Publish what you can: a typical range, a starting price you really charge, or the cost of recent jobs, and explain what moves the final number. Keep the quote as the next step, not the only answer.

Every page ends the same way

Open the services section of many small business websites and each page ends with the same four words: call for a quote.

The page describes the work, shows a few photographs, and stops short of the one question nearly every visitor has: roughly what will this cost?

Owners have reasons for leaving it out, some of them good. But the visitor cannot see the reasons, only the gap.

And a gap where a price should be gets filled with the visitor's own guess, which is rarely in your favour.

What the visitor is trying to find out

The first is the one call for a quote leaves unanswered, and it decides whether they get in touch at all. Nobody needs your exact price to answer it, only a fair idea of the scale.

What call for a quote signals

Most people reading a services page are not ready to call anyone. They are comparing a few businesses, often in the evening, and trying to work out whether the job fits what they can spend.

Call for a quote asks them to commit to a conversation before they know whether it is worth having. Many would rather not.

Some assume the price must be high, since it is being kept back. Others expect a sales pitch or a haggle, and move on to a business that gave them something to go on.

Forms a price can take

A range covering most jobs of one kind, with a line on what puts a job at the low or high end.

A starting price, where there is a genuine simplest version that people do buy.

Recent jobs with their prices: a sentence on each and what it came to, which shows the spread better than any table.

Or a rate, per square foot, per hour or per visit, with an honest note on how many a typical job takes.

A worked example

A stained glass studio run by an artist and an apprentice in a converted garage makes custom panels for doors and cabinets, repairs old leaded windows and teaches weekend classes.

Every service page ended the same way: each piece is unique, please call for a quote. Only the classes had prices.

Enquiries came by email with no sizes, asking for a ballpark. The artist could not give one without measurements and a photo of the opening, and many people never sent them.

The studio prices most new work per square foot at three levels of detail. That went on each service page, with a photograph of a finished panel at each level and a starting price for small cabinet inserts.

Repairs got a fixed assessment fee and a typical range for the two common jobs: replacing a cracked piece and re-leading a whole window.

The quote form now asks for the width, the height and a photo of the opening. Enquiries arrive with a size and a level already chosen, and most can be answered with a figure the same day.

Explain what changes the number

Often the most useful part of a pricing page is the list of what moves the price, because it lets a visitor place their own job within the range.

For a stained glass panel that is the glass chosen, the number of pieces, the technique, and whether it needs a frame, installation or protective glazing outside.

For a renovation it might be access, materials and the age of the house; for a service visit, distance and the time of day.

Each item is also a question the quote form can ask, so the quote that follows starts closer to right.

Where the numbers go

Put the price information on each service page, close to the description, not on a separate pricing page reached from the footer.

Say plainly whether prices include tax, installation and delivery, and whether there is a minimum charge or a call-out fee. A surprise there does more damage than the number itself.

If prices move often, date them, so a visitor knows how current they are.

Keeping it honest

A starting price must be one real customers pay for a real job. A figure set low to attract calls misleads, and the customer quoted far more remembers where they saw it.

Build the ranges from your last twenty or thirty quotes rather than memory, which tends to remember the good jobs.

Review them twice a year, or when a supplier changes prices, so the page and the quotes still agree.

The worries behind the blank

Owners leave prices off for real reasons: every job differs, a low figure could become the expectation, and a high one could put people off before the work is explained.

Most of those are answered by a range rather than a single number. The range shows the spread, and the list of what moves the price explains it.

As for competitors, they can already phone for a quote. What they cannot copy as easily is your explanation of what is included and why the work costs what it does.

The counter-case

Some work genuinely resists a range: large commercial projects, jobs priced against materials that change weekly, or professions with their own rules on fees.

There, describe past projects and their costs in general terms, or list what drives the price without a figure. Even that tells a visitor more than four words.

Businesses selling mainly to other businesses on negotiated terms may reasonably keep figures for the conversation.

For most services sold to households, though, publish a range or a starting price, explain what changes it, and keep the quote as the next step.

Building the range

  1. Pull the last twenty quotes for each service.
  2. Find the typical range in each set.
  3. Write the starting price you actually charge.
  4. Note the factors that raise or lower it.
  5. Put the range near the top of each page.
  6. Say whether tax and installation are included.
  7. Keep the quote button below the numbers.

Step one is what makes the rest trustworthy. Ranges built from real quotes match what customers are later charged, and that match is what turns a published price into a reason to call.

Telling visitors which way of getting in touch is fastest is covered in contact pages that do not say which way is fastest.

Frequently asked questions

Why not just say call for a quote?

Because most visitors are still deciding whether the job is affordable and would rather not call to find out. A gap where a price should be gets filled with a pessimistic guess.

What if every job is different?

Then explain how they differ. A range plus a list of what moves the price lets visitors place their own job, and the quote that follows makes more sense.

Will competitors use my prices?

They can already phone for a quote. Publishing a range tells them little, while your explanation of what is included and why is much harder to copy.

What form should the price take?

A range for typical jobs, a starting price you genuinely charge, a few recent jobs with their prices, or a rate per unit with a note on how many a job usually takes.

Where should prices go on the site?

On each service page, near the description, with a clear note on tax, installation, minimum charges and call-out fees. Not on a separate page hidden in the footer.

How do I keep the prices accurate?

Build ranges from your last twenty or thirty quotes rather than memory, date them if prices move often, and review them twice a year.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Every service page says call for a quote?

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