CarpetBossPro Blog — Carpet Cleaning Software

Estimates in Carpet Cleaning Software: Per Room, Whole House and Everything Extra

A carpet cleaning estimate is usually not complicated. Three bedrooms, a living room, a hallway and the stairs. Maybe a sofa. Maybe pet odor treatment in one room. The hard part is not the math — it is getting the estimate out fast, getting the customer to say yes, and making sure what they said yes to is exactly what the tech shows up to do.

After the Alerts, the Sale

Alerts, covered in Night-Before, You're-Next and Arrived Alerts for Carpet Cleaning Customers, keep existing customers ready for their cleanings. Estimates are how new customers, and new work from old customers, get onto the schedule in the first place.

Built From Your Service List

Estimates in CarpetBossPro are built from your own service list. You set up the services you sell, at your prices, and each estimate is a set of those services. A typical carpet company's list might include:

• Carpet cleaning per room, and a whole-house option
• Stairs and hallways
• Upholstery: sofa, loveseat, chair, sectional
• Area rugs and mattresses
• Tile & grout
• Pet odor treatment, stain protector, deodorizer, spot removal
• Move-out cleaning
• Office maintenance

Whatever you set up is what you pick from. If you charge $189 for three rooms, $349 for a whole house and $129 for a sofa, those are your numbers, and they show the same way on every estimate.

Per Room, Per Square Foot or Whole House

Carpet companies price differently, and the estimate should follow how you price. Services can be priced off the property's measurements — square feet, linear feet or rooms. A per-room price multiplies by the number of rooms. A per-square-foot price multiplies by the square footage. Stairs can be priced per step or as a flight, whichever you set up.

Measurements live on the property, so once you know a house is 1,400 square feet with five rooms, every future estimate at that address can use them. That also helps when a homeowner calls back a year later wanting to add the basement.

The Carpet Details Go on the Estimate Too

Estimates carry the same carpet job details as jobs: the areas checked, add-ons, square feet, number of rooms, carpet type, method and access notes. Filling these in on the estimate is worth the extra minute. When the customer approves, the estimate details carry onto the job, and the tech sees exactly what was quoted. The details are covered in Rooms, Square Feet, Carpet Type and Method: The Job Details Carpet Cleaning Software Should Keep.

Approved Online, Then Scheduled

The customer gets the estimate and approves it online. No printing, no signing, no waiting for a callback. Once approved, the estimate becomes the scheduled job, with the same services and details. The office places it on a day and a van from the dispatch board.

That one step — approved estimate becomes the job — closes the gap where a lot of carpet work goes wrong. The ticket cannot drift from the quote, because the ticket is the quote.

Follow-Ups and Templates

Not every customer approves right away. Some are comparing prices. Some forgot. CarpetBossPro sends estimate follow-up emails so the estimate does not just sit there. A gentle reminder a few days later brings back customers who meant to book and got busy.

Estimate templates speed up the common ones. If half your calls are “three bedrooms and a living room,” make that a template. A move-out template might include whole house plus spot removal. An upholstery template might be a sofa and loveseat. The office picks the template, adjusts what is different, and sends it in a minute.

Phone, Website and In-Home Estimates

Many carpet estimates are done on the phone. The customer describes the rooms, the office builds the estimate and sends it while they are still talking. Others come from the website request form, which lands in Form Responses for the office to price. Larger jobs, commercial accounts and tricky stains are often worth an in-home or on-site look before pricing. Leads and forms are covered in From Website Request to Booked Job: Leads and Sign-Up Forms in Carpet Cleaning Software.

However the estimate starts, it ends the same way: approved online, scheduled as a job, and invoiced from the same line items when the tech taps Complete.

Be Clear About What Is Included

The best carpet estimates leave nothing to argue about later. List the rooms by name. Say whether the hallway and closets are included. Put add-ons on their own lines. Note anything you cannot promise, like whether an old stain will come out. A clear estimate is the start of a clean job, a clean invoice and a customer who books again next year.

To see how estimates connect to scheduling, the tech app and billing, return to the CarpetBossPro carpet cleaning software page.