invites comparison against another bare number, and you will sometimes lose that to someone who is guessing.
A number with a reason changes the conversation. "Most of these are around four hundred. If the pipework needs moving it goes up, and I will tell you before I start rather than after."
Now you are not the expensive one. You are the one who explained. The eight hundred pound quote suddenly needs explaining too.
The unpopular suggestion
Put the ballpark on your website.
Most trades hate this idea. But if your answer on the phone is going to be a range anyway, publishing it just means the price shoppers filter themselves out before they reach you.
You lose nothing you were going to win. You save the calls. And the people who do ring have already accepted the number.
Written by the team at hailera — we help small businesses answer customer questions without being there.