For companies with no website, would you use a link you could send customers that opens a simple form for an estimate?
They fill it out, hit submit, and you get a detailed property email.
First and foremost, I’m looking at this from the perspective of someone who has a website with a form. So I may not be fully aware of the purpose/issues that someone without a website faces.
The form on my website primarily serves as a lead generator. When a customer fills it out, it’s usually their first point of contact with my business. If they reach out via phone, text, or email instead, I typically have a conversation with them that covers the same questions that the form would ask, manually recording their answers. Sending the form afterward feels repetitive, and answering a call only to say, “Let me send you a link to fill out,” can feel less personable and more convoluted than just taking the information in real time.
I will say though, one of the main benefits of the form is that it automatically creates a new customer entry in my CRM, eliminating me from having to manual enter the data. While there are still occasional errors I need to correct, it has significantly reduced the “behind-the-scenes” tasks in the day-to-day.
I get what you’re saying, and I agree — talking to the customer is usually the easiest part.
This is aimed more at the estimate side than just lead capture. Once the info is entered, it sends back wall sq ft, map images, and property data and an estimated price to clean the house so you can quote without driving out or measuring everything.
Got it. My least favorite part of writing an estimate is gathering all that info. It’s not difficult and it doesn’t take long, it’s just one more step I’d love to be able to automate. If it could pull data from an auditor, Google Maps, and other sources, then populate the CRM once the basic customer info is entered, I could definitely see the value in that and it would be a benefit for most regardless of having a website/form or not.
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Web developer here:
Without a website of some sort the contact form is useless.
If you are sending somebody a contact form, without a website, I assume you have already made first contact with the prospective client.
A contact form is meant to collect information from previously unknown prospects.
That being said, if you really want a contact form, Google Forms (free) and Jotform (free tier account) are good options.
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How do you do decks without looking at them (estimate)? I only do in person estimates for deck restoration (staining painting) so I know what I am getting into. New decks, built within a year I could understand, but previously painted possibly some boards with rot, I just don’t get it. Do you do change orders after arriving and seeing problems? The laws in my state indicate that I can only upwardly revise an estimate 10% without a change order. A couple of rotten boards or some bad railing would eat that 10% up quick. Not to mention how many times I have to pass up a job because the people have inaccessible drives for me with a truck and trailer.
I would like to automate more for when I am busy. Right now I am reading books and shoveling snow and getting fat (fatter).
