Twenty emails a week asking 'how much for a steel beam?'
Homeowners, builders and architectural technicians contact the practice every day. Someone wants to knock through a kitchen wall. Someone else is doing a loft conversion and needs calcs for building control. A builder wants a quick beam calc by Friday. Each enquiry starts with a vague message: 'How much would it cost for a structural engineer?'
An engineer or the office manager replies asking for drawings, photos, the property age, which wall, whether there is a chimney breast. Some people answer; many disappear. Those who reply get a quote typed from scratch. The practice spends a surprising amount of time on enquiries that never become work.
Why domestic enquiries take so long
- Homeowners do not know what information an engineer needs.
- Each enquiry needs several emails before it can be priced.
- Quotes are written individually even though most jobs fit a few standard types.
- Acceptance, deposits and site visit booking are done by phone and email.
- Enquiries are handled by whoever is free, so some are forgotten.
Domestic work also runs on different expectations. Homeowners compare several engineers at once, and the first clear reply with a price often wins. A practice that takes two days to reply with a list of questions loses work to one that asks the right questions up front and quotes the same day.
What the flood costs
| Effect | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Engineer time spent on emails | Less time on paid design work |
| Slow replies | Homeowners go with whoever quoted first |
| Inconsistent prices | Some jobs underpriced, some lost |
| Forgotten enquiries | Lost work and poor reviews |
How we build domestic enquiry handling
- An enquiry form on your website asks by job type, such as wall removal, loft conversion, extension or crack assessment, and requests the specific information and photos each needs.
- Phone enquiries are entered through the same form by whoever answers.
- The enquiry is scored as complete or missing information, and the homeowner is asked automatically for anything missing.
- For standard jobs, a quote is drafted from your price rules, scope wording and exclusions. The director or engineer approves or adjusts it before it is sent.
- The homeowner accepts online, pays any deposit through Stripe or a similar provider, and books a site visit from your engineers' availability.
- Accepted jobs are created in your job list with all the information attached.
- Unusual enquiries are routed to an engineer to discuss, rather than forced into a standard quote.
Prices are yours, set and changed by you. The tool applies them consistently. It never tells a homeowner their wall can come out.
We usually start by writing up your three or four most common domestic job types with an engineer: what information each needs, what is included, what is excluded, and how you price it. Those become the forms and quote templates, and anything outside them goes to a person.
What changes for the office
Enquiries arrive with photos, drawings and details already attached. Standard jobs are quoted in minutes with one approval click. Homeowners get a quick, clear reply and can book without phone tag.
Engineers spend their time on engineering, and the practice can see how many enquiries it gets, how many convert, and which job types are worth pursuing.
Is your inbox like this?
- Domestic enquiries take several emails to understand.
- Quotes are written one by one.
- Homeowners go quiet after your first reply.
- Site visits are booked by phone tag.
- Some enquiries are never answered.