What to say when callers just want a price

Why the price question comes first

Most callers do not know how to judge a tradesperson. They cannot assess your workmanship over the phone, so they ask the one question they understand: how much? It is also a real concern. UK households spent an average of £676.60 a week in the financial year ending 2025, up 9% on the year before^[1], and in 2024, 63% of households in England said they had cut back on heating because of rising energy prices^[2]. Plenty of callers are worried about cost before they ring.

Treat the price question as an opening, not an ambush. Your job on the call is to give the caller enough of a figure to stay interested and enough understanding to see why a visit or a few details will give them a firm price.

Three answers that lose the job

• Refusing outright: I cannot give prices over the phone. True for many jobs, but said like that it sounds evasive, and the caller rings the next firm.
• Guessing low to win the visit: the customer anchors on the low number and feels misled when the real quote arrives.
• Talking for five minutes without a number: the caller hears hedging and assumes the price is high.

The alternative is an honest range, tied to the things that move it, followed by a clear next step.

The honest range method

1. 01

   Acknowledge the question

   Example: Of course, let me give you an idea. It depends on a couple of things, so can I ask two quick questions?

2. 02

   Ask the price drivers

   Two or three questions that genuinely change the price for this job: size, access, age of the system, materials.

3. 03

   Give a range with conditions

   Example: For a three-bedroom house with easy access, most jobs like this come in between [low] and [high]. It is towards the top if [condition].

4. 04

   Say what is included

   Labour, materials, waste, certificates, guarantees. A range that includes everything sounds very different from a bare labour figure.

5. 05

   Offer the next step

   A visit, a video call or photos to give a fixed price, and a time you can do it.

What moves the price, by trade

Big-ticket jobs need context, not just a number

For high-value work, callers often arrive with a figure from a news story or a neighbour. Heat pumps are the clearest example. The median cost of an air-to-water heat pump installed under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme was £12,826 in July to September 2026, including the grant, and £34,630 for a ground source heat pump^[3].

The grant itself is £7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump^[4]. When a caller asks what a heat pump costs, explain the grant, explain that the final price depends on the survey and the heat loss of the home, and give a range drawn from your own installations. A survey is the next step, and for this kind of job it is reasonable to say so straight away.

Publish the fixed parts of your price

Some parts of your pricing do not change from job to job. Saying them clearly and consistently builds trust.

• Call-out or attendance charge, and what it includes, such as the first half hour.
• Hourly or day rates for labour.
• Minimum charges for small jobs.
• Fixed-price services, such as an annual boiler service, an EICR for a typical flat or a wasp treatment.
• Charges for travel outside your normal area or for parking in permit zones; see our guide to travel and parking charges.

Write these down for anyone who answers your phone, and put them on your website. Callers hearing the same figure from the website, the office and the engineer stop worrying that the price depends on who they speak to.

When the caller says someone else is cheaper

1. Do not criticise the other firm. Ask what is included in their price.
2. Compare like with like: materials, guarantees, certificates, waste removal and timescale.
3. Explain plainly what your price includes that theirs may not.
4. If you still cost more, say so and say why. Some customers will choose you anyway; those who choose on price alone were never going to stay.

Remember that materials are getting dearer. The construction material price index rose 7.2% for all work in the year to September 2026^[5]. If a competitor’s quote is several months old, it may not hold.

Know when not to give a figure

Some jobs genuinely cannot be priced on the phone: tracing an intermittent electrical fault, diagnosing a leak that might be the roof or the plumbing, or anything involving structural problems. Say so honestly and explain what you can price, such as the diagnostic visit. Example: I would be guessing, and I would rather not give you a number that turns out to be wrong. What I can tell you is that the diagnostic visit is a fixed charge, and you will have a firm price for the repair before we do anything else.

Follow up in writing

A range given on the phone is easy to misremember. Send a short text or email after the call that repeats it, with the conditions and the next step. Example: Thanks for calling Hartley Heating. As discussed, a like-for-like combi replacement in the same position usually falls within the range I mentioned, including removal and registration. The survey will confirm the price. Reply to book a time.

The message protects you if the caller later says you quoted the bottom of the range, and it keeps your name in front of someone who is still ringing round. Many customers will book from the written follow-up rather than during the call.

Make sure everyone gives the same answer

Price questions go wrong most often when different people answer them differently. The owner says one thing, the office another and the engineer on site a third. Put your price guidance on a single sheet: fixed charges, typical ranges for your most common jobs, the conditions for each end of the range and the questions to ask. Review it every few months, and straight away after a supplier price rise.

• Give new staff the sheet on their first day and listen in on their first few price calls.
• Agree which jobs are never priced on the phone and what to offer instead.
• Keep a note of price questions that the sheet could not answer and add them.

Example call

Example. Caller: How much to replace a boiler? Office: Happy to give you an idea. Is it a combi now, and would the new one go in the same place? Yes, same place, it is a combi in the kitchen. Office: For a like-for-like combi swap in the same position, our recent jobs have come in within a fairly narrow range, including the boiler, flue, filter, removal of the old one and registration. It goes higher if the flue needs rerouting or the gas pipe needs upgrading, which we check on the survey. Can I book a free 30-minute survey this week? The caller books.

Price shoppers overlap with callers who are not ready to buy; see our guide to screening enquiries before a site visit. For firms that cannot take every call themselves, our comparison of call answering services looks at how outside help handles price questions. Garden firms may also find our garden enquiry script useful.