The quote request form that gets you the details you need

Why a form beats a bare phone number for quotes

A phone number on your website gets you a call while you are up a ladder, from someone who has the details in front of them. A text gets you "how much to replace a switchboard?" with no suburb, no photo and no idea whether they own the place. Either way you ring back to ask what you could have asked up front.

A form asks those questions once, while the customer is looking at the problem, and you get the answers in writing to read when you are off the tools. Keep the phone number on the page too: some people will always rather call, and a fault with the power off needs a phone.

When we built the website for ELT Power & Electrical, an electrical contractor, the contact page became a quote request form. It is the worked example below. The rest of what a trade website needs is in our guide to tradie website essentials.

The fields that matter, and why

Each field has to earn its place by changing what you do next. These are the fields the ELT form asks for, and why.

• Name. So the reply is addressed to a person and the job has a name on it.
• Phone. So you can ring when the description leaves a question.
• Email. Where the written quote goes, and a second way to reach them.
• Suburb. Whether the job is in your area and roughly how far you will travel. The street address can wait.
• Who they are. The ELT form offers homeowner, landlord, property manager, builder, contractor or business. A property manager needs something to send the owner; a homeowner wants to know when you can come.
• What service. A short list of the services you actually offer, matching your website. ELT's runs from residential electrical and rental compliance to CCTV and alarm systems. It stops requests for work you do not do.
• A description. One open box: tell us what you need help with. This is where the detail lives, and people fill it in gladly when the rest of the form is short.
• An optional photo. A picture of the switchboard, the leak or the site answers questions you have not asked yet. Make it optional and state the size limit; ELT's form takes one image under 8 MB.
• Preferred contact. Phone, email or either, and if you like, a best time to call. Then honour it.

What to leave out

Every extra field is another chance for the customer to stop. Our rule: if the answer will not change what you do in the next hour, it waits for the phone call or the site visit. On our own contact form, everything beyond name, email and message sits behind an optional "add a few details" toggle, closed by default.

Two fields in particular do not belong here. The street address feels intrusive before anyone has spoken, and the suburb already tells you whether to take the job. A budget question puts the customer on the spot about the number they came to you to find out. Ask for the address when you book the visit. Price the job when you quote it. Our own contact form asks about budget only behind an optional toggle, because a website project has no standard price; a switchboard upgrade does, so leave it off a tradie form.

What happens after they press send

The customer should see, on the same page, that the request went through and what happens next: you have it, how you will get back to them and roughly when. If they picked phone, say you will call. Our own form replaces itself with: "Thanks, that is in our inbox. A real person will read it and come back to you."

You should receive one email per request with every answer laid out, the photo attached and the reply-to address set to the customer, so pressing reply starts the conversation. Ours puts the visitor's name in the subject line and lists each answer in a table. Nothing in it goes to the visitor.

Then reply within the time you promised, by the method they chose. If they asked for a call, call. If they asked for email, do not ring them at work. A short reply with one or two follow-up questions beats a complete one that arrives three days late.

Turning the request into a quote

The quote is the document that wins or loses the job, and business.gov.au is blunt about its weight: if a customer accepts your quote, it becomes a legally binding contract. So it needs to be complete.

AENETWORKS builds quoting software, so this part is first-hand. SmokoBooks, our quoting and bookkeeping app for trade businesses, produces the quote PDF with a customer acceptance block made of real PDF form fields: the customer can tick, type their name and sign in any PDF reader and send it back. It also tracks every quote from draft to sent to accepted.

Drawing on business.gov.au's list and the state regulators, a quote should state:

• Your business name, ABN and contact details, and the customer's name and contact details.
• The scope: a clear description of the work, itemised where the customer needs to see the parts, plus any variations already discussed.
• Exclusions: what the price does not cover, such as patching and painting after a cable run. A quote that says what is out is much harder to argue with later.
• The price, with GST in a single total. business.gov.au says to include GST if it applies, and Consumer Protection WA says a business promoting a price must state the total as a single figure, including any GST, at least as prominently as any partial price. That rule is written for advertised prices, but "$1,800 plus GST" on its own is the pattern to avoid with a homeowner.
• Payment terms and how to pay.
• Start and finish dates, and a quote expiry date.
• How to accept. business.gov.au asks for space for the customer's acceptance, a signature and a date. On a PDF, that can be real form fields rather than a line to print, sign and scan.
• Your licence or registration number. The NSW Government's building trade advertising page says the licensee's name and licence number must be shown in all advertising. The QBCC in Queensland says a licensee's advertising must contain the name they are licensed under, state that they are licensed under the QBCC Act, and give the licensee number, and it counts websites, social media pages and business cards as advertising. Neither page names quotes, but a quote that carries the number lets the customer check you. This is general information, not legal advice; check the current rule with your state's regulator.

Stopping spam without a CAPTCHA

Any form on the open web gets filled in by bots. The usual answer is a CAPTCHA, the pick-the-traffic-lights puzzle, and it is the wrong answer for a tradie form. The W3C's note Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA says the very nature of the task inherently excludes many people with disabilities, and that without an accessible alternative a CAPTCHA makes the form impossible for some users. It also puts a puzzle between a tired customer and the send button.

The alternative we use is a honeypot: a field that is in the form's code but hidden from people. Real visitors never see it, so they never fill it in. A bot that fills in every field it finds puts something in it, and the server quietly drops the submission. The W3C note describes the same approach and concludes that if a honeypot suffices, use a honeypot until evidence of robotic attacks dictates something else.

The ELT form and our own both work this way, and neither has a CAPTCHA. On the ELT form the hidden field is labelled Website and kept out of the tab order and autofill. On ours it is labelled "Leave this field empty"; a submission with it filled is reported as sent, and nothing is delivered. If spam ever gets past that, add a check on the server, such as pausing the form after a burst of messages from one visitor, not a puzzle for the customer.

Privacy: say what you do with the details

A quote request collects personal information: a name, a phone number, an email address, a suburb and often a photo of the inside of someone's home. Whether the Privacy Act 1988 applies to your business depends mainly on size. The OAIC, the national privacy regulator, says a small business is one with an annual turnover of $3 million or less, and that a small business operator is generally not covered unless an exception applies, such as providing a health service, trading in personal information or opting in. Turnover here includes all income from all sources.

Not being covered is no reason to say nothing. The OAIC's advice to small businesses is that, as a matter of best practice, it recommends you protect any personal information you hold, and it describes people's right to know why their information is collected, how it will be used and who it will be disclosed to. A short note under the send button does that: what you collect, that you use it only to reply about the job, and a link to a privacy policy. Ours reads: "We use your details only to reply about your project. See our privacy policy." The ELT form adds a consent checkbox that names the business and links to its privacy policy. This is general information, not legal advice; check the current rule with the OAIC.

Common questions

Should I keep a phone number on the page as well as the form?

Yes. Some customers will always rather call, and an urgent fault needs a phone. The form is for the quote requests that can wait for a considered reply, and it gets you the details in writing.

Do I need a CAPTCHA on my quote form?

We do not use one, on our own form or on the ELT form. A hidden honeypot field catches the bots that fill in every field, and the W3C's accessibility note recommends using a honeypot until there is evidence it is not enough. A CAPTCHA puts a puzzle between the customer and the send button and excludes some people with disabilities.

Does the Privacy Act apply to my trade business?

The OAIC says a small business, one with an annual turnover of $3 million or less, is generally not covered unless an exception applies, such as providing a health service or trading in personal information. Covered or not, the OAIC recommends protecting the personal information you hold, and a short privacy note on the form costs nothing. Check your own position with the OAIC.

Do I have to put my licence number on a quote?

The advertising rules we read from the NSW Government and the QBCC require the licence number on advertising, and the QBCC counts websites, social media pages and business cards as advertising. Neither page names quotes. Put it on anyway: it lets the customer check you, and it is one less thing to be asked. Check the current rule with your state's regulator.