Quoting From Photographs the Customer Sends

Why unguided photographs fail

Asked to send some pictures, most people send close-ups of the thing they are worried about.

What you need is usually the opposite: the wide view showing context, access, and everything they did not think was relevant.

They photograph the damaged section. You need to see the whole wall, what is next to it, how you would get equipment in, and what is on the floor.

So the quality of a photo quote is decided almost entirely by the instructions rather than by the customer's photography.

The shot list

Sending this, rather than asking for photographs, transforms what comes back.

1. The whole area from a distance, standing as far back as possible.
2. The same view from the opposite side.
3. A close-up of the specific problem.
4. Something for scale in shot: a tape measure, a door, a hand.
5. The access route, from the street or the door inwards.
6. Anything unusual they noticed but did not think mattered.

The fifth is the one that saves quotes from being wrong. Access decides how long a job takes far more often than the work itself does.

The sixth is worth asking explicitly, because people filter out what they assume is irrelevant, and that filter is where surprises come from.

Asking for it properly

The list works best as a message they can follow rather than a paragraph.

Number the shots, say why each is needed in a few words, and say it should take five minutes.

Explaining why matters. Somebody who understands that the wide shot is about access will take a useful one; somebody told simply to take a wide shot will photograph the ceiling.

And say what happens next: that you will come back with a range and what would need confirming.

A worked example

A flooring contractor quoting from photographs for the first time.

His early attempts asked customers to send pictures. What arrived was unusable: single close-ups, no context, no indication of room size.

He wrote a six-point list and sent it as a text message, with a line saying it takes five minutes and helps him quote accurately.

The quality of what came back changed immediately. He could quote a range on most jobs, and the ones he could not, he could tell from the photographs and arranged a visit.

His accuracy over the following year: about four in five photo quotes came within ten percent of the final figure. The failures were nearly all subfloor condition, which no photograph shows.

So he added a standing assumption to every photo quote about subfloor condition, and priced the risk explicitly rather than absorbing it.

Stating assumptions

The part that makes a remote quote defensible.

List what you have assumed, plainly: that the surface beneath is sound, that there is nothing behind the wall, that access is as shown, that the existing installation was done correctly.

Then say what happens if an assumption is wrong: that you will stop and discuss before proceeding, and roughly what the difference might be.

Customers accept this readily when it is stated in advance. What they do not accept is discovering it as a variation halfway through the job.

The counter-case

Where photographs are not enough and should not be attempted.

Anything structural, where being wrong is dangerous rather than merely expensive.

Anything where condition is the whole question: damp, rot, corrosion, or anything you would normally assess by touch.

Large jobs where the quote itself is a substantial commitment and the customer expects a proper survey.

And regulated work where an inspection is required before you can advise, in which case the photographs are a preliminary rather than a substitute.

What to say when you cannot quote

Worth handling well, since it is a frequent outcome.

Say what the photographs told you, say specifically what they could not, and explain why a visit is needed rather than simply requesting one.

"I can see the layout and I cannot tell what the subfloor is doing, which drives most of the cost" is a useful answer. "I would need to visit" is not.

Where you can, give a rough range anyway with a wide margin, so the customer knows whether to proceed to a visit at all.

What to do with a bad set

Some will still come back unusable, and the response matters.

Do not quote from them anyway. A figure produced from photographs that did not show what you needed is a figure you will have to revise, and revising a quote costs more goodwill than asking for better pictures.

Ask again, specifically, naming what is missing. "I can see the wall but not what is under the window, could you send one from further back" gets a useful answer.

Most people are happy to take more. What they will not do is guess what you meant the first time, which is why the second request should be more specific than the first rather than a repeat.

And if the second set is also unusable, that is a visit rather than a third attempt.

Video instead of photographs

Sometimes better, and worth offering as an alternative.

A short walkthrough video shows context, access and scale in a way that separate photographs do not, and it takes the customer less effort than a shot list.

The drawback is that it is harder to review, harder to attach to a quote, and frequently too dark or too shaky to be useful.

The arrangement that works well is a video for context plus two or three specific photographs, which covers both and asks little of the customer.

Charging for a photo quote

Worth considering, and the answer differs from a site visit.

Most trades quote free because the visit is part of winning the work. A photo quote costs you less, which weakens the argument for charging and also weakens the filter that a visit provides.

The risk is volume: a free remote quote is easy to request, and a business can end up producing twenty a week for people comparing five suppliers.

If that happens, the answer is usually not a charge but a qualifying question first: budget range, timescale, and whether they have quotes elsewhere.

Charging is reasonable where the quote itself is skilled work with a deliverable, such as a detailed specification. For a range and a covering note, it usually is not.

Keeping what they send

Attach the photographs to the quote and to the job record.

Six months later, when there is a question about what was agreed, the photographs are the record of what you were shown and what you were quoting against.

They are also useful for your own calibration: comparing what a job looked like in photographs against what it turned out to be teaches you where photo quoting is reliable for your particular trade and where it consistently is not.

What a video call adds beyond photographs is covered in meeting a customer without meeting them.

Frequently asked questions

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