Plumbing estimating software australia: a quote in a minute
What should you look for in plumbing estimating software australia?
Start with the job, not the feature list. Pricing a bathroom renovation from plans is one job. Replying to three lines about a dripping tap is another, and it has to happen fast.
Think of the small, repeatable requests: a tap washer, a blocked drain, a hot water swap. Those quotes should come from prices you already know. They should land before the customer writes to the next plumber.
Rule of thumb: a flat figure gives the customer something to say yes to, and a range gives them something to argue with.
Run any tool you're considering through these five checks:
- It prices from your numbers: a flat figure from your list, not a range.
- It replies to a written request the moment it lands, including while you're under a house.
- It holds the jobs that don't fit your rules and waits for your OK instead of guessing.
- It sends a booking link with every quote, so a yes turns into a booked job.
- It keeps following up on every quote until the lead books.
Notice what's missing from the list: site measuring, material takeoffs and drawings. If your work is mostly large fit-outs priced from plans, estimating stays a desk job for you. These checks are for the request you can price from words.
How does a quote get built from your own rules?
In plumbing estimating software australia owners can trust, the quote comes from if-then rules you wrote yourself. If the request is a tap washer on one tap, the price is a flat figure. If the request is a leak inside a wall, it waits for you.
Here's the order we'd write them in:
- List your five most common jobs by plain name, the way a homeowner would write them.
- Put one flat price on each, the figure you'd quote from the description alone.
- Beside each job, write what takes it off the list: no access, unknown cause, old pipework, anything near gas.
- Make a hold list: every job type that always waits for your OK.
- Read the rules against your last ten requests and fix whatever you'd have priced differently.
The test for step four: if you wouldn't put a price on it from the written description alone, it goes on the hold list. A short hold list beats a clever price range.
The hold list also screens out bad jobs before you quote them. A vague request, an unknown cause and anything near gas all belong on it. You'd rather decide those yourself than let a number go out on a guess.
Sample rules for a plumbing business with three priced jobs and two held jobs. The prices are an example, so use your own:
| What the request says | Your rule | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Tap washer, one tap | $150 flat | Quote and booking link go out |
| Blocked kitchen drain, easy access | $220 flat | Quote and booking link go out |
| Hot water swap, same type, same spot | $1,550 for the job | Quote and booking link go out |
| Leak somewhere inside a wall | No fixed price | Waits for your OK |
| Gas, sewer or anything off your list | No fixed price | Waits for your OK |
Say the hot water swap in the table comes to $1,550 and leaves you $400 after parts and wages. A request for one lands at 6:40 on a Saturday morning while you're up a ladder, and your reply goes out at 10:30. If that slow reply loses one such job a month, that's $400 times 12 months, which comes to $4,800 a year. The quote wasn't hard to write, only late.
Workely quotes from rules like these. Leads that fit your rules get a quote from your own prices in about 60 seconds, sent with a booking link. Leads that don't fit wait for your OK. Follow-ups go out automatically until the lead books.
Lead capture and qualification is the part that checks each lead against your rules, so it's the page to read first.
Why does the first minute matter on a plumbing job?
A customer with a cold shower can write to three plumbers in a minute. Your reply is competing from the first second.
The clearest numbers come from research, not opinion. Harvard Business Review, 2011, reported that when a web lead was sent to US companies, 37% replied within an hour and 23% never replied. In the same Harvard Business Review, 2011 research, the companies that did reply took 42 hours on average.
Harvard Business Review, 2011, also found that reaching out within the hour made a company about 7x more likely to qualify the lead than waiting even one hour more, across 1.25 million leads. A slow quote lands on the wrong side of that gap.
Plumbing is urgent work, and a leaking flexi hose won't wait for tomorrow's reply. A quote request that waits through a busy afternoon is usually a lost job. That holds for every home service quote request.
A first reply should carry four things, in this order:
- The price, stated as one figure.
- What the price covers, in one line, so the customer knows what they're getting.
- What would change it, so a surprise on site isn't a surprise.
- The link to book, so the customer doesn't have to write back.
Do plumbers charge for estimates, or quote for free?
It's your decision, not the software's. Quote free when you can price from the description, and charge for the visit when you'd have to turn up to find out what the job is.
A tap washer or a blocked kitchen drain can be priced from a written description. A leak behind a wall can't. The first costs you a minute. The second costs you an hour of driving and looking, so it can earn a visit fee.
A held job isn't a lost job. It's a job where the reply says what the next step costs. Here's wording you can copy for your own hold reply, with your own fee in place of the X:
Thanks for the details. A leak inside a wall needs a look before it gets a price. The visit costs $X and comes off the job if you go ahead. Reply with a day that suits and the visit is booked.
Whether the fee comes off the job is your decision. Write the rule down once, because a rule that lives in your head means the friendly customer gets a free look and the next one gets a bill. A written rule gives the same answer at six in the morning and at nine at night.
How much does estimating software cost?
Before you compare plumbing estimating software australia options on price, compare the billing terms. Ask three things: is there a contract, is there a fee per lead, and does the price move as your lead count grows? A per-lead fee taxes you for a good month.
Also ask who sets the prices. If the software picks the number, you're quoting someone else's idea of your work. If you set the rules, the number is yours, and so is the margin.
Workely plans are billed monthly: Speed to Lead at $149, Front Office at $299 and Business OS at $599. There's no contract, you can cancel anytime, and there are no per-lead fees. The founding offer is open: the first ten owners lock $99 a month for life.
Say a plan costs $149 a month and one extra hot water swap books because the quote went out inside a minute. If your profit on that job is $400, that's $400 minus $149, which comes to $251 left after the plan. It's a hypothetical, so run it with your own numbers.
Your one next step
You've got the method. Writing your five prices and your hold list takes a pen and a short sit-down. When they're on the page, see the Workely plans and the founding offer.