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I prefer to also present a proffesional estimate on letterhead to the customer. Time is of the essence however and I went as far as carrying an inkjet printer in my truck so that I could present them the bid right off the bat. I am now looking at either emailing them the proposal in PDF format, direct faxing it to them, or dropping it off the next day. The one nice thing about e-mailing them is you can get and keep a receipt showing that they did get the email and opened it- something that will come in handy since we are also implementing electronic billing and will be sending email bills out to customers this year. We will of course have the regular snail mail option, but we are hoping to save time and money on postage with the email approach. I know that personally I like being able to pay my bill anytime of the day, and get a receipt showing it has been paid right away.
It's going to be a gamble, but we already use Quickbooks for our accounting, and the program I found to do the billing integrates directly with it so it's seamless. Plus the payments are garaunteed funds available in 24hrs or less once the payment is made through the link.
That's for the maintenance aspect of our business- for installs, whether it be pavers, retaining walls, decks, pergolas, etc.. I always meet with the customer twice- yes speed is of essence, but I like to get all the measurements, notes, and pics if they allow so that I can schedule a second appointment to go over the proposal with them. That way I can come back with a complete estimate including drawings and/or a 3D rendering to help sell the job.
Don't know if we'll be implementing the printer in the truck this year, we'll have to see how busy we get- if we are doing or have several estimates in a day- then I will probalbly bring out the printer and take it with me to save some time that night.
Just my $.02- hope it helps!!
Bill
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