What a contractor's quote request form should ask

A quote request form is the form a contractor puts on its website so people can ask for a price. These six steps work for plumbers, electricians, heating and cooling companies, roofers, and any trade that drives to the job.

Who is this for?#

This is for a trade business that gets more quote requests than it can visit. It helps if you:

1. Cover a set list of towns or zip codes.
2. Do some jobs gladly and others never.
3. Lose work when an urgent inquiry waits behind a slow one.

A list of boxes does not tell you who to call first. So every question here comes with three things: how hard to ask it, how much its answer counts, and what it does to the reply the visitor gets. For the general method, the guide to qualifying leads from a contact form covers it for any business.

1. What makes a job worth quoting?#

Write your rules down before you write a single question. For most trades, four facts decide it:

1. Where the job is. Inside your area, or a drive you will not make.
2. What the work is. A job you do every day, one you do now and then, or one you never do.
3. How soon they need it. Today, this week, or "sometime this spring."
4. What it will cost. Worth the drive, or under your smallest job.

Example rule for a plumber: "A job in our six towns, for work we do, needed within two weeks." If you cannot say the rule in one line, the form cannot ask about it. Each fact in your rule becomes one question. Everything else is either contact details or something you read before the call. It is not something to score.

2. Which questions should a contractor's quote form ask?#

Here is an example form for a plumbing or heating company. Each row pairs the question with how it is scored and what it does to the reply. The levels and settings are examples to change, not measured values.

That is nine questions, and six of them are scored. In Qualiform, you can also start from the home services template, Home services and trades, which asks you up to three things only you know.

3. How should each answer score the lead?#

Give the most weight to the answers that decide whether you can do the job at all. For a contractor that is the place and the work, so they get Critical and High.

In Qualiform you do not type points. You pick one level per question, and the card shows its share, such as "24% of the score." Only the proportions matter.

Two choices matter here:

• Make the area a list, not a typed box. With a list, you grade each town yourself. You can also grade "out of the area" as Not a fit and turn it away.
• Leave the description unscored. Counting words would mark down people who find it hard to name their problem. Someone who writes "it's leaking" may have the most urgent job of the week. The guide to scoring free text says when a typed answer is worth scoring.

4. Where does each answer send the lead?#

The score decides the reply. Pick one next step for each range of scores, from "call right away" down to "say kindly it is not a fit."

In Qualiform, the Routing tab has five rules. A lead takes the label of the first rule its score reaches: Hot, Warm, Cool, or Cold. A lead under Cold, or one that was turned away, reads Not a fit.

Here is how the example form plays out:

1. A burst pipe in your town, today, for work you do. The Critical and High answers all earn full credit. The lead heads for the top rule.
2. A bathroom remodel in your area, "next year." The place scores well and the timing scores low. The lead lands on a lower rule.
3. Any job outside your towns. If "out of the area" is set to turn people away, the visitor scores 0 and is offered no time, whatever else they said.

One more check guards the top rules. If the lead's Answered percent is under the minimum on the Routing tab, it drops to the fourth rule instead of getting the offer its score would earn. No time is offered to anyone until you save the Booking tab once. The guide to lead routing rules goes deeper on choosing the cut-offs.

5. Which answers should turn someone away?#

Turn away only when the answer is physical and final. "We do not drive to that town" is final. "My budget is $200" is not. It is often a guess from someone who has not heard your prices yet. Let it score low.

In Qualiform there are three ways an inquiry is turned away:

1. The AI closes it as out of scope. That covers a recruiter, a sales pitch, or work plainly outside your business. The conversation is recorded as closed early, and no lead email is sent.
2. You mark an answer as a dealbreaker. Grade "out of the area" as Not a fit, then check Turn away anyone who picks a Not a fit answer.
3. A stated amount comes in far under your smallest job. This one can happen without you choosing it. If you leave Turn a lead away under empty, it means a quarter of your smallest job. With a $500 smallest job, anyone who states under $125 is turned away. Type 0 to turn nobody away for a low amount.

A skipped question never turns anyone away. Neither does a vague answer that is not on your list.

The visitor is only told "not a fit" if the bottom rule on the Routing tab is switched on. It is off until you switch it on. For the wording of that reply, see how to reply kindly to inquiries that are not a fit.

6. How should the hard questions be asked?#

Ask the easy, useful questions directly. Pick up the awkward ones from what people say. Each question has a When to ask choice:

Who owns the property is a good Infer only question. Someone who says "my landlord said to call you" has answered it without being asked. A tenant is not a worse lead, only one who needs approval.

For the price question, check Sensitive. It makes the AI ask gently. It also keeps this off the "Your answers" list, where visitors can fix mistakes.

On the "What do you need done?" question, use an answer's Add question to ask a question only of visitors who pick it. For example, ask "Gas or electric?" only after someone picks a water heater job.

What are the common mistakes?#

1. Scoring the description by length. It marks down the people who find it hardest to describe the problem, often the ones with the most urgent jobs.
2. Typing the area as free text. You cannot grade your towns one by one. Use a list.
3. Leaving the turn-away amount empty without meaning to. Empty is not zero. It turns away anyone who states an amount under a quarter of your smallest job.
4. Asking for a budget on every job. Most homeowners cannot price a repair. See should a contact form ask for budget for the full argument.
5. Asking for things that do not matter. A company name on a home repair form is a question most homeowners have no answer for. The post on contact form fields that add friction lists more.
6. Trusting a high score on few answers. One strong answer can score 100. Read the Answered percent beside it.

When is this not worth doing?#

Sometimes a plain form, or a phone number, is the better choice.

• You get a few inquiries a week. If you call every one back the same day anyway, scoring changes nothing. Reading them is fast enough.
• Most of your work is emergencies. If every caller has water on the floor, a big phone number at the top of the page serves them better than any form.
• You must see photos before you quote. Roofers and remodelers often need pictures. Ask for photos in your reply.
• You quote every job no matter what. Then a short form with a name, a phone number, and a message is enough.

How do you know it is working?#

Run two checks.

First, before you share the form, press Save, then press Preview in the editor and have the conversation as a customer would. Under the form, Endings has one button for each rule that is switched on. Press each one and read the closing a visitor on that rule would get. Preview is free, saves nothing, and sends nothing.

Second, after a week of real inquiries, put the scores next to what became of each one. Did the jobs you won score high? Did the ones you passed on score low? If a job you were glad to get scored low, one question or one level is wrong. Each lead carries a line saying how it got its score, so you can see which one. Fix it and check again the next week.

For the questions and levels already set up for trades, start with the home services page.