This article was written by Michelle Weger.
I want to give someone my money.
Specifically, I want someone to come to my house and redo the siding so I can give them my money. I do not want to put siding on my house myself, just like Nabil did not want to learn how to do plumbing in our bathroom when we renovated it. Unfortunately, it’s looking more and more like I’m going to have to learn how to do siding because despite desperately wanting to give someone my money to do it for me, I haven’t received a quote. Even though we’ve had contractors come out to our house to do the consultation. Even though we’ve been told we’d receive a quote in a few days or by the end of the week. A similar thing happened when it came to redoing our bathroom: we asked for a consultation, it was completed, but when it came time to get the quote, there was radio silence. As a customer, I’m frustrated.
- Do they not want my business?
- Are they too busy with other projects?
- Why is my project less important than the other projects they may have?
As a business owner, and specifically one who works with automation, I don’t understand it. My best guess is that one of two things is happening: the contractor is too busy and therefore is losing potential future sales, or the contractor’s process for post-consultation follow-up is broken.
Both of these problems can be easily solved with automation.
Imagine this is your business. Even if you came back to me and said “Sorry, but we’re fully booked for the next however many months,” I would still want to hire you. If you said “We need a deposit to hold that space in our schedule,” I would pay it. But both of those options require you to send me the quote before I can do anything. If you’re busy with other projects that are actively earning you money at the moment, it can be easy to let something like sending a quote fall to the wayside. But that means you’re losing out on potential earnings in the future. So how do you set it up so that sending quotes takes less time and booking future projects becomes more feasible?
You automate.
- Using appointment booking software, you can capture all the necessary information about the project when the client books with you.
- Once the consultation is complete, you can enter the details discussed with their client into the automation sequence.
- The automation works its magic and determines where in your schedule the project can fit, how much it will cost the client, and any other major determining details.
- A few days later, a quote with all the project details is sent to the client, complete with a button that allows them to pay their deposit to hold that time in your schedule.
Imagine how much time this would save. Other than entering the information you determine during the consultation, you don’t have to spend time tracking down your client’s information, figuring out when you can do the project, and manually putting together a quote. Your payment is automated. Your clients are happy. With all that extra time you just saved, you can likely take on more of the work you want to do, since you’re not focusing on administrative tasks.
To put it simply, you’re earning more money.
When a contractor shows up to do a consultation but doesn’t follow through with a quote, they’re not just missing out on a future project, they’re actively losing money in the process by doing work that isn’t earning them a profit. What sounds better: wasting your time doing consultation after consultation that has no return on your invested time, or me giving you my money to do a thing I don’t want to do? As a business owner, I know which one I’d pick.
