Empowering Efficiency: The Rise of Online Scheduling + Remote Quoting for Sub Trades

Sometimes what’s best for the client and the business come together and it’s a win for everyone. I believe this is the case with virtual or remote quoting!

Our company Vancity Electric has been the first construction sub trade company to introduce virtual quotes in the lower mainland. It started like most things during covid, a suggestion from a friend of mine. (Jordy from Prestige Electric in Alberta a fellow Breakthrough Academy member)

I was driving all over the city doing in-person estimates and coming home rattled at the end of the day from traffic. I didn’t want to drive every day so I would schedule all the estimates for 1 or 2 days a week. This meant that I couldn’t get to people as quickly as I liked. It meant I would take a bunch of notes and pics for several jobs during the day. Then drive home and hopefully brain dump the next day and start working on quotes. A delay scheduling the walkthrough, then a delay actually getting the quote to the client.

As a business owner with access to new technology I just didn’t feel like there was an excuse to not try something better. If a client wanted a quote, why would we not let them schedule this in our calendar. It’s like making people stand in line at the store when they have money in hand. It seemed crazy to me.

Enter online booking !

I’ve tried to keep this simple for starters. We have introduced 3 things people can currently choose and SCHEDULE anytime they want online.

1. A quote over video call. - People can schedule this right in our calendar. When it’s time for the meeting I send them a text with a link and they open the call up right on their phone. No software needed on their part.

2. $250-1 hour service call - These are the most common type of electrical job we do for people. They have something small that needs to be fixed. We give them the pricing up front. They can book this online anytime and also schedule it in to our calendar for a time that works for them.

3. An in-person “old school” quote. These are rare these days but sometimes someone has something they just want to show you first hand and that’s ok. We love these as well. We do charge $100 for these estimates but include a $100 credit on the quote if the client wants to move forward.

Something new!

We just got some new software now where a client can either click a link or scan a QR code and it will open a recorded video call on their phone. They can take a quick vid for us and it’s saved to the cloud. We can review it and then fire off a quote to the client. Great for simple small jobs.

The positives:

• We are not gatekeeping the calendar. If you want to get your job moving forward no one is stopping you. We have had clients book in an online quote and then also book in a service call in the calendar at the same time blocking off time for their own job!

• Client doesn’t have multiple trades showing up to their home at different times for quotes

• Quote turnaround time is extremely fast now.

• Information is more current and accurate. We include the video call in the quote so the client, the estimator and our tech’s all know exactly what was talked about.

• Pricing is still locked in. Most sub trades already have an idea of what these jobs are going to cost. Most ev chargers / service upgrades / hot tub connections all fall into very similar pricing anyways.

• No one has too much skin in the game. If the client doesn’t like the price or we see red flags then at least we didn’t take up too much of their time and they didn’t waste ours either. This includes gas and maintenance on a vehicle.

In the end we are obsessive about customer service and how the client experience is for client of Vancity Electric. People really enjoy these video quotes and so we will continue to offer them. Most of these calls end with the client saying “why doesn’t everyone do this” - and they should!

Cory - Vancity Electric.