A Price Calculator on the Website

The first question is the price

Ask whoever answers the phone at a fencing company, a cleaning service or a shed builder what callers want first. It is the price, often before they have said what they need.

For work priced by size or quantity, there is an answer. The person on the phone multiplies feet or rooms by a rate and gives a rough figure.

A website can do the same sum at eleven at night, for someone who would never have phoned.

That is all a price calculator is: a few questions, some arithmetic and an honest range. Done well, it answers the first question and shapes the enquiry that follows.

When a calculator earns its place

• The price follows a formula you could write on a whiteboard.
• Most enquiries ask one thing: roughly how much for this size.
• Two or three answers decide most of the price.
• Surprises on site are rare, or can be listed as extras.
• Callers often expect less than the work really costs.

The last matters most to whoever answers the phone. A calculator lets a caller expecting half your price find that out alone, and the people who still get in touch have already accepted the range.

A range, not a promise

One exact figure is a promise the business cannot keep without seeing the job.

Show a low and a high figure instead, wide enough to cover ordinary variation and narrow enough to help. A range whose top is four times its bottom tells nobody anything.

Base the low end on real recent jobs, not the cheapest one you ever did. People remember the lower number, so make it one you would honour on an easy site.

Label the result as an estimate, and say what turns it into a firm price: usually a visit or a few photographs.

What the figure includes

Most complaints about online estimates are not about the number. They are about what turned out not to be in it.

Under the range, list what it covers and what it does not: delivery within your usual area, preparing the ground, removing old material, permits, taxes.

Name what it cannot know, such as slope, soil or a narrow side gate. A visitor who has read that a steep driveway adds cost is not surprised when theirs does.

Prices that go out of date

A calculator is only as honest as the last time somebody updated it.

One still using last year's prices sends customers to you holding a number from your own website that you can no longer offer.

Keep every price in one place that someone at the business can change without a developer. Update it the same day as the price list, and check every figure once a year.

A worked example

A shed builder with a small yard and two crews builds sheds in six standard sizes and three roof styles, on the customer's own lot.

Most calls began the same way: how much for a ten by twelve? The owner returned them in the evenings, and many callers had expected something nearer the price of a flat-pack kit.

The website had a gallery, a contact form and no prices, because every shed was described as custom.

The new calculator asked for size, roof style, doors and windows, and the town. It showed a range covering delivery within the usual area and a standard gravel base.

Below it, a short list named what costs extra: removing an old shed, a site with no truck access, a permit for the larger sizes in some municipalities.

One button sent the estimate and requested a site visit, with the calculator's choices already in the form. Callers who still phoned had seen the range, so nobody spent ten minutes discovering the price was out of reach.

Estimate first, details after

Some calculators demand a name, email address and phone number before showing the result. They tend to gather made-up addresses from people who only wanted the number.

Show the range first. Someone who sees it and is still interested is exactly who you want to hear from, and now they have a reason to give their details.

Then ask only what a firm quote needs: name, phone or email, the address or town, and when they hope to have the work done.

Carry the calculator's answers into the enquiry automatically, so the email that reaches you says what they priced and nobody types their choices twice.

A photograph of the site helps with outdoor work. Make it optional, since a required upload stops many people on a phone.

Built for a thumb

Plenty of people will use the calculator on a phone, standing in the yard they want to fence.

Use large buttons for choices, a number keypad for measurements, and the units customers actually use. Most people here still measure a fence or a shed in feet.

Update the range as each answer changes, and try it on a small, older phone before it goes live.

What the answers tell you

Every use of a calculator is a small piece of market research.

Recorded as events in Analytics, it shows how many people used it, which sizes they priced and how many then asked for a quote.

If most people price your largest size and leave, that size may cost more than they expect.

The counter-case

A calculator suits work that follows a formula, and plenty of work does not.

Where every job depends on what is found on site, as with foundation repairs or renovations in older houses, a calculator shows a range too wide to help or a figure you will rarely honour.

Examples of finished jobs and their prices serve that work better. And a calculator nobody keeps current does more harm than none.

Where the price does follow a formula, give the arithmetic to the website, show a range, and ask for details after the answer.

What to do

1. Write down the formula you use on the phone.
2. List the extras that commonly change the price.
3. Set the range from real recent jobs.
4. Show the estimate before asking for any details.
5. Carry the choices into the enquiry form.
6. Test it on a phone before launch.
7. Book a yearly date to update the prices.

Step four decides whether the calculator works at all. An estimate locked behind a contact form tells visitors the business wants their email address more than their question, and many of them simply leave.

For work no calculator can price, the page that answers the question in words is covered in a page for the question every caller asks.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.