How to Create an Estimate for Christmas Lights

The estimating process for Christmas lights is a bit different from a pressure washing service estimate. With pressure washing, we typically recommend in-person estimates but for Christmas lights, we tend to see an extremely high volume of interest with a low close rate (due to the high price) which makes it less than ideal to spend a lot of time and gas on running around town giving in-person estimates. Since we have the ability to send renders of the house with lights on it virtually, we actually recommend giving estimates over the phone with virtual design. You might ask yourself, “If I am giving an estimate over the phone… would it be best to just video chat them?” and the answer to that would be no, not really. It is not always effective to video chat someone because they may feel uncomfortable showing their home over video. They also might step outside to show you the exterior of their home, which may cause the call to drop due to the phone switching from wifi to cellular data.

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These estimates tend to be on the expensive side ($1500-$2000 on average) due to the cost of commercial lights, insurance, worker’s comp, gas, payroll, etc. Because of this, the close rate is low (30% or lower), but there is a HUGE amount of interest in Christmas lights, so the amount of leads makes up for a low close rate.

Creating an Over-the-Phone Christmas Lights Estimate

1. Follow the recommended messaging template from Estatehub to obtain phone numbers and addresses from leads
2. Once you have the potential customer on the phone, ask them what their vision is… if they have any ideas of what they’re looking for, what colors they want, etc (This step can be done in messages or on the phone; doing so in the messages will give you the opportunity to create the render ahead of time).
3. Look up the house on Google to try and get an image of the front of the house*
4. Create a render of the lights using the house photos. This provides the customer with an idea of what the house will look like, while also giving you measurements for the linear feet. If you are not able to create a render, make sure you measure all spaces in LF and provide the customer with the estimate and price in a conversation along side what you are offering.
5. Calculate the total for the estimate and send it to the customer, along with the render. **

• * If you can get a good image using Google, you can use it to make a render with software. If there are no usable images of the front of the home on Google, you can ask the customer to send you a photo of the areas they are wanting to have done. You can also use the aerial view of the house if they are only wanting an outline of lights. This will give you a very rough estimate and is not nearly as accurate as a photo with the front of the home.
• ** Outline lights are priced at $6-$12/LF. If they are wanting trees, poles, or bushes done, check out our calculator for how to price these. These are typically done with commercial mini lights as opposed to C9 or C7 bulbs.

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