A storm passes through on a Tuesday night. By six on Wednesday morning, a fencing contractor has forty messages, and by nine he has seventy. He is one man with a van and a diary that was already full for three weeks.
Here is that week before and after, and the difference is entirely in what happened while he was asleep.
Wednesday before
He wakes to a full inbox and starts replying from the top. Each message says some version of "my fence has blown down, how much". He replies asking how many panels, whether the posts are concrete or timber and for a photo. By mid-morning he is answering questions rather than working, and the customers he replied to at seven are already answering someone else.
Thursday before
He drives to five quotes across the county, none of them near each other, because he took them in the order they arrived. Two are single panels worth an hour's work. One, a full run of forty metres with rotten posts, he does not reach until Friday, by which time it is gone.
Friday before
He is behind on the jobs he had already booked. Regular customers, the ones who use him every year, are waiting. Some of the storm messages from Wednesday are still unanswered.
What changes
The contractor publishes his price per panel and per metre, a short note about what he needs to quote, and adds an assistant that answers from those pages and captures the details. Storm damage capture follows the pattern described in storm damage enquiries that pour in overnight.
Customer: Three of my fence panels came down last night. Assistant: Sorry to hear that. The pricing page shows the cost per panel and per metre for each style and height. Could you send a photo along the fence line, confirm how many panels have come down, and check whether the posts are concrete or timber? It also helps to know your postcode and whether there is access to the back garden.
Wednesday after
He wakes to forty captured enquiries, each with photos, panel counts, post types and postcodes. In twenty minutes over coffee he sorts them: two safety jobs where a fence is leaning into a shared path, one large run worth a full day, a cluster of eight in the same village and the rest for later in the week.
Thursday after
He works the village cluster in a single day because he could see them on a map. The forty-metre job is quoted and accepted on Wednesday afternoon, before anyone else has replied.
Friday after
The regular customers are not neglected, because the storm work was scheduled rather than chased. The remaining enquiries have honest dates rather than silence.
Safety first
Anything describing a fence into a road, a downed fence exposing a pool or a structure near power lines needs urgent routing, and anyone in danger should contact emergency services, which is the principle in after-hours emergency triage.
Temporary make-safe
Many customers just need the garden secure today, especially with dogs or children. Offering a priced make-safe visit captures work that turns into a full replacement later.
Normal quoting continues
Outside storms, the usual detail problems apply, as covered in fence and deck quotes that need lengths and photos, and larger projects follow the consultation approach in design consultation requests for home remodelers.
Getting started
Publish your prices and what you need to quote, then capture photos and access details overnight. SpideyChat for builders and contractors answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.