How to quote a pergola or fence without a site visit

A remote quote starts with a better enquiry. A configurator on the dealer's website lets a homeowner put together what they want and send it. For a fence that means where it runs, the sizes, the gates and the look, and up to three photos of the site can go with it. Instead of “please call me about a fence”, the dealer gets a rough configuration and the customer's details.

Every lead lands in one lead dashboard, whether it came from the website or was added by hand after a phone call, so nobody has to quote from an email thread.

Next comes the site. Send the customer a capture link. On an iPhone it opens a short guided scan, with nothing to install; a phone with LiDAR gives the best result. The scene is built in minutes, and if a corner is missing, the customer scans it again.

If the customer has no iPhone or would rather not scan, a few photos are the alternative. A scene from photos is a visual proposal: good for showing the product in their yard, not a measured basis for the quote. When a salesperson is in the area anyway, they can walk the site with the staff app on an iPhone or iPad.

The scan opens in the studio as a 3D scene of the customer's yard. The design is made in it with the dealer's own models, sizes, colours and options, which Situvista sets up once for a one-time fee. A pergola is drawn by its outline on the ground: two clicks for the back edge, one for the depth. A fence is drawn along the ground and follows the terrain, with the gates in the run.

Measure checks the lengths that matter, each with its estimated uncertainty. Customers rarely ask one question, so prepare variants: the louvred roof and the fixed one, anthracite and white, the larger size and the smaller, each a complete option in the same project.

An indicative quote is a price from a design that has not been measured on site yet, and it should say so. Prices go in per variant, and the dealer decides how the customer sees them: hidden, so the price is on request, as a from price, or exact. Each price line on the link is marked indicative until the final measurement.

Which one fits depends on how you sell. A from price sets expectations without committing to a figure. An exact price suits a range with fixed sizes and clear options. Hiding it keeps the number for the phone call.

The customer receives one link. It opens in the browser with no account and no app: their own yard in 3D, with the design standing where it was planned. They switch between the options, try another colour without changing the dealer's original, see where the shade falls through the day, view the design in AR on their phone and download each option as a PDF.

The dealer sees when the link was opened and what the customer changed, so the follow-up call starts from facts rather than from “did you get my email?”.

Once the customer accepts, the measuring visit is booked, and it is a different visit. The design is agreed, and the salesperson comes to confirm it, not to start from nothing. The customer already knows what they are getting, and the visit is about the details that make it buildable.

A remote quote is indicative for good reasons. Some things cannot be judged from a scan or a photo, and they have to be checked on site before anything is ordered:

• The final measurement. Sizes from a scan are good for the design and an indicative quote, not for cutting profiles.
• Ground and fixing conditions: what is under the surface, whether a slab or a wall can take the fixings, where the foundations can go.
• Anything hidden or not captured: drainage, cables and pipes, a corner the scan did not reach.
• Access for delivery and installation.

Most problems with remote quotes come from treating an estimate as a measurement, or from letting the customer see something you do not sell:

• Sending an exact price from an unmeasured design without saying it is indicative.
• Treating a photo scene as measured. Photos give a visual proposal; for sizes, use a scan.
• Designing on a scan that misses part of the site. Look over the scene before you design, and ask for the missing corner again.
• Designing with products you do not sell. The design should come from your own catalogue, so the quote and the order match what the customer saw.
• Waiting too long to follow up. If the link shows the customer opened it and tried colours, call while they are still deciding.

None of this removes the tape measure. What changes is when the drive happens: not for every enquiry, but for the projects that are already agreed. The bill of materials lists the items to check on site, so the visit starts from the same design the customer accepted, and the order that follows comes from it too.