The site visit is the expensive part of a quote. You drove out, you looked, you left. If you have to go back because you forgot how the downpipe met the gutter, the quote has cost you a second trip. If the customer later says the wall was never cracked, you have nothing but memory. Photos fix both. They take five minutes and they are the most under-used tool in the ute.
Shoot before you touch anything
The first photos are the condition on arrival. The stained ceiling, the cracked tiles, the existing switchboard, the dent in the garage door. These are the photos that matter in a dispute, because they show what was there before you were. Take them before you move a thing and before the customer starts pointing.
Wide, then close
For every area, one wide shot that shows where it is, then close shots of the detail. The wide shot answers which bathroom. The close shot answers which tile. A photo of a cracked tile with nothing around it is useless three weeks later when you cannot remember which room.
Measure in the photo
Put the tape in the shot. A wall with a tape measure across it is a measurement you can read back at the kitchen table. A wall without one is a guess. For runs of cable or pipe, shoot the start, the end and anything in between that will be in the way. For a slab or a deck, shoot from each corner with the tape on the ground.
Shoot the access
How you will get materials in and rubbish out. The side gate, the stairs, the narrow hallway, the overhead power line above the driveway where the truck has to park. Access is the cost that gets left off quotes and found on the day. A photo of the gate tells you whether a wheelbarrow or a bobcat is going through it.
Shoot the services
The meter box, the switchboard, the water meter, the gas meter, the location of the existing unit you are replacing, the stormwater pit. These tell you what you are connecting to and often what the last person did. A photo of a switchboard with no spare ways changes the quote.
Shoot what you are not quoting
If the customer asks about the roof while you are quoting the gutters, shoot the roof. You are not quoting it today, but when they come back for it next month you have the photos. And when the gutter job is done and they say you damaged the roof, you have the photo from before.
Name or sort them
A phone full of unlabelled photos is a phone full of nothing. The simplest system that works is one album per customer, named with the surname and the suburb, made on site before you leave. Thirty seconds. If your phone sorts by location, that helps, but an album you named is the one you will find.
Use them when you build the quote
Back in the ute, open the album and build the quote from it. Count the downlights in the photo. Read the tape. Check the access shot before you decide whether to charge for a pump. The quote comes out of the photos, not out of memory, and it is right more often.
Quote Desk does not attach photos to a quote. The customer gets the lines, the total and your note. The photos are for you: for pricing accurately, for remembering, and for the day something is disputed. Refer to them in the note if it helps: as discussed on site, the existing tiles to be removed are those shown in the hallway.
Share one with the customer when it helps
A photo of the problem, sent with the quote by your own email or text, helps a customer understand why the price is what it is. The corroded valve, the cracked capping, the burnt-out connection. People accept a quote for a thing they can see faster than for a thing they were told about.
Keep them after the job
Shoot the finished job too. Same angles as the before shots. Then keep the album. Six months later, when a question comes up about what was done or what was there, the album is the answer. Storage is cheap. A return visit to argue is not.
The five-minute routine
- Arrive. Wide shot of each area, before anything is touched.
- Close shots of every defect and every connection point.
- Tape in the shot for every dimension that drives the price.
- Access: gates, stairs, parking, overhead lines.
- Services: meter box, switchboard, existing unit.
- One album, surname and suburb, before you drive off.
Do it on every quote for a month and it becomes a habit. The habit pays for itself the first time you do not have to drive back.