How do I quote a whole house of blinds and curtains in one go?

How do I quote a whole house of blinds and curtains in one go?

Quote a whole house as one job, with every room and window listed under it, priced from the same price lists and rules, and send one quote that shows a total for each room and one total for the house. Measure room by room in the same order every time, take the same details at every window, and price each window while you are still there. Keep fitting, tracks and minimum charges in the job, not in your head. The customer can then see what each room costs and drop or add a room without you starting again.

Why whole house quotes go wrong

• One quote per room. The customer gets five PDFs and has to add them up. Fitting gets charged five times, or not at all.
• A missed window. The landing, the small window in the downstairs toilet, the side light by the front door. You find out on fitting day.
• Notes on different pages. Sizes on a pad, fabric choices on the back of a sample card, and all of it typed up later.
• A discount on some lines only. You take 10% off the curtains and forget it on the blinds, and the total no longer matches what you said in the room.

Measure in the same order every time

1. Start at the front door and work round the ground floor, then go upstairs and do the same.
2. Give every window a name the customer will recognise, such as "Lounge, bay left" or "Bedroom 2, front".
3. Take the same details at every window: width, drop, inside or outside the recess, what you are fixing into, and anything in the way, like a radiator or a window handle.
4. Agree the treatment and fabric at the window, not later from memory.
5. Before you leave, count the windows in the job against the windows in the house.

How to lay out the quote

Here is a five-room job laid out by room. These are example figures, so use your own prices.

Room totals do a lot of work. A customer who says "let's do the lounge and bedroom 1 now and the rest in spring" can see straight away what that costs. You take two rooms out, the total changes, and fitting is still charged once.

Fitting, extras and discounts

• Decide whether you charge fitting per window or per visit, and use the same rule on every whole house job.
• Apply your minimum charge to the job, not to each room, or a small bathroom blind ends up looking very expensive.
• Put tracks and poles on the same line as the curtains they carry, so they are not lost when a room is moved or removed.
• If you give a discount for the whole house, show it once at the bottom, on the whole total.

Doing it in quoting software

A spreadsheet can hold one room well. A whole house with mixed blinds, curtains, fabrics and fitting is where the copying starts. In InterioApp, rooms, windows and treatments sit in one job. You enter the sizes window by window, in the showroom or at the home visit, and change a fabric or a size while the customer is with you and the price updates. The branded PDF quote goes to the customer by email from the app, and the workroom gets its job sheet from the same numbers. It costs £99 a user a month, with setup from £1,800, in which we load your products and prices for you.

See a whole house quoted

If you want to see one of your own houses quoted in one job, book a 30-minute demo and bring the measurements from your last full house visit.

First published on the InterioApp blog.