What would you do? Client ghosted after quote, popped back up but now I’m already booked

[glbx]

Hi all. I started a small landscaping business this year that I do on weekends (I haven’t quit my 9-5). Surprisingly, I’ve had a lot of jobs for the minimal advertising I did, and I’m really happy with the work I’ve done.

One of the quotes I sent out appx 3 weeks ago completely ghosted me. I figured that’s fine, because I’ve had a successful season anyway, and I still have a couple of remaining jobs left to do.

Client pops back up now, 3 weeks later, wanting to move forward with a modified version of the project (and wanting a revised quote). It is technically within my 30-day window that the quote is good for (but maybe not if she is asking for a modified version of the job and a revised quote?). Either way, problem is that I am now booked through the end of the season. Ok- I technically have one day available, but it is literally my only free day, and I don’t want to schedule on it. I’m also pretty annoyed that she completely ghosted me, and don’t want to bend over backwards to accommodate her at this point (and I don’t need the job).

What would you do? I want to tell her that I am booked through the end of the season, and perhaps offer to circle back with her next spring if she is still interested. Is that an appropriate response? I’m ok if I lose her as a customer entirely, but want to remain professional in my response. I am new to business, so not sure what to do in this situation.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

 

[jonw7890]

@glbx Any change in scope, requires requote, which invalidates the previous one. This is a good time to mention that you don't have time to requote + do the work.

Is your quote binding? If you can't schedule the work in, simply let them know that your schedule filled out for the remainder of the season since the time you provided quote.

Going forward, make quotes valid for 7 to 14 days so you can schedule your limited resources better.

 

[glbx]

@jonw7890 Thanks- I appreciate the advice. Right now the verbiage on my quote just states “quote is valid for 30 days”. But I will consider shortening it to 7 or 14 days. And someone else here mentioned that I should indicate that the window of time just guarantees price, not necessarily that I will reserve a spot whenever they are ready to move forward.

 

[captainrogers20]

@glbx I would also make sure to set an expectation for a scheduling timeline - not necessarily on the quote but when you give the quote say something like “currently we are scheduled out x number of days/weeks, that changes day to day and accepted quotes are scheduled in the order they are returned.”

That way when this situation comes up in the future you have a fall back to say you can’t take the job due to scheduling restrictions.

 

[bcp1928]

@glbx That’s exactly right. You quoted price, you didn’t promise you could do it bar-none. It’s a seasonal business, she missed her window. It is entirely ok to say that when you quoted it you had time but now your schedule is full. You’d be happy to put her on first in the spring.

 

[hammermannn]

@glbx You don’t need to shorten it to 7 or 14 days. I mean shorten if you want, but this is not the issue.

All you need to do is add “pending availability” to the end of whatever timeframe you want. So it would now read “quote valid for 30 days, pending availability”.

The quote is valid in the sense that you’re not amping up the price within that timeframe. But once your availability is booked, it’s booked and you don’t need to promise anyone a timeframe to hold that availability, full stop. Timeframe for holding the price fixed is independent of availability.

 

[me1111]

@glbx Quit being valid just means if the scope doesn’t change you’d honor the price. It doesn’t mean you’re reserving time (days) for them to get it done.

(edit: typo)