Online Sign Builder vs a Quote Request Form

Short answer: a quote form is free and quick to add, but every lead still needs you to work out the details and the price. A sign builder takes more setup, and gives you a finished design with a price attached. If you get more than a handful of enquiries a week, the builder saves more time than it costs.

The quote request form

A form on your website asking for name, contact details, the kind of sign, a size and a message.

Good:

• quick and cheap to add to any website
• asks the basic questions up front

Not so good:

• customers guess at sizes, or leave fields empty
• logos arrive as screenshots, or not at all
• you still draw the mockup and work out the price
• the customer waits, and a slow reply loses jobs
• many enquiries are just price shopping

The online sign builder

The customer designs the sign on your website, at a real size, sees an estimate and submits it.

Good:

• the design, size, materials and logo arrive together
• the customer has already seen a price, so the leads are warmer
• it works out of hours
• fewer rounds of "can you make it bigger?", because they already tried

Not so good:

• more setup: your range, your rates, your templates
• some customers would rather talk, so keep a phone number or form too
• you still need to check every design

How each becomes an order

You can have both

Many shops keep a short form for big custom jobs, and put a builder in front of everything else. Customers with a clear idea design it themselves. Customers with an unusual project still reach you.

With Sign Designer, the builder sits on your own website, uses your range and prices, and every submission becomes an order with its own thread, invoice and payment. See how an order moves, and read should your sign shop have an online sign designer?