PestBossPro Blog — Pest Control Software

Pest Control Estimates With Online Approval: From Quote to Scheduled Job

The slowest part of winning a new quarterly customer is often the gap between “how much?” and “yes.” A site visit gets booked, the price gets written on a card, the customer says they'll think about it, and nobody follows up. Online estimates close that gap: the price goes out the same day, the customer approves it from their phone, and the job lands on the schedule.

After the Treatment, Before the Next Customer

The last article, Post-Treatment Instruction Emails: Sending Every Customer the After-Service Rules Automatically, covered what existing customers hear after service. This one is about getting new customers to that point.

In PestBossPro, estimates come from your own service list. You set up the services you sell, and the estimate is built by picking from them for that property.

Your Service List Is the Price Book

Set up the services you actually offer. For a typical small pest company that might include:

• An initial service, such as a $199 first treatment inside and out
• A quarterly plan, such as $125 per quarterly exterior visit
• A mosquito program for the season
• A rodent bait-station program
• A termite or WDI inspection
• One-time ant, wasp or bed bug work
• Commercial monthly service for restaurants, apartments and offices

Those prices are yours to set; the examples are just examples. Once they are on the list, every estimate uses them, so two people in your office never quote the same house two different ways.

Priced Off the Property

Here is where measurements come in. Services can be priced off the property measurements — home square feet, perimeter linear feet, mosquito yard area — taken from the satellite map, as covered in Measuring Properties From the Satellite Map in Pest Control Software.

That means most residential estimates can be built from the office. The customer calls or fills out a form, you pull up the property, measure it, add the services, and the price reflects the real house. A large home with a long perimeter prices higher than a small one, without a drive across town to find that out.

Online Approval

The estimate goes to the customer, and they approve it online. No signature on a clipboard, no “I'll call you back,” no scanning a form. When they approve, the estimate becomes a scheduled job.

For a quarterly customer, that first visit is often the initial service, and from there the recurring plan takes over. Their account comes due on the Waiting List every 90 days without anyone rebooking it.

Follow-Up Emails on Open Estimates

Not every customer approves on the first look. Some want to talk to a spouse, some get busy and forget. PestBossPro sends estimate follow-up emails on estimates that haven't been approved yet, so the reminder goes out even when the office is swamped.

Follow-up is where a lot of small companies lose work, not because the price was wrong but because nobody circled back. An automatic nudge is a quiet way to win jobs you would otherwise have forgotten about.

Where Estimate Requests Come From

Requests reach you a few ways. Phone calls, of course. Website request and sign-up forms flow into Form Responses, where one click turns a sign-up into a client. Existing customers can also request services or sign up for programs in the customer app, like adding mosquito to their quarterly plan.

Whatever the source, the path is the same: client, property, measurements, services, estimate, approval, scheduled job.

Commercial Estimates

Commercial work follows the same path with a few differences. A restaurant or apartment complex usually wants a monthly price, sometimes with a rodent program added. Measure each building on the map, build the estimate from your commercial services, and send it to the person who approves spending, not just the manager on site. For a client with several locations, each location is its own address under one client, so the estimate can reflect each site. Once approved, the client can be set to Monthly billing so every location rolls into one statement each month.

Tips for Estimates That Get Approved

• Send it the same day. A customer with ants in the kitchen is still shopping tomorrow.
• Keep the line items clear. “Initial service” and “Quarterly exterior service” read better than codes.
• Include the program, not just the first visit. Show what quarterly service costs going forward so there are no surprises.
• Let follow-ups do their job. Don't call three times; let the email remind them.

Estimates are the front door of a pest company's recurring revenue. See how they connect to scheduling and billing on the PestBossPro pest control software page.