The full guide
More cleaning and home service jobs from Facebook and Instagram: complete quote requests and booked visits
Collect the job, the size, the extras, photos and the address before anyone replies, quote from a full request, book arrival windows and stop driving to locked doors.
"How much for a clean?" is the message every cleaning, moving, pest control and handyman company gets most, and it can't be answered with one number. The price depends on the size of the job, the extras, the urgency and where the property is. So the office replies with five questions, the customer answers two of them tomorrow, and by then they've booked whoever replied first. ChatinFlow asks those questions in the chat, invites photos of the job, saves the address, opens the request as a deal for the person who quotes and books the visit in an arrival window once you confirm the price. This guide shows home service companies how to answer quote requests on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and your website chat, quote from complete requests, book visits without "sometime Wednesday" and stop driving to locked doors.
Why home service companies lose quote requests
The lost jobs are rarely lost on price. They're lost on time:
- The reply asks more questions. The customer wanted a number; they got homework.
- The details arrive in pieces. Rooms in one message, the address in another, photos the next day.
- Nobody owns the request. Two people think the other one is quoting.
A quote flow collects everything in one conversation, while the customer is still holding their phone, and gives the request an owner.
What to ask in a cleaning or home service quote request
Ask the questions that decide the price, as taps where you can:
- The job. Regular clean, deep clean, end of tenancy, move, pest control, repair.
- The size. Bedrooms and bathrooms, or the number of rooms to move.
- Extras. Oven, windows, carpets, fridge, packing, disposal.
- Urgency. This week, next week, flexible.
- The address, as a short answer.
- Photos, sent in the same chat, of the rooms or the problem.
Each answer is saved to the contact and the deal. The first reply from your team can be a price instead of five questions.
Quote from photos: "send me a picture"
Photos tell you what a description can't: the mould in the bathroom, the size of the wardrobe, the state of the oven. Photos sent in Messenger, Instagram or your site chat arrive in the conversation in your inbox, next to the details the flow collected. The person who quotes sees the whole job in one place.
Ask for specific photos: "One of each room from the doorway, and a close-up of anything that needs special attention."
Standard prices for standard jobs
Not every job needs a custom quote. A two-bedroom regular clean or a one-hour handyman visit has a set price. For those, the flow sends your starting price, what's included and the button to book straight away. Anything unusual goes to the person who quotes, with every detail already collected.
Check the address and your coverage area
Driving forty minutes to a $90 job loses money. Ask the address early and save it on the contact, so you can check the distance and your coverage area before quoting. Customers outside the area get a kind no and, if you know one, a recommendation, instead of a quote you can't keep.
A pipeline for every quote
Each request becomes a deal you can move through stages: new, quoted, booked, done. The office sees every open quote without reading through chats:
- Who is waiting for a price? The deals in new.
- Who got a price and went quiet? The deals in quoted for more than two days.
- What's booked this week?
The deal is assigned to the person who quotes, with an alert. A task can remind them to follow up two days after a quote.
Book visits in arrival windows, not "sometime Wednesday"
Once you confirm the price, the customer picks an arrival window from your free slots, such as 8 to 10 or 10 to 12. In Bookings, each job type is a service with its length and the crew it needs, so the chat only offers windows where a crew is free for the whole job. The confirmation carries the window, the address and a link to change or cancel.
Two-hour windows are a promise customers can plan around, and one your crews can keep.
Reminders the day before that end locked-door visits
A reminder the day before confirms the arrival window and asks how the team gets in: a key safe, a concierge, a code, a neighbor. That saves the trips that end on a doorstep.
On Instagram and Messenger, a business can write freely for 24 hours after the customer's last message. A visit booked yesterday for tomorrow is easy to remind; one booked two weeks ahead may be outside the window there. WhatsApp can carry the reminder with a template Meta approved, and email or SMS, when enabled for your workspace, have no window. The confirmation always goes out right after booking.
Click-to-message ads for home services
Many home service companies run Facebook and Instagram ads. An ad that opens a chat instead of a website keeps the customer in the app. A conversation that starts from a click-to-message ad on Messenger or Instagram carries the ad it came from, so you can see which ads bring in jobs worth quoting. One question routes cleaning, moving or both to the team that quotes it.
Ads are created and paid for in Meta's ads tools; ChatinFlow answers the chats they start.
Regular cleaning clients and repeat bookings
Regular clients are the base of a cleaning business. A booking can be repeated from the booking itself, so a fortnightly clean is in the diary for weeks ahead. After a one-off deep clean, a flow can wait a week and offer a regular slot, inside each channel's rules.
Reviews after the job
When a job is marked done, a flow can wait a few hours and send a thank-you with your review link. Reviews are what the next customer reads before they write to you. Ask once, the same day.
Moving companies: inventory and dates
Moving quotes need the date, the addresses, the floor and lift at each end, and the inventory. Ask the big items as taps, such as sofa, wardrobe, bed, piano, and invite a short video walk-through in the chat. Save the moving date to the contact, and a date rule can send the packing checklist a week before and the reminder the day before, on a channel that can reach them.
Facebook and Instagram posts that bring home service jobs
- Before and after. The oven, the carpet, the garden, with "Comment QUOTE".
- The crew at work. Real people customers will let into their homes.
- Seasonal jobs. Spring cleans, gutter clearing, end of tenancy season.
- Price transparency. "What a 2-bed clean costs and what's included".
- Customer stories, with permission.
Home service message templates
Measure the quotes that become jobs
- Requests per week, by job type and by source.
- Time to quote. The faster the price, the more jobs you win.
- Quote to booking rate. Low means the price or the follow-up needs work.
- Jobs by ad, from conversations that started from a click-to-message ad.
- Repeat clients, tagged after their second booking.
When a job is booked or paid, a conversion step can record its value on the contact, so the reports show what the chats brought in. An ad that brings fifty requests and two jobs costs more than one that brings ten requests and six.
Emergencies and urgent jobs
A burst pipe or a wasp nest can't wait for a quote flow. Choose the words the flow listens for, such as urgent, emergency, leak or today, and send those messages your phone number and your same-day rules, while the chat is assigned to whoever is on call with an alert. Everything else follows the normal quote path.
Is it right for your business?
It suits cleaning, moving, pest control and handyman companies, teams that quote from photos and a description, and businesses running click-to-message ads on Facebook and Instagram. It is not for field service companies that need route optimization and invoicing in one tool, emergency services that must answer by phone, or sending messages to people who never contacted you.
A week-one plan for a home service company
- Day 1. Write the quote questions as taps, with photos and the address.
- Day 2. Set up your pipeline stages and assignment to whoever quotes.
- Day 3. Write the standard prices for your three most common jobs.
- Day 4. Add your job types to Bookings with crews and lengths.
- Day 5. Set the arrival windows and the reminder with access questions.
- Day 6. Add the review request after jobs marked done.
- Day 7. Check the pipeline: who is waiting for a price?
Common mistakes with quote requests
- Five questions in one message. Ask one at a time, as taps.
- Quoting without photos. The job is never what the description said.
- "Sometime Wednesday." Give an arrival window.
- No access question. A locked door is a lost morning.
Home services FAQ
Can customers send photos of the job?
Yes. Photos sent in the chat arrive in the conversation in your inbox, next to the details the flow collected.
Can it give a price automatically?
It can send your starting prices for standard jobs, like a 2-bed clean. Anything unusual goes to the person who quotes, with every detail already collected.
Does it work with click-to-message ads?
Yes. A conversation that starts from an ad carries the ad it came from, so you can see which ads bring in jobs worth quoting.
Can I take a deposit for big jobs?
Yes. A Buy button with a fixed amount opens Stripe or PayPal checkout in the chat, and the money goes straight to your account.
Can my office team share the requests?
Yes. Every conversation lands in the shared inbox, each request is a deal with an owner, and the automation steps aside in a chat as soon as a person replies.
Can crews see their jobs on their phones?
Yes. Each crew member can add a calendar link once to Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar, and their visits appear there and keep updating.
Sources
- Messenger Platform and IG Messaging API policy, Meta for Developers, on the 24-hour window.
- Template fundamentals, Meta for Developers, on WhatsApp templates for messages outside the window.