A customer gets a headline price from an advertisement, books an installation, and discovers on the day that his board needs work, the cable run is twenty metres through a garage and under a path, and the real figure is more than double.
Nothing dishonest happened. The headline price assumed a house that was not his.
The checklist
Capture these and the quote holds.
1. Where the consumer unit is
And where the charger needs to go. The distance between them is the largest single variable in the price.
2. The cable route
Internal, external, through a wall, under a path, along a fence or across a driveway. Each is a different amount of work and customers do not think of it as part of the job.
3. The board itself
Age, whether there is a spare way, what protective devices are present and whether it has capacity. Photographs of the board and its label answer most of this.
4. Where the supply enters
The position of the incoming supply and the meter, and whether there is room to work. It affects what is possible and how long it takes.
5. The parking arrangement
Off street, a driveway, a garage, a shared area or on street. It determines whether the installation is straightforward, complicated or not possible at all.
6. Which side the car parks
And where the charging socket is on the vehicle. It decides the mounting position and the cable length, and it is the detail customers most often get wrong.
7. The property type
House, flat, listed building, new build or rented. Each carries its own permissions and constraints that should be raised before a date is booked.
8. Whether permission is needed
Landlord, management company, freeholder or a shared driveway arrangement. Sorting this first avoids a cancelled installation.
9. The vehicle and the charger
Make and model, the connector type and which unit they want, which is the ground in charger compatibility and cable questions before install.
10. Photographs, always
The board, the meter, the proposed charger position, the route and the parking area. Five photographs replace most of a site visit and make a quote reliable.
11. What might add cost
Board work, earthing arrangements, longer runs, trenching and making good. Publish the common additions with prices so nothing is a surprise.
12. What happens on the day
Duration, whether power will be off, whether somebody must be present and what is left behind. Customers arrange time off around this.
12b. What the customer should do beforehand
Clearing access to the consumer unit, moving the car, knowing where the stopcock and meter are, and having somebody present who can make decisions. A short preparation list means an installation runs to time rather than losing an hour before anybody starts work.
13. Explain the survey options
Remote from photographs or an attended visit, what each costs and when a visit is required, as in home EV charger installation enquiries and survey details.
14. Answer at the hour people research
New EV owners research in the evening after collecting the car, which is why proactive support answering questions before customers ask matters, and EV charger installation questions homeowners ask covers the rest.
Getting started
Publish what you need to quote and the common additions, then capture photographs, distances and parking at any hour, pushing enquiries into your systems through integrations. SpideyChat for electricians answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.