Someone has ordered a garden room. It arrives in three weeks and they have realised it needs electricity, which they had vaguely assumed would involve a cable from the shed.
What it actually needs depends on whether it is a home office with a couple of laptops or a workshop with a heater and machinery.
What customers ask
They usually ask whether a garden room can be wired, whether an extension lead will do, what it costs, how the cable gets there, whether the lawn has to be dug up, whether it needs a separate consumer unit, whether they can run a heater, whether it needs its own circuit, whether certification is provided and how long it takes.
Example conversations
These scripts use information an electrician might publish. Your answers should come from your own pages.
Customer: I need power to a garden office. What does that involve? Assistant: It depends on what you will run out there and how far it is from the house, because that determines the cable and the protection needed. The garden page explains the usual approach and the price ranges. Could you tell me roughly how far the building is from the consumer unit, what you plan to use and whether there is anything across the route like a patio or driveway?
Customer: Can I just use an extension lead until we sort something permanent? Assistant: That is not a safe arrangement for a permanent building, and the page explains why along with what a proper supply involves. The electrician can talk through a temporary option if you need something before the permanent work. Could I take your postcode and a contact number?
Customer: Will you have to dig up the garden? Assistant: The cable normally goes underground at a required depth, and the page explains the route options including along a boundary or under existing hard surfaces. The electrician assesses the route at the survey. Could you describe what is between the house and the building?
Establish the load first
A home office, a hot tub, a workshop with machinery and an electric heater are completely different loads. This determines cable size and everything downstream of it.
Ask about the distance and the route
Metres from the consumer unit, and what is in the way. A patio, a driveway, a mature tree or a neighbour's boundary each change the job substantially.
Explain what goes underground
Depth, protection, warning tape and why a cable cannot simply be buried a few inches down. Customers who understand it stop suggesting shortcuts.
Be clear about the consumer unit
Whether the existing board has capacity, whether a separate unit is needed at the garden building and what protection is required. This is often the difference between two quotes.
Publish what documentation they receive
Certification, notification where required and what the customer keeps for insurance and sale. Homeowners do not know to ask and need it later.
Never guide anyone through electrical work
Not a socket, not a connection, not an isolation. Anything practical needs a qualified person, which is the boundary in electrical faults that need a safety-first reply.
Ask what else is planned
A customer wiring a garden room often wants outdoor lighting, a charger or a pond pump. Asking turns one job into a day's work.
Timing matters when a building is on order
A garden room arriving in three weeks creates a deadline, and being honest about lead times keeps the customer rather than disappointing them.
Landlord and compliance work sits alongside
It is covered in landlord electrical certificate enquiries and deadlines.
Home project enquiries share a shape
They behave like colour consultation and single room enquiries, capture at any hour works as in an AI receptionist for opticians, and passing jobs into your systems is what integrations are for.
Getting started
Publish your approach, price ranges, what you need to know and what documentation is provided, then capture distance and load at any hour. SpideyChat for electricians answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.