The Proposal Notes feature helps you customize and personalize your proposal, increasing the customer satisfaction and helping you drive more value from the sale.
In this article, we explain the benefits of Proposal Notes, and how you can use it to improve your proposals. We also answer some frequently asked questions.
What can you do with Proposal Notes?
Quickly add information to any proposal (or even multiple proposal options at once). The Proposal Note appears at the very top of the Proposal, so it's easy for your customer to review.
Let's look at an example and an explanation of the different sections of this note below.
1. Personalize the quote with a salutation and a reference to meeting the customer.
2. Clarify important information in the quote, and reference other installations you've done of similar systems.
3. Get visual with photos of the job site, other similar installations, or existing equipment that will be removed.
4. Be thorough with PDF documents, such as the results of a Manual J inspection.
5. Make the text more interactive, with links to a specific page on your own website.
Why use Proposal Notes?
As you can see from the examples above, adding a note to a proposal can make a big difference in how your customer perceives your quote for service. This can help in many ways:
Create a "personal touch" with your customers, which matters even more when your customer is looking at the quote from the comfort of their phone. This can help you inspire confidence, especially when you're recommending higher value services.
Highlight important aspects of the service, that can help give your customer more confidence in the quote -- and lead to higher close rates
Differentiate your quote from the competition, by including information that is unique to your proposal
Offer context about the services, which can avoid confusion when the install begins.
All of these benefits can make a big difference in your average ticket, your close rate, and your brand's perception in the market.
How can I create a Proposal Note?
You can add notes on the Summary section of the Consultation, which is the step that occurs right before you present the quote.
You'll find the option on each of your proposals directly beneath the Rebates section.
Can I add notes to all proposal options?
Yes! In some cases, you may want to use Proposal Notes to explain something unique to a particular option. And in other cases, you may just want all of your proposal options to carry the same note. It's up to you!
To re-use the same proposal note, you can select the option at the bottom of the screen (see screenshot below) to include that same note (and the attachments) on any other proposal option that you're presenting.
(Keep in mind that if you select this option, and the other proposals already had a proposal note, you'll overwrite whatever note you had created for the other proposal options when you save.)
How can I change or remove a Proposal Note?
Proposal Notes are always edited on the Summary section of the Consultation building process.
If the proposal has already been presented you need to put the Consultation back into Edit mode to make changes to the notes. This also ensures that next time you present, that version of the Proposal Notes are stored in your consultation history so that you can see what was presented on a prior version of the consultation.
You may also remove Proposal Notes by clicking on the X icon in the Summary page. This process cannot be undone.
Who can use Proposal Notes?
Any Consultant that is preparing a consultation for your customer can create Public Notes for them to examine in detail.
What about System Notes?
You may also be familiar with another version of notes in OnCall Air, commonly referred to as System Notes.
System Notes allow you to add a note that is specific to a matched HVAC system.
These notes let you be more specific with notes related to specific system. For example, you may want to use system-level notes clarify something about the Upstairs system specifically, that doesn't apply to the Downstairs system on the same quote.
Most of the time, we suggest that instead you use Proposal Notes more than System Notes, as the Proposal Notes feature has many advantages:
Proposal Notes allow you to add photos and documents
Proposal Notes can be bolded and include links
Proposal Notes are featured more prominently in the presentation to your customer, i.e., they're more likely to be read!
Proposal Notes are stored in the history of a Consultation, so you can see previous versions of notes and attachments
Proposal Notes can be added to multiple proposal options with one click
Proposal Notes are easier to add before you present a proposal