I go out to to the customer, firstly we sit down and discuss what they want and whether it's feasible. Then its generally move to the room they want the work doing in and I start to measure, they will be looking through portfolio as this point. Next we talk about where they will get their tiles/kitchen/bathroom from. I have suppliers with showrooms and will be able to get discounts at/arrange delivery etc so they don't have to worry about that side of things. Do they require electrical/plaster/plumbing work I have a team of guys that I work with who will come and see you and give a quote for work required. Then we talk about budgets and timescales. (no point in sending a customer to a high end supplier with a B&Q budget). I think it's imperative that you find out their budget, I used to work in sales and if you don't know the customers budget, you don't know what they have to spend.
I never give a price unless its something like a kitchen splash or say a toilet floor.
I go away and let my guys know if they are needed on a job and give them customer details to contact them. In the meantime I prepare a quote giving a breakdown of all the work that will be done, materials to be used and meterage of tiles required so they can then go to the suppliers and select tiles. If you list all the work they cannot come back to you and say 'But you said you would do this or that' - Remember this, 'The spoken word flies, but the written word remains!'
Quote is then sent either by e-mail in PDF format, (no tinkering there Mr Customer) or a hard copy in post if they don't have computer. Follow up call in a few days time to make sure they have the quote, are they happy with it, do they understand everything I have gone through with them, is there anything they want to add or remove? etc etc
I would then follow up with another call maybe in a week, but generally they have got back to me within that time. Most of my work is recommendation so I'm lucky in as much as I never have any real competition against me, and get the job fairly quickly.
No-one gets a fixed date until confirmation and always get a deposit. It shows commitment from the customer to you and they are less likely to start looking round for alternative quotes once they have parted with their hard earned cash.
Works for me
