Many window and door jobs are not lost at the quote stage. They are lost after the customer has said yes, when the survey changes the price or the timeline and nobody has prepared them for it. The customer feels they were misled, even when the revised price is fair. Closing the gap between the quote and the survey protects revenue you have already won.
A homeowner accepts a quote for six windows and a back door. The surveyor visits ten days later, measures up, and the final price comes back £900 higher because of a bay, a lintel and a different door spec. The homeowner says they'll think about it. The job is never mentioned again.
The yes that isn't really a yes
In this sector, a signed quote is often provisional. The price assumes measurements, access and specifications that nobody has checked yet. The customer doesn't know that. To them, the number they agreed is the number they will pay.
When the survey finds something different, the business sees a normal adjustment. The customer sees the price changing after they committed.
Why the survey is where trust breaks
Surveyors are usually good at measuring and less good at delivering bad news. A revised price often arrives as a figure on a form or a follow-up email days later, with no explanation of what changed or why. The sales rep who built the relationship is not in the conversation.
The customer then does what any sensible person does. They get another quote, or they go quiet. The deposit hasn't been paid, so there is nothing to hold them.
The delay makes it worse
The gap between accepting a quote and the survey is often a week or two, sometimes longer. During that time the customer is still receiving marketing emails and still has competitors' quotes in a drawer. Nobody from the business has spoken to them since they said yes.
Doubt fills that gap. A deal that was warm at signing is cold by the time the surveyor arrives.
What the better businesses do
They treat the quote as an estimate with stated assumptions, and they say so when it is sent. They name the things most likely to change the price, such as bays, structural openings and non-standard sizes. They also decide in advance who tells the customer when a number moves, and that person is usually the rep, not the surveyor.
Most also make one contact between acceptance and survey, confirming the date and restating what the price depends on. It takes five minutes and removes most of the surprise.
The starting point
Pull the last twenty accepted quotes and compare the quoted price with the final price after survey. Note how many changed by more than 5%, how many customers went quiet after the survey, and whether anyone spoke to them in between. If more than a couple of jobs fell away at that stage, the leak is there.
Frequently asked questions
Surveys always find things. Isn't some price change just unavoidable?
Yes, and that is the point. The change is rarely the problem. The surprise is. If the customer was told upfront which items could move the price, a revised figure reads as expected rather than as a bait-and-switch.
We would lose jobs if we made quotes sound less certain.
Usually the opposite. Stating assumptions clearly tends to build trust, because customers have been caught out by vague quotes before. The jobs you might lose are the ones that would have fallen away at survey anyway, with less warning.
How would we know how many jobs we lose at this stage?
Most businesses do not track it, because a job lost after survey is logged as "customer changed their mind." Comparing accepted quotes against completed jobs, and noting where each dropout happened, shows it quickly.
How does Inkanoko help with this specifically?
The audit follows your jobs from accepted quote through to survey and deposit, measures where they fall away and why, and sets out a simple process for communicating price changes so you keep more of the work you have already won.
Inkanoko works with windows, doors and conservatories businesses to find where won work falls away between quote and install, and fix the process that lets it.