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- A hand-built pergola or veranda quote typically takes 3–7 hours including the visit.
- Most of that time is gathering and retyping a specification the customer already knows.
- A configurator request arrives complete: sizes, options, colour and a calculated price.
- A human still reviews the site, picks options and decides whether a visit is needed.
A hand-built quote for a made-to-measure pergola, veranda or carport typically takes 3 to 7 hours of staff time including the site visit, and most of it goes on gathering and retyping information rather than pricing the job. A configurator request arrives with that specification already complete, so the first draft takes minutes. This guide breaks a hand quote down stage by stage, shows what a configurator removes, and is honest about what still needs a human.
Anatomy of a hand quote
A typical sequence: a customer calls or emails with a rough idea (“a pergola, maybe 4 by 3”); someone calls back to ask the ten questions a configurator would ask in two minutes, exact width, projection, roof type, colour, sides, lighting, budget range; a visit gets scheduled, often days out, to confirm the terrace will actually take the structure; the visit itself takes an hour or two plus travel; the quoter then builds a spreadsheet or uses a pricing tool to calculate the number, often re-checking supplier price lists; a PDF or Word document gets formatted and emailed; and if the customer wants to compare a cheaper option, most of the pricing step repeats.
Where the time goes
| Stage | Typical time | What’s actually happening |
|---|---|---|
| Initial contact + callback | 15–30 min | Establishing a rough idea exists |
| Gathering the specification | 20–40 min (call) or a visit | Asking questions the customer could answer themselves |
| Measuring visit | 1–2 hours + travel | Confirming dimensions and site conditions |
| Pricing / spreadsheet | 30–90 min | Looking up supplier prices, calculating options, checking the formula |
| Formatting and sending | 15–30 min | Turning numbers into a document a customer can read |
| Revisions (if requested) | 30–90 min each | Re-running pricing for a different size or option set |
Add it up and 3–7 hours is typical for a single quote, excluding travel time to the visit. None of this is wasted effort exactly, the information is necessary, but almost all of it is re-keying information that already existed somewhere, usually in the customer’s own head.
What a configurator request removes
A quote request from a configurator arrives with the specification already complete: exact width, projection, roof type, colour, every option the customer toggled on, and the price the configurator calculated against your own pricing rules. The gathering step and the first pricing pass are already done. By the customer, for free, while playing with the 3D model. Turning that request into a formal, numbered quote is close to a formatting exercise: the numbers don’t need re-entering, because they were captured at the source.
What still needs a human
A configurator doesn’t replace judgment. A quoter still needs to: review the request for anything the tool couldn’t anticipate (an odd combination of options, a note about the terrace), decide whether a measuring visit is still needed before quoting firm (see site photos and measuring visits in the request form for how photos can sometimes answer this without a visit), choose which Basic/Comfort/Premium options to present and in what order, and add anything specific to this customer, a delivery note, a recommendation, a discount. This is real work, but it’s minutes, not hours, because the specification itself no longer needs assembling.
Before and after
| Hand quote | Configurator-sourced quote | |
|---|---|---|
| Specification gathering | Phone call(s), often a visit first | Customer self-serves in 3D, submits complete |
| Pricing | Manual lookup/spreadsheet | Calculated live by the configurator |
| First draft time | 1–3 hours | Minutes |
| Revisions for a different size | Re-run the whole calculation | Customer or quoter adjusts the same configuration |
| Options (Basic/Comfort/Premium) | Usually skipped: too time-consuming to build three quotes | Generated from the same configuration |
| Total time to first quote | 3–7 hours (incl. visit) | Minutes, plus a visit only if genuinely required |
Why this matters beyond saved hours
The time saved isn’t just a cost reduction. It’s what makes the 24-hour rule realistic for a small team. A company that needs 5 hours per quote can’t realistically respond same-day to every request during a spring peak; a company quoting from a complete configuration can. See how to sell pergolas, verandas and carports online for how this fits the rest of the funnel, quotes for the mechanics, or build your configurator to see it against your own products. If you’d rather see it first, book a 30-minute walkthrough.
