Buit a crm based around a different system of quoting/selling

Management & Operations
1

Hey all. I built a CRM specifically for pressure washing businesses, but it’s based on a different system than what you might be used to. Here’s the idea in a nutshell:

When a customer calls asking for a quote (say, a house wash), you can very quickly add quotes for all the services you offer at that property — house wash, roof cleaning, gutter brightening, whatever fits. Then, you send them a link where they can view everything and request the services they want, on their own time.

While you’re on-site, it’s easy to add extra quotes — like if you notice a concrete stain, a gazebo that needs washing, or want to quote detailed window cleaning (even by the pane). Everything stays visible to the customer through that same link — and it doesn’t expire. So next time they’re ready to book, they don’t even need to call you — they just click the link and choose what they want.

There are some other built-in conveniences too, like:

  • Automatically saving and loading customer info into the CRM
  • Automatically requesting missing customer info when they book
  • Tools to bulk edit your quotes (e.g., increase all roof cleaning quotes by $20 or 10%)

It’s definitely a different way of handling quoting and follow-ups, but I think it’s a lot faster and more flexible once you try it. The idea is that you quote a property once, and you never have to look it up and quote it again, even for services that the customer hasn’t specifically requested before. In addition, they can book anytime, at their own convenience, without having to call you.

If you’re curious or have any questions, feel free to reply here or email me at kevin@plaidquotes.com. If you want to try it out, it’s live and free to use at plaidquotes.com

Also, just to be clear — I’m not a big company or anything. Just a guy who built something I wanted to use in my own business. So if you notice bugs or have ideas, I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for checking it out!

– Kevin

2

All I know is, if I sent an estimate covering every possible service that could be done on their property, the sticker shock alone would likely overwhelm them and it might come across like I wasn’t listening to their actual needs and just trying to upsell.

At the same time, I’m not comfortable leaving an estimate open indefinitely. What happens if I quoted a driveway three years ago, and now it has oil spilled everywhere? They call up and expect me to honor the original pricing, even though the condition has changed?

Those are just my first two thoughts reading what you wrote… I might have a little time next week due to the weather to look into it more.

3

Appreciate the input.

Ahhhhhh, yes; I agree with you there. But it’s not an “estimate for every possible service that could be done”, it’s a list of services that they can choose from. So you might have:
Housewash: 299
Driveway: 199
etc.

It is also organized in such a way that the customer sees the following:
Here is the quote you requested:
Housewash

Explore additional quotes for your property below
Roof wash
etc…

Your second concern is legit. And there’s really no way around it without quoting in person right before the job. I’ve thought about allowing users to add some verbiage to address that concern.

I’m assuming you only quote jobs in person, which is really the only way to totally avoid this situation. But for those who quote via google maps, or who previously performed a driveway a year ago for a client and that client wants you to come back again, you run into the same problem. Same problem also exists for platforms like responsibid. And in my experience, it is an extremely uncommon problem. Having polled responsibid users on this exact question, it seems to not be a problem (much to my surprise, to be honest).

4

Maybe put an example customer / examples out there to get a feel for the software. Right now, at least from my phone, it’s not very intuitive.

5

That’s fair. And it is different. I forget sometimes; it’s intuitive to me, because I built it.

I was typing out how it all works; decided a video would be better.

It’s pretty informal, but I tried to touch on all of the main points/features. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I’m happy to answer.

1 Like
6

I’d estimate that about 95% of my quotes are done virtually. In almost every case, probably 99.9%, customers either have a specific reason for requesting a service, like an oil stain, or they let me know upfront about any particular issues or areas that would go beyond a standard cleaning. This can during a walkthrough, over the phone, or through email/text with photos. It’s extremely rare that I show up to a job and think, “Uh-oh, I didn’t realize what I was getting into,” or feel like a customer misled me.

7

Ahh yeah; in that case, then we’re all good. When the customer requests services, there’s a little box where they can leave notes “big oil stain in driveway” or something like that. Keep in mind that this will only apply to properties that you’ve already quoted. Obviously for new clients, they’ll reach out via your normal communication channels to request the quote, so no surprises there.

But even if they don’t tell you via the notes box when they request services, you call/email them to schedule the job (customer scheduling just doesn’t work that well for most pressurewashing companies; logistics are very irregular/difficult to predict for most); this would be a great time to ask them if there are any “special surprises”.