The Van Rolls Only When It Must
Every electrical contractor knows the economics of the wasted site visit: forty minutes each way to discover the job is three times the size the phone call suggested — or a fifth. Remote quoting used to be impossible for trade work; now it’s a discipline. The customer photographs the panel, the meter, the affected circuit — and half the time the estimate can be built from the kitchen table.
This form is that discipline: structured job intake that turns photos and a few plain-language answers into quotable information, with the van dispatched only when the job genuinely needs eyes on it.
The Photo Set That Quotes a Job
Ask for the four photos that matter and say why each one is needed:
- The panel, door open. Capacity, spare ways, breaker condition — visible in one good shot.
- The meter and supply. Where the job connects, and what it connects through.
- The work area. The ceiling that needs rewiring, the wall behind the charger position.
- The problem, exactly. The scorch mark, the tripping breaker, the fitting that failed.
One document upload field takes them all, and a long text field lets the customer describe what happened in their own words — including the part they think isn’t relevant, which usually is.
The Technical Minimums
Customers can’t answer spec sheets, so ask in their language: what kind of job (a multiple choice of your actual service list — rewire, panel upgrade, EV charger, lighting, fault finding), when it started, and whether the power is currently safe. Where a genuine specification matters — panel capacity, property age — ask it simply and let “not sure” be a valid answer. The contact block carries the phone number, because every quote conversation eventually needs a voice.
The Emergency Fork
One yes/no question: is this an emergency — burning smell, exposed wiring, total outage? A yes reroutes the entire workflow. Urgent callouts don’t get priced by form; they get a phone call now, and a self notification pings the duty electrician the second the flag lands. The form’s job for emergencies is triage, not pricing — and separating that early protects both the customer and the schedule.
Book the Site Visit From the Submission
Where the job needs eyes, the closing thank-you screen offers visit slots directly — submission to booked appointment without a phone-tag round. For the maintenance contracts that steady a contractor’s year, duplicate the form into a service-contract variant. Adjacent trade formats sit in the business forms collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you really price a job from photos alone?
For maybe half of standard work — like-for-like panel swaps, charger installs, straightforward fittings. The rest need a visit, and the form’s value there is showing up knowing the job: correct parts on the van, realistic time in the diary.
What if the customer's photos are useless?
The form says what each photo must show — panel door open, problem in frame, decent light. Clear instructions cut bad photo rates dramatically, and one follow-up text requesting a retake beats a blind visit every time.
Should pricing appear on the form itself?
No — the estimate follows the review, because photos need professional eyes before numbers go out. The closing screen sets the expectation instead: reviewed and quoted within one business day.
How do we handle jobs that turn out different on site?
The remote quote states its basis — the visible evidence — and your terms cover variation on discovery. Quoting from photos doesn’t end surprises; it documents what was known when the number was named.