Cleaning service quote form questions that qualify leads

A cleaning quote form collects what you need to price a clean. It can also tell you who to answer first. Most quote forms only do the first job. These four steps add the second, so each inquiry arrives with a score as well as the facts for an estimate.

Who is this for?#

This is for house cleaning and small commercial cleaning businesses that get quote requests through a website. It fits a business where some inquiries have to wait, or where requests come in from outside the area.

If you get a few inquiries a week, you can read every one the same day. The questions below still help you price the job. The scoring matters less.

What do cleaning quote forms usually ask?#

A typical cleaning quote form asks for four things, plus contact details:

1. Type of cleaning. Standard, deep, or move-in and move-out.
2. Size of the home. Bedrooms and bathrooms, or square feet.
3. How often. One time, weekly, every two weeks, or monthly.
4. Where it is. A town or a zip code.

These are the right four for an estimate. With them, you can work out the hours, the supplies, and the travel. Keep all four.

What do those four questions leave out?#

They tell you what the job costs. They do not tell you whether you want it, or how soon to reply.

Picture two inquiries that arrive on the same morning. One is a weekly clean of a two-bedroom apartment, five minutes away, starting next week. The other is a one-time deep clean, forty minutes away, sometime next spring. A plain quote form shows them as two messages that look the same. Someone has to read both and judge them by eye.

Two things are missing:

• A rule for each answer. "Weekly" is worth more to most cleaning businesses than "one time." Inside your area is worth more than outside it.
• Timing. A clean that starts next week needs a reply today. A clean next spring can wait a day.

The steps below add both.

Step 1: Which answers make a cleaning job worth a call?#

Write your rules down before you touch the form. If you cannot write a rule down, a form cannot score it.

For example, a cleaning business might write:

• Inside our area, or a small extra charge for the next town over.
• Recurring work first. One-time cleans fill gaps in the schedule.
• Deep cleans and move-outs are welcome, but they need a longer slot.
• A start within the next month is easiest to plan for.

Home size is not on the list. For most cleaners, it is not a rule for fit. A small apartment cleaned every week can be worth more over a year than a large house cleaned once. Size sets the price, not the order of replies.

Step 2: Which questions should the form add?#

Add one question: how soon they want to start. Then ask the location question as a list, so it can be scored.

Put "out of the area" last in the town list. A typed place can only earn credit for being answered. To score the area, add Where the job is.

Some details change the price but are not worth a question, such as pets. Visitors often mention them anyway. In Qualiform, a question set to Infer only is never asked. The AI fills it in from what the visitor says, or leaves it blank.

Some answers only matter after another answer. A move-out clean needs a moving date. On a question people answer by picking from a list, use an answer's Add question to ask a question only of visitors who pick it.

Step 3: How should each answer be scored?#

Give each question a share of the score based on your rules from step 1. The question that decides the most should count the most.

In Qualiform you do not type points. You set How much it counts to Critical, High, Medium, Low, Minimal, or No score. The question then shows its share, such as "24% of the score." Only the proportions matter.

Each question also needs a scoring option that fits its kind of answer:

1. Where it is. A grade for each answer. Your nearest towns get Best fit. "Out of the area" gets Not a fit.
2. How often. A grade for each answer. Weekly and every two weeks grade highest. One time grades lowest, but not Not a fit.
3. When they want to start. How soon they want it. You choose which dates score best, so a start in the next few weeks can earn full credit.
4. Type of cleaning. A grade for each answer at a Low level, or No score if you take every type.
5. Size of the home. Minimal or No score. It is there for the estimate.
6. How to reach them. No score. It tells you how to reply, not whether the job fits.

In Qualiform, a question nobody answered is left out of the score instead of counting as zero. Skipping it never lowers a score.

What does a scored cleaning quote form look like?#

Here is one example, with points out of 100. The numbers are made up to show the idea. Set your own from step 1. In Qualiform, you set the same priorities with levels and grades instead of points.

With these points, the weekly clean nearby that starts next week scores 100. The one-time deep clean in the next town, next spring, scores 48.

Step 4: What should happen at each score?#

Decide one next step for each range of scores. For example:

1. 70 to 100: offer a time for a walkthrough or the first clean.
2. 55 to 69: offer any open time.
3. 40 to 54: say you will send a quote by email, and send it the same day.
4. 15 to 39: say you will be in touch when a slot opens.
5. Under 15: say kindly that it is not a fit.

In Qualiform, each rule on the Routing tab has a cut-off and an action. No rule offers times until you save the Booking tab once. The bottom rule, which tells a visitor it is not a fit, is off until you switch it on.

For an answer that should always end things, such as "out of the area," grade it Not a fit. Then check Turn away anyone who picks a Not a fit answer. They score 0 and are offered no time, whatever else they said. Use this only for answers that cannot change, like a town you do not drive to.

The score is not a price. Work out the estimate yourself from the answers saved on the lead.

How do you try the form before visitors see it?#

Have the conversation yourself, more than once, with different answers. Be a weekly client nearby. Then be a one-time move-out from out of the area. Check that each one lands on the rule you expect.

In Qualiform, the Preview button opens your form the way a visitor sees it. A preview is free, saves nothing, and sends no emails. Press Save at the top of the page first, or the preview will not have your changes.

When it works, put it on your site. The Embed tab gives you two lines to paste, or a direct link you can put behind a QR code on a van or a flyer.

What are the common mistakes?#

• Scoring home size heavily. It marks down small homes that would be steady weekly work. Use size for the price.
• Asking for a budget. Most people do not know what a clean should cost. The post on whether a contact form should ask for budget makes the case.
• Asking for the street address up front. A town or zip code is enough to score the area.
• Turning people away on a guess. A turn-away should rest on a rule you wrote, not a number that came with a template.
• Too many questions. Fewer is better. See how many questions a lead qualification form should have.
• A cold reply to a low score. A low score means a poor fit for your schedule, nothing more. The post on how to reply kindly to inquiries that are not a fit has wording to start from.

When is this not worth doing?#

A plain quote form may be the better choice when:

• You can read every inquiry within the hour. If nothing waits, the order of replies matters little.
• You publish flat prices. If a standard clean has one price per home size, a price list and a booking page may serve visitors faster than questions.
• You take every job. If every town and every schedule is welcome, there is nothing to score.

The post on when a plain form is better than a chatbot covers more of these cases.

How do you know it is working?#

Read two weeks of scored inquiries side by side with what became of each one. Mark which ones became regular clients.

If a client you were glad to win scored under 55, one of your levels or grades is wrong. Find the answer that cost them the most, and change that one first. In Qualiform, also check the Answered percent beside each score. Under 50% means the score rests on little, so read what they wrote.

For the same method on any kind of business, see the guide to qualifying leads from your contact form. For more on what happens after the score, see lead routing rules for a small service business.