over 60% of my estimates aren’t even viewed by clients
The emails are sent from a generic Jobber domain (jobbermail.com), which most clients ignore or never see.
I don't like the idea of my clients receiving an email of the quote from a jobber email and not mine.
Most field service apps send your estimate from their own email address, because that is how they keep email deliverable across thousands of businesses. Falcon Bill does too. The client sees a sender they do not know, and a good estimate sits unread while a competitor's text gets answered. Here is why that happens and what works better.
Why emailed estimates go unread
- The sender is a stranger. The client expects to hear from you, not from a software company they have never heard of.
- Filters. Mail from a new sender, or from a domain that sends for many businesses, is more likely to land in spam or a promotions tab.
- Inbox habits. Plenty of clients check email once a day, or never, and live in their texts.
- Timing. An estimate that arrives three days after the visit competes with the quotes that arrived the same evening.
- The first screen. If the first thing on a phone screen is a deposit amount instead of the work, clients stop reading.
My last three jobs were lost because they saw the deposit price before seeing how to expand to see the entire estimate.
Send it by text, from your number
The fix owners land on is simple: send the estimate link by text, from the number the client already called.
- Build the estimate before you leave the driveway, while the details are fresh.
- Copy the estimate's link and paste it into a text from your own phone.
- Write one line that says what it is: "Here's the estimate for the water heater swap we talked about, $1,450. Tap to see it and approve."
- Send the email as well. It is the record, with the PDF attached.
- For clients who don't text, call. A two-minute call closes more work than a third email.
Make it easy to say yes
- Lead with the job, then the total. The deposit comes after the client understands the work.
- Attach two or three photos of the problem. A photo of the rusted tank does more selling than a paragraph about it.
- Let the client approve from the link, with no account to create and no app to install.
- Write prices in plain numbers. Offer options only when they are real options.
- Say how long the price holds.
Follow up once, at the right time
If your software shows when an estimate has been opened, use it. Opened but not approved after a day: a short text or call to answer questions. Not opened after two days: resend the link by text, not by email.
One follow-up is service. Five is pressure, and clients notice when an app does the nagging for you.
It continues to send reminders to the client every 4 hours.
How Falcon Bill sends an estimate
In Falcon Bill, tap Send on the estimate. Email it, or pick Share link, copy the link, and paste it into a text from your own phone. Falcon Bill never texts your clients and sends nothing on a schedule, so every message they get came from you.
The email goes out from a Falcon Bill address, with your business name in the subject line and the PDF attached. That is exactly why we tell our own users to send the text as well.
The client opens the link on their phone, reads the work and the total, and taps approve or decline. No account, no app. Photos you attach print in the estimate's PDF. The estimate shows as viewed the first time the link is opened, the approval is timestamped, and an approved estimate turns into an invoice with the line items carried over.