A customer who sees the price sends a better enquiry.
The most common message a small business gets is “How much?”, with nothing else. A calculator on your site turns that around: the customer builds what they need and sees an approximate price, and you receive an enquiry that says everything.
When the first message only asks the price.
Picture a metal workshop that makes fences. A message arrives: “How much is a fence?” The honest answer helps nobody: it depends. It depends on the length and the height, the material, the gates, and whether it needs delivering. A string of messages goes back and forth, and meanwhile the customer has asked others and gone with whoever named a figure first.
The other half of the problem is quieter. Many people never ask at all. They don't want to look unserious, they don't want a sales pitch, or they're afraid the price is far beyond what they can pay. They close the page and move on, and you never hear about that enquiry.
What a calculator does differently.
A quote calculator asks the questions for you, before the first message. The customer chooses one thing at a time and, while choosing, sees an approximate price that changes with every choice. When they're done, they tap a button and WhatsApp opens with the message already written. It lists everything they picked, the approximate amount, and their name and town if they gave them.
For you, it means your first reply is no longer a question back. You know what the customer wants, and you know they've seen the rough price and it didn't scare them off. You can suggest a site visit or send your own quote straight away.
I use the same idea on this site. NFC cards have their own calculator: you pick what the card opens and how many you need, the price adds up, and the order arrives as a message.
An example: the fence calculator for Ivan Inox.
Ivan Inox Centar is a stainless steel workshop in Seget Donji that makes railings, gates and marine work. On their new site, the customer builds the fence themselves, step by step:
- chooses the fence model
- enters the length and height, adding each section one by one if the fence has more than one
- adds gates, if needed
- chooses collection from the workshop or delivery
- adds a name, a number and a note, if they like
As they type in the metres, the approximate price sits at the bottom of the screen. At the end, a message opens with all of it already written, so Ivan doesn't need to ask anything to know what the job is. The site is finished and waiting for the domain to move; the work is described in my work.
One detail matters here. The gates in that calculator carry no price. It wasn't forgotten: there is no confirmed gate price that holds for every case. Instead of an invented figure, the gates go into the message as an item to agree. A calculator may only count what the business owner has confirmed.
An approximate price is not an offer.
The amount the customer sees is for information. The calculator doesn't know the ground, the access or what will turn up on site. So it always says it is an approximate calculation, and you agree the final scope and price with the customer before the work.
That isn't small print; it's an honest start to the conversation. Anyone who saw the rough figure and still got in touch already knows the ballpark. The conversation starts with details, not with a surprise.
The same rule applies on this site: the price list and calculations are for information only and are not an offer. We agree the scope and price together, in person, by phone or by message, before I start work.
Where a calculator makes sense.
A calculator helps when a price is built from known parts: per metre, per piece, per square metre, per day or per route. Fences and pergolas, painting, cleaning apartments between guests, equipment hire, transfers. If you can say “so much per metre, plus so much for this”, it can become a calculator.
It doesn't help when every job really is different and you can't give even a rough price until you've seen it. Then a short questionnaire works better, like the one for websites: a few questions and a message that tells you everything you need to know. Even that beats a bare question about price.
How I build one.
- We go through how you work out a price, item by item.
- You confirm every price the calculator uses. Anything unconfirmed goes into the message as an item to agree.
- I keep the questions as few as possible while the message still carries everything you need. Nothing is required, and the message can be sent at any point.
- The calculator lives on your site and works on a phone just as it does on a computer.
When your prices change, you send me the new ones and they're in the calculator within 24 hours. A new price is a small change and part of the care plan.
A quote calculator costs from €800. The exact amount depends on how many items and rules it has, and you know it before I start.
What I can make of this for you.
If your price can be put as “so much per metre, plus so much for this”, I can turn it into a calculator that sends you complete enquiries.