Online quote request form: a fill-in template for owners
What goes in an online quote request form?
Start from the quote, not the form. Ask what you'd need to know to name a price without driving out. Whatever you can't price without goes on the form. Whatever you'd never use stays off.
That's the whole method. A form with eight fields that each move the price is easier to finish than one with fifteen fields that don't. It also hands you cleaner answers to work from.
There's a second payoff. The same fields can run as quote rules, which are if-then lines: if the house has two stories, add this amount. When your fields and your rules match one for one, a request can be priced the moment it lands, by you or by software.
Speed matters here. In 2011, Harvard Business Review found that companies that replied to a web lead took 42 hours on average. The same Harvard Business Review study found that reaching out within the hour made a company about 7x more likely to qualify the lead than waiting even one hour more. A form built to be priced fast is how you get inside that window.
The fill-in template, field by field
Copy this online quote request form template into your form builder and swap the choices for your own jobs. It's written for a gutter, window, lawn or exterior cleaning business, so cut what doesn't apply.
Request a quote
What do you need done? Choose one: gutter cleaning, window cleaning, house wash, driveway wash, other.
Property address or zip code:
Size: one story, two stories or three stories, plus lawn size if it's a lawn.
Condition: light, average or heavy buildup, plus anything unusual like a steep roof or a locked gate.
When do you want it done? This week, within two weeks or flexible.
Photos, optional: add up to three pictures of the job area.
Your name and the best way to reach you:
Anything else about the job?
Each box has a job. The table shows what you're asking for and which quote rule the answer feeds.
| Field | Why you ask | Quote rule it feeds |
|---|---|---|
| Service needed | Picks the right price list | Which base price applies |
| Address or zip code | Confirms you work there | Service area check, travel add-on |
| Size | Drives most of the price | Base price by stories, home size or lawn size |
| Condition | Separates a quick job from a long one | Add-on for heavy buildup or overgrowth |
| Timing | Sets urgency and the booking window | Rush add-on, or the next open slot |
| Photos | Catches what a dropdown can't | Hold for your OK if the photo doesn't match the answers |
| Name and contact | Lets you send the quote | None, it's needed to deliver the quote |
| Notes | Catches the odd job | Hold for your OK if it names a job your rules don't cover |
Only one row feeds no rule: the contact row. Every other answer changes a price, a hold or a booking slot. That's the field test, and it's the rule of thumb to keep: if an answer changes none of those three, cut the box.
Photos earn their place on any job where condition is hard to describe. A gutter packed with moss and a clean one can read the same on a dropdown. A photo costs the customer a few seconds and can save you a drive.
How do the same fields work as quote rules?
A quote rule is one if-then line, written once. If the service is gutter cleaning and the house is one story, the base price applies.
If it has a second story, add the second-story amount. If the address is outside your zip codes, hold the request for your OK.
Build the set in five steps:
- List the jobs you actually take, one price list per job.
- Pick the one or two fields that move each price most. For gutter cleaning that's stories and length of run. For a lawn it's lawn size.
- Write each price as a base plus add-ons, never a range. A range invites haggling and a second conversation.
- Write the hold cases: answers you want to look at first, like a three-story house, a photo showing damage or an address outside your zips.
- Test the rules on three jobs you've already priced. If a rule gives a different number than you'd quote, fix the rule.
A single number also does something a range can't. It gives the customer a yes or no to answer. A range gives them a reason to wait for another quote.
Hold cases deserve as much care as prices. Screening out a bad fit before you quote saves you from sending a number you'd regret. A rule set that quotes everything will quote the jobs you'd have turned down.
Run every request through this decision order, top to bottom:
| Order | Check on the request | Result |
|---|---|---|
| First | Is the address inside your service area? | Move on. If not, hold for your OK. |
| Second | Is it a job you price from rules? | Move on. If not, hold. |
| Third | Does the photo match the answers? | Move on. If not, hold. |
| Fourth | Is the timing a rush? | Add your rush amount, then price. |
| Last | Everything clear? | Price from the rules and send with a booking link. |
Run the order on paper first. If a past job fails a check you didn't expect, you've found a missing rule before a customer did.
This is the job Workely does with your form. It catches the lead from your website form and prices it from your own rules, then gets the quote ready with a link to book. You approve it, or you turn on auto-send. Leads that don't fit your rules wait for your OK.
The lead capture and pricing page shows how that works.
Worked example: a gutter cleaning request on a Friday evening
This online quote request form example uses made-up prices, so swap in your own.
Say a request comes in at 7:40 on a Friday evening for gutter cleaning on a two-story house with gutter guards. Your rules read: $140 base for one story, plus $60 for a second story, plus $40 for guards. The quote comes to $140 plus $60 plus $40, a total of $240.
Notice what made that quote possible. Four answers did all the work: the service, the stories, the guards and the address. The other boxes only confirmed them.
Suppose four requests like it arrive in a month and a faster competitor wins all four. Four times $240 comes to $960 per month, from one job type. If your reply waits until Monday morning, that's the money you're handing over.
Now the hold. If the photo on that same request showed a damaged fascia, or the form said four stories, your rules wouldn't quote it. It would wait for your OK, and you'd price it by hand on Saturday morning.
A quote that goes out and then sits is only half the job. With Workely, follow-ups go out automatically until the lead books. The follow-up and records page covers it, and the booking link that comes with every quote is how the lead picks a time.
What should you keep off the form?
Leave off anything that doesn't change the price, the hold or the slot. Four common ones:
- A budget box. Customers type a low guess or leave it blank. Your rules already know your price, so the quote can answer it.
- Account sign-ups. Nobody standing in a driveway wants to make a password.
- Long open boxes. One note box at the end is enough. Three of them is homework.
- Marketing questions up front. Ask how they found you after the quote, not before it.
Keep it short for another reason. Customers fill these in on a small screen between other things, so use dropdowns and big buttons instead of typing. If you can't finish your own form standing up, cut it again.
Mark only four fields required: the service, the address or zip code, the size and the contact. Condition, timing, photos and notes can stay optional, because a half-filled request that arrives beats a full one that's abandoned. When an optional answer is missing, your rules can hold the request for your OK.
If you don't know your add-on amounts yet, the free quote calculator lets you enter your rates and get a quote you can share. It covers twelve trades, including gutter cleaning, window cleaning and house washing.
Your next step
Pick your most common job this week. Write its base price and add-ons as if-then lines, then check that every box on your online quote request form feeds one of them.
That's the whole next step. Once the rules are written, the form and the quote use the same fields, and fewer requests surprise you.
If you'd rather have software price each lead from those rules and send the quote with a booking link, the plan is $149 a month with a 30-day free trial, and we set it up with you. See Workely pricing.