You need a secretary!!!

[JeremyGelber]

Originally Posted by AdyB

Personally I wouldn't pay £10 for a tank quote, It would make me think the company is just out to rip me off, BUT I would probably pay £5. I still think £5 would put off most time wasters.

Even better if the £5 was donated to charity at a later date, with a polite explanation on the web site about what goes in to a tank quote and why there`s a charge.

I`ve never asked for a tank quote, but I have often wanted to. One day when I decide what I want, I might just get a quote.

I think the £5 charity donation is an excellent idea.

[JeremyGelber]

And even better if it goes to a marine conservation charity

[AdyB]

Originally Posted by JeremyGelber

And even better if it goes to a marine conservation charity

Great idea.

[phoneymark]

would charge 5 pound to get rid of timewasters if they dont order you keep it if they do you give to charity or 5 reduce off tank - charity good idea though and possibly a good way - probably half your quotes.

[ReeferRoss]

I wouldn't pay for a tank quote. It's sadly part of the business that a tank builder has to put up with, the genuine wanting to buy customers with the wishful thinking time wasters.

I've been sorting my mums new tank with ACS (arriving Wednesday), total cost £1150 so you'd think £5 would make no difference, but if there was a £5 charge just for the quote, I wouldn't of rang Nick in the first place.

What needs to be created for Nick/ACS is a very detailed online form (same as insurance quote websites), where people can put in tank size, tick boxes for rimless, weir, ocean flow, optiwhite etc etc etc, drop down boxes for cabinet finish, handle design etc etc. Then a quote is automatically generated. Disclaimer stating quotes can be incorrect by a margin of ??%. The more detailed the form is made to be the closer the quote can be generated to the actual finish price.

It would be a one off payment for nick to have someone create the detailed online form, but in the long run would save time and money if wasters could simply visit the website for a quote.

Also if the form had a name and number entry, After a few weeks of a quote being completed online, if Nick had a spare half hour, he could chase up some of the people who were more detailed in filling out the form.

[phonebooth]

Originally Posted by Nick@ACS

Yeah Benita's putting herself up to give me a hand with the website and stuff till I can get the price matrix's finished

Problem is the time wasters we get, no disrespect to anyone, but the amount of times I generate a quote and get told ' its ok mate I've bought a second hand tank off fleabay ' or ' cheers for that not doing anything till next year, was just wondering if the mrs ever let's me what something like that'd cost... '

Par for the course I guess..

Agreed but if a customers waits 2 weeks and you come back with a quote for the wrong dimensions then both parties get their time wasted. Do a quick estimate or have a form on your website that give options to bring back an immediate quote, you will always get time wasters on here it's the nature of the beast.
I think if you sorted this you would do alot more business as your rep on here is very good for quality.

[Nick@ACS]

Yes , you guys are making some very good points, I'm taking it all on board.

I've just looked at the website hosting site and I can upgrade on the package which will allow me to put up a drop box type form on the contacts page where people could provide specs for their system from the options made available.

I'll have to spend some time setting this up.

[The Reef Master]

Try running a building co ,I spend hours and hours quoting jobs ,theres no guarantees that we will get the work ,thats life ,you can't expect to win all the business thats just life , sometimes people/customers change there minds and sometimes other opportunities arise.

[SaltyDan]

Nick,

I can knock something up for you if you like, see if you like the idea of automatic quoting.

I think there's a real market for self serve websites allowing the customer to build their spec and get a price. Wastes none of your time and its going to drive more business.

If you want me to create an example let me know and I will get cracking.

Cheers,
Dan

[ReeferRoss]

This is an online form for PSU wattage calculations.
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/p...ulatorlite.jsp

This is an example of what you could utilise on your website Nick, of course the fields would need to be changed to match aquarium needs and you probably wouldn't need as many selections either and the recommended PSU wattage would be changed to price. It's a good example of what a simple to use but accurate online form could produce. And it would maybe also give you the chance to include products in with the tank build cost, ie. Video card 1, Video card 2 etc etc could be Protein skimmer, powerhead, lights etc. Then in the drop down you could list the most popular of those particular products.