What to put on your booking page so better customers book

A booking page does two things. It tells the customer whether you are the right person, and it tells you whether this is the right job.

Most pages do neither. They have a phone number and a box that says "message".

What comes back is "can you come and look at my bathroom", and the next three messages are you asking what you should have asked at the start.

• Say what you do, where you work and what you do not take on.
• Show a starting price or a minimum charge.
• Ask for the job, the postcode, photos, access and timing.
• Keep it short enough to finish on a phone in two minutes.
• Say what happens next, and when.

• Your trade and the jobs you do most.
• The towns or postcodes you cover.
• What you do not do. It saves both of you a wasted message.
• A guide to cost: "from" prices for common jobs, or your minimum charge.
• When you normally reply.
• Proof you are real: your name, a photo, reviews, and any registration your trade requires.

Customers who know roughly what it costs and still get in touch are much closer to booking.

Every question should change your time, your materials or whether you take the job. If it does not, cut it.

• What needs doing, in their own words.
• Postcode. It tells you the travel before anything else.
• Photos. Two or three, including one from further back.
• Access and parking: which floor, permits, where the van can stop, anything in the way.
• Property details that matter to your trade: the age of the boiler, the type of roof, the height of the ceiling.
• When they are free, and how urgent it is.

Make photos easy to add. A photo answers questions the customer does not know to mention.

A second-floor flat with no lift and permit-only parking is a different job from the same repair in a bungalow with a drive.

You cannot tell from the job description. Ask directly: "Is there anything about getting to the property or parking that I should know?"

The answer changes how long you allow, and sometimes what you charge.

Every extra field loses some people. Six or seven questions is plenty.

Use tick boxes and choices where you can. Typing on a phone is slow.

If a question only matters for one type of job, ask it afterwards, not on the page.

End the page with a promise you can keep: "I reply to every enquiry by 6pm the same working day."

Then keep it. A good page followed by two days of silence is worse than no page at all.

• Open your own page on your phone and fill it in as a customer would.
• Cut any question you never use.
• Add photos, postcode and access if they are missing.
• Add one line on cost and one on when you reply.

Wording for the top of the page:

[Name], [trade], covering [towns]. Tell me what needs doing and add a couple of photos. I reply to every enquiry by 6pm the same working day, with a price or a time to come and look. Minimum charge £[amount].