How to handle fabrication enquiries that arrive as a photo on WhatsApp

A blurred photo of a rusted hopper lands on the shop's WhatsApp with one word under it: "rate?" Reply the same working day, before the sender asks three other shops, with one standard message that asks for four things. You need the size with a tape measure in the picture, the material or thickness, the quantity, and the date it is needed. Do not send a rate. A fabricator who prices a photo either loses money on the job or loses the argument at delivery. A sender who answers the four has a real job. One who will not was collecting rates.

What a photo can and cannot tell you

Photo enquiries come in four kinds, and each needs a different second question.

• A broken or rusted part to be replaced: a hopper, a machine guard, a bracket, a gate hinge. Ask whether they can bring the old part in.
• "Make me this": a picture of something they saw elsewhere, perhaps online. Ask what size they need and where it will stand.
• A sketch on paper, with half the dimensions written in. Confirm each number, and whether it is an inside or an outside size.
• A site photo of a shed, a staircase or a mezzanine. Ask for the location and a time to measure.

No photo shows the sheet thickness or the grade. Nor does it show the inside size of a bent part, how many they want, or whether they expect you to fit it. Every one of those changes the price. A rate sent from the photo is a guess, and the customer will hold you to it.

The first reply, word for word

Save these as quick replies in the WhatsApp Business app. They are plain text, typed or pasted by whoever is on the phone, so they work without any buttons or software.

For a part to be replaced

"Thank you for the photo. To give you a correct rate we need four things. One: another photo with a measuring tape laid along the longest side. Two: the sheet thickness if you know it, or bring the old part to our shop. Three: how many pieces. Four: the date you need them. Send these and we will reply with a written rate."

For "make me this"

"Thank you. This picture shows the design but not the size. Please send the length, width and height you need, and whether it will be used indoors or outdoors. Tell us if you want mild steel painted, galvanised or stainless, how many, and your date. A rough sketch with numbers on it is enough."

For a site photo

"Thank you. Work like this has to be measured on site before we can price it. Please share the location pin and two times that suit you for a visit."

If you charge for site visits, add that line to the third reply, with whether the charge is adjusted against the order. Saying it now saves an awkward call later.

Keep the chats from scrolling away

A busy shop's WhatsApp buries an enquiry within a day. Labels stop that. Five are enough: "Sizes awaited", "Visit booked", "Quoted", "Won" and "Lost".

A workable rule for "Sizes awaited", which you can change to suit your shop, is two working days. After that, the chat gets one reminder that quotes their own photo back, so they remember the job. If nothing comes after that, move it to "Lost" and note why. Do not send a third message.

Once the sizes arrive, the reply becomes a written quotation that repeats back what you understood. Our post on what a buyer wants in a sheet metal quotation sets out that format. Saved replies, labels and a record of each chat make a small WhatsApp sales process.

For example: a fabrication shop in Focal Point, Ludhiana

Imagine a fabrication shop in Focal Point, Ludhiana, making hoppers, guards, frames and gates. The details are illustrative. Most of its enquiries arrive as photos, many of them typed in Punjabi.

The owner used to reply with a voice note and a rate. A poultry farm outside the city sent a photo of a rusted feed hopper, and the owner priced it as if it were 2 mm sheet. When the new hopper was ready, the farmer refused it. The old one had been 3 mm, and a rival had quoted the farmer for "the same thing" in the heavier sheet. The owner cut the price to clear the hopper and lost the margin on it.

Now every photo gets the first reply above. It goes out in Punjabi when the enquiry came in Punjabi. The next hopper enquiry, from another farm, was answered with "please bring the old one", and the farmer brought it on a tractor trolley. The shop measured it, wrote the thickness into the quotation, and there was nothing to argue about at delivery. In this illustration the farmer paid the full rate, though the farmer grumbled that the first shop asked quoted lower from the photo alone. On Saturdays a junior now reads the "Sizes awaited" label and sends the reminders.

When a photo deserves a call instead

Some photos are worth more than a saved reply. If the sender is a plant maintenance engineer or a contractor, ring them. They have more than one job, and a person on the phone hears about the rest.

Anything that carries weight or people is different again. A staircase, a mezzanine, a lifting bracket or a platform should never be priced from a photo, and repairing one from a photo is worse. Insist on a site visit and, where the piece takes a load, an engineer's drawing. Rules on structural and lifting work differ by state and by use, so check with a qualified engineer before you take it on.

And a forwarded photo that says only "rate?" with no name gets one saved reply. If nothing comes back, let it go.

Save the three replies before the next photo arrives

Type them into the WhatsApp Business app as quick replies, in each language your customers write in, and set up the five labels. From the next photo on, nobody on the phone sends a rate. Enquiries from your website need the same discipline in another shape: a form that asks for the drawing first, which the sheet metal and fabrication section describes. Who answers the photos when the owner is on the shop floor is a lead response and follow-up question. If that question has no answer in your shop yet, tell us what you need.