1. Ask questions that affect the next decision.
Collect the contact person, project location, type of work, short scope description, desired timing and whether drawings or specifications are available. If you ask for a budget range, make clear that it is the customer’s planning information, not an accepted price.
Only ask for documents you can store and handle appropriately. Give customers a secure route for private plans if the project needs one.
2. Identify your qualification rules.
Write down the work types, service area and project stages your team handles. Name the person who reviews unusual requests. A rule can flag an inquiry for review; it should not invent a reason to reject or accept a project.
3. Use AI to prepare questions, not a quote.
Summarize this construction inquiry for our estimator. Use only stated information. Return: project type; location; scope supplied; desired timing; available documents; questions to clarify. Do not estimate cost, quantities, compliance or availability. If two details conflict, show both and ask for review. Keep the original inquiry attached.
Review the draft before sending anything to the customer. Remove assumptions that sound reasonable but are not in the source.
4. Give every request an owner and status.
Use simple states: new, needs clarification, under review, site visit requested, estimate in progress and closed. Your team decides the transitions. A customer asking for a visit is not the same as a confirmed appointment.
Create an internal reminder for a request without an owner. Stop follow-up when the customer replies, declines or moves to a different stage.
5. Test realistic edge cases.
Try an incomplete location, a revised drawing, conflicting target dates, an inquiry outside your scope and a duplicate submission. Make sure staff can find the original record and identify which document version was used.
6. Measure useful conversations.
Track missing scope information, time to review, relevant inquiries and confirmed next conversations. Do not count every form submission as a qualified project. Record why staff needed to correct a draft so the process can improve.
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