How to send an estimate by text message
Texting the estimate is the fastest way to get a yes, if the thing you text is a document and not a number.
Customers open texts. They read them within minutes, and they reply from wherever they are. Email gets buried. So texting the estimate is the right call for most residential work. The problem is what people text: a number and a sentence, which looks like a guess and gets treated like one.
What to text
A link to the estimate, not the estimate itself. The link opens a page on their phone with your company name, the scope, the price, the terms, and a way to accept. The text itself is two lines:
"Hi Sara, here is the estimate for the water heater. Open it, read it over, and you can accept right there if it looks good. Any questions, text me back. Mike, Reyes Plumbing."
Why not a PDF
A PDF attached to a text is a download on Android and a tiny preview on iPhone. The customer cannot sign it, cannot ask a question from it, and will not find it again next week. A link is a page that keeps working.
Why not a photo of a paper estimate
It is fine in a pinch. It is also hard to read, impossible to accept, and it tells the customer you do not have a system. If paper is what you have, type the same items into a tool that makes a page and text that.
What a good estimate link does
- Opens without an app, an account, or a password.
- Shows your business name and phone at the top, tappable.
- Lists the scope, the price, the timeline, the payment terms, and the valid-through date.
- Lets them accept with their name, and pay the deposit if you take cards.
- Lets them ask for a change or decline, so you hear something either way.
- Tells you when they opened it.
Follow-ups by text
If you sent it by text, follow up by text. Day 3 and day 7, short and signed. The words are in how to follow up on an estimate. When you can see the customer opened the estimate and did not accept, that is the right moment for a text, because the questions are fresh.
BidWriter Pro writes the estimate page from the job you type, gives you a Text button that opens your own messaging app with the link and the note already filled in, and tells you when the customer opens it. The text comes from your phone and your number. See the page the customer gets.
Free, no account: job price calculator, markup vs margin, hourly rate, and 84 sample estimates.
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