Photo quote intake
Photos become a file to price.
A dark photo of the water heater hits the truck phone, and the address arrives in a later text.
Today
A camera roll, or a file with the photos already attached.
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By hand
Texts, then a guess.
The shots arrive across several messages on a personal phone. The estimator rebuilds the request from a camera roll after the truck is back, and the street is often missing.
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With the system
One request, one file.
The form asks for the shots, the address, the trade, and a short note about what the customer thinks is wrong. The office opens one file. The confirmation tells the customer the photos are in.
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Status
Packaged from a plumbing build.
The first version was built for a plumbing company. We are packaging that motion so other trades can order the same file, still with the estimator as the only person who types a number.
Example
What the customer can receive after they send the photos.
We have the photos and the address. An estimator will look at the file and follow up. This note is not a price.
How it runs
What the customer sends, and what the office opens.
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What comes in.
Photos of the unit, the label, and the access, plus the address and a short note. A roofing request can ask for the slope. An electrical request can ask for the panel label.
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What it does.
It checks that the required shots and the address are present, confirms what arrived, and holds the file for the estimator. If the photos are too dark to price, the office can ask for another set. The form does not guess a number from a blurry picture.
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What you get.
A file the estimator can open, a confirmation the customer can read, and a record that the request exists. The price, when it exists, is something a person typed.
Approval
The confirmation can leave.
The confirmation that the photos and the address arrived, written from wording you approved once, can go out after the checks pass. Any dollar amount, any discount, any promised visit, any change to the scope, and any new claim about the repair waits until the estimator, or the person allowed to approve it, types that message.
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The form may say.
We have the photos, we have the address, and someone will look at the file. That is a receipt, not a quote.
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The form may not say.
A price, a discount, a time the truck will arrive, or a promise that the repair is a certain job. The estimator owns those words.
Plumbing
A plumbing request, as the office can receive it.
This is an example of the file, not a result from a named job.
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What they sent.
Photos of a water heater closet, a note about a leak, and a ZIP code. The address field asked for the street so the estimator was not hunting for it in a later text.
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What the office got.
One file with the shots, the note, and the location attached. The confirmation told the customer the photos were in and named no dollar amount.
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What the estimator did.
The estimator opened the file and priced the heater. The number entered the thread because a person typed it.
Who uses it
Trades that already sell from a picture.
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Plumbing, and the neighbors.
Plumbing was the first build. HVAC, electrical, roofing, and restoration crews who already ask for a photo can use the same file, with the shots their estimator already asks for on the phone.
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Not a visit.
The file does not replace a visit when the estimator needs to be in the house. It gets the request into a shape that can be priced, or that can be scheduled for a look.
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After the number exists.
Once a person has priced the job, estimate follow-up is the chase. This page ends when the file is in the estimator’s hands.
Questions
What the form will not put in the reply.
Why call it a quote request form if it does not quote?
Because that is what the customer is asking for, and the form’s job is to collect a request the office can price. The quote itself is something the estimator types. The confirmation says the photos arrived.
What does the plumbing file contain?
The shots of the unit and the access, the address, and a short note. In the example we use, that was a water heater closet, a leak note, and the location. The price is not in the file until a person adds it.
What if the photos are too dark to price?
The office asks for another set. The form does not invent a number from a picture nobody can read, and it does not tell the customer the job is a certain repair.
Can this sit on a site I already have?
Yes. The form can live on the site you already run. We are not asking you to move the business onto a new website to collect a photo.
Does this replace a visit?
No. Some jobs can be priced from a clear photo, and some cannot. The file is how the request arrives. The estimator decides whether the next step is a number or a trip to the house.
The photos
Tell us how quote requests arrive today.
A camera roll, a form, or a call that asks the customer to text the shots. We will say whether this file is the first build.