The Framers Forum

How best to handle telephonic requests for quotes to frame work.
At the moment I invite them into the studio for an obligation free quote & design consultation.
What is the current best practice?

Whatever works for you but I find that over the 'phone quotes don't lead to much, its better to get them into the workshop where they can see, and you have time to explain, what they are getting for thier money.

Usually people asking for a quote over the phone are just looking for the cheapest without a thought to quality.

I just give them my lowest price and my highest prices and tell them it could be any where between the two dependent on their taste. Even then it would be countered with "I need to see the item"

There is no real best practice with this type of enquiry but it probably does you no harm to ask questions about the item and sound enthusiastic telling them you can do them a really nice job.

Welcome to the forum, Womble.

Many people actually bringing work in are just looking for the best price without a thought for quality!

For phone quotes I don't need to see the item, I just need to know what it is and what size it is, doesn't have to be the exact size either, but the more accurate, the more accurate the quote will be. Usually it will be something that is best mounted, explain what that means and that it will make it larger; assume Xmm all around - now the size is X by Xmm and, in 'something nice' it would be around £X - there's cheaper and there's dearer.

What's the cheapest? Well that would be no mount and a budget/contract type frame ..... or some actually very nice mouldings that we bought a job lot of, have to be quick though .... " and that would be £X. Cheaper still would be us just making the frame for you and you fitting the artwork, for that we'd take a fitting charge of £X off so now your price is only £X.

You can convert many of these calls in to feet through your door by just being polite, charming even - and instilling confidence - maybe a case of "OK that last guy was ten quid cheaper, but what a pompous SOB"!

As others have said, seem interested, be polite.

We ask for a email address, it takes less than 1 minute to bob the size into our framing program, it will email a visual of the frame with pricing and size info to the customer, it is very easy to send several quotes in one go along with visuals of the frames and mounts.

If the customer also requires their picture printing we can also put that into the visual, this approach works very well for us with both telephone and email enquiries.

Don't forget to say something about the mouldings you are offering. If you want them to bring their work to you, then it helps to get them interested.

Let them know that you can offer the right price and a great looking job too! Most of the other framers that they are likely to phone will probably just quote prices.