Should I text a ballpark number or wait until I can write a proper quote?

It's the roadside dilemma of the trades: the request comes in Tuesday morning, you're on a ladder until dark, and the choice feels binary — fire back a rough number from the truck, or say nothing until you can do it properly this weekend. Both options have real costs. Only one of them is usually chosen for the wrong reason.

What the ballpark risks

A number given without measuring becomes THE number in the customer's head. Come in above it later and you're "the guy who raised the price"; pad it defensively and you lose to a sharper bid. Rough numbers also anchor conversations you haven't had yet — the customer comparison-shops your guess against competitors' finished quotes. The instinct to wait for a proper quote is craftsmanship, and it's correct.

What the silence costs

But waiting silently isn't neutral. In a live business we measure, inquiries that aged before anyone engaged them converted at a third of the rate of ones engaged while live. The customer who texted three contractors on Tuesday has usually mentally committed by Thursday — and the contractor still quietly "doing it properly" for Saturday never finds out the race ended. The proper quote protects your margin on jobs you've already lost.

The third option — answer now, number later

The move that beats both: acknowledge within minutes, WITHOUT a number. "Got it — I don't guess at prices, so I'll get you a real number by Thursday evening. Can you send a couple photos and the rough dimensions?" You've answered (the search stops), you've framed the wait as a mark of quality (because it is), and the intake makes Thursday's quote better and faster to produce. No anchor, no silence, no Sunday sacrificed.

See where your requests actually stall

The free score maps your whole quote flow in three minutes — what happens on arrival, the clock, the follow-through — scored 0–100 with the monthly cost of the stalls estimated from your own numbers, assumptions labeled. Three minutes now beats another season of Tuesday dilemmas.