If your work is custom, the quote request is your front door — and a badly built one lets in everyone. You spend hours replying to requests that were never going to buy, and the good prospects wait behind them.
A sharp quote-request form does two jobs at once: it gently filters out the wrong-fit enquiries, and it collects enough detail that you can price the right ones without a dozen follow-up questions.
Gather what you need to actually quote
Think about the questions you always end up asking after a vague request. Put those on the form. The more complete the first submission, the fewer rounds of email before you can send a number.
- Scope: what they want done, in their words.
- Size or quantity — the thing that drives the price.
- Timeline, so you know if it fits your calendar.
- Anything you must see, like a photo or a document.
Let budget do the filtering
The kindest way to save everyone's time is a budget question. It is not rude; it is a fit check. Someone expecting a hundred-dollar job for a thousand-dollar problem finds out early, and so do you.
Offer ranges rather than a blank box. People answer a range comfortably when a specific number would make them nervous.
Set expectations on the reply
A quote request is the start of a relationship, and how you handle the wait sets the tone. Tell people when they will hear back and what the next step looks like, so the silence after submit does not read as indifference.
- State your turnaround for quotes plainly.
- Say whether a call comes before the number.
- Confirm the request landed with an instant receipt.
Keep it human at the end
A form gathers the facts, but the quote is where you sell. Use the detail the form captured to write a reply that speaks to their specific job, not a template. The form earns you the time to do exactly that.
You can build a quote-request form with the fields and filters your work needs, free, at onesol.io/forms.
Ask the Three Things That Move the Price
Every trade has a small number of variables that actually change a quote, and a good pre-qualifying form asks those first. For most jobs they come down to scope (how much work), specifics (what kind), and access (where and when). A house painter, for instance, needs to know the number of rooms, whether it's interior or exterior, and whether the property is occupied or empty — everything else is detail.
Before you build the form, write down the three to five answers you always end up asking for on the phone anyway, and put those on the form instead. For common trades that usually looks like:
Getting these up front means the quote you send back is close to final, not a placeholder you'll revise twice. That saves the customer's time as much as yours, which is the whole point of pre-qualifying.
- A painter: rooms, interior or exterior, occupied or empty, rough condition of the walls
- A photographer: type of shoot, date, hours needed, location
- A cleaner: property size, one-off or recurring, standard or deep clean
Show a Range Before You Give a Number
People asking for a quote are usually also trying to work out whether you're in their price bracket at all, and leaving them entirely in the dark keeps the serious ones guessing while the tyre-kickers submit anyway. A short line near the form — "most kitchens we do land between £6,000 and £12,000 depending on units and worktops" — sets expectations before anyone fills anything in.
This does two useful things. It gently qualifies: someone with a £2,000 budget for a £6,000 job either self-selects out or tells you they're flexible, and either way you've saved a round of disappointment. And it makes your eventual quote feel reasonable, because it sits inside a range they already accepted as normal.
You don't have to commit to a firm figure — a range with the honest reason it varies ("depending on...") is enough. The goal is to replace the anxious guessing that makes people abandon a quote form with a rough anchor they can react to.
Let the Form Branch by Job Type
One form that asks every possible question for every possible job is exhausting to fill in and produces vague answers. The fix is conditional fields — show a question only when it's relevant. Ask the job type first, then reveal the follow-ups that matter for that type and hide the rest.
For a photographer, choosing "wedding" might reveal date, venue and guest count, while "product shoot" reveals number of items and whether they need a white background — the same form, two completely different second halves. The customer only ever sees the four or five questions that apply to them, so it feels short even though the form is thorough.
The common mistake is the opposite instinct: adding every field because "we might need it". You end up with a wedding photographer's form asking about product counts, and a customer who abandons halfway because none of it seems to be about their job. Branch early and the form stays short for everyone.