PLAYBOOK · CONTRACTORS & TRADES
Estimates out faster. Follow-ups that actually happen.
For general contractors, remodelers, paving, roofing, landscaping, electrical and plumbing businesses with an office of one to five people and crews in the field. Three automations that tend to pay off first, and how to pilot the first one in six weeks.
01 / WHERE THE TIME GOES
The three places work gets stuck
If two of these sound familiar, there is probably a pilot worth running. If none do, you may not need us.
Estimate requests pile upRequests arrive by web form, email, text and voicemail. Half are missing the address, the scope or photos, so the estimate waits on a callback that waits on the customer.
Sent estimates go quietNobody has time to chase. Jobs you already did the work to price are lost to whoever called back first.
Office and field don’t shareThe crew lead gets the address and a phone number. The change order, the gate code and the customer’s “one more thing” live in someone’s head or a text thread.
02 / WHAT USUALLY PAYS OFF FIRST
Three automations, in order
Boring on purpose. Each one connects to tools you already have and keeps a person in charge of anything a customer sees.
MEDIUM COMPLEXITYEstimate request intake
Every request from every channel lands in one queue. The details are pulled into your estimate template, missing information is requested with a drafted reply, and a site-visit slot is proposed from your calendar.
- Connects to
- Website form, email, texting line, Google or Microsoft calendar, your estimating tool or spreadsheet
- People stay in control
- A person approves every customer reply and every scheduled visit. No prices are generated.
- A good first step
- Make address, scope and photos required on your web form, then pilot on email and form requests only.
LOW COMPLEXITYEstimate follow-up
Each sent estimate is tracked. After a set number of days without an answer, a short follow-up is drafted in your voice. Replies, wins and losses are logged, and quiet estimates get flagged for a call.
- Connects to
- Email, your estimate tool or a shared sheet
- People stay in control
- Drafts are approved before sending, or sent automatically only for the first gentle nudge once you have seen it work.
- A good first step
- Export last month’s sent estimates to a sheet and run the follow-up by hand for two weeks to settle the wording and timing.
LOW COMPLEXITYJob packet for the crew
When a job is booked, a one-page packet is assembled automatically: customer, address, scope, photos, materials list, special instructions, change orders. The crew lead gets it the evening before and updates come through the same place.
- Connects to
- Your scheduling tool, email, a shared drive, the crew’s phones
- People stay in control
- The office reviews each packet before it goes out; crews can flag missing items back.
- A good first step
- Agree the packet fields with one crew lead and build them by hand for a week before automating.
03 / A GOOD FIRST PILOTSix weeks, one workflow, measured.
Start narrow enough that one person can own it. Measure before you build, so you know whether it worked.
- Pick the request channel you can measure: usually the web form and email.
- Measure for one week: how long from request to estimate sent, how many need a callback, how many hours the office spends.
- Run two weeks in shadow mode, two weeks assisted, two weeks measured.
- Decide, with numbers, whether to keep it, expand it or stop.
04 / BEFORE YOU BUY ANYTHING
Free fixes worth doing first
Sometimes the honest answer is a process change or a feature you already own. These usually are.
- Required fields on the web form fix a surprising share of callbacks.
- A single shared inbox or label for requests beats four channels, even before any automation.
- Your scheduling or estimating software may already have a follow-up feature you have never switched on.
Bring one process you’d like to improve. Start with the AI advisor, or request a free 20-minute call.