Keep the original request, write down the proposed change and confirm your response before treating the extra work as agreed. A customer asking “could you also…” creates a decision for your business, not an automatic addition to the job.
For an owner handling enquiries alongside delivery, the useful habit is to separate the initial brief, the agreed work and later requests. Each tells you something different. This guide is a communication routine; use your usual quotation and agreement process for the commercial decision.
Find the actual starting point
Open the message or job record showing the latest confirmed scope. The first enquiry may explain what the customer originally wanted, but your later agreement may differ. Use the confirmed arrangement when deciding what counts as an extra.
Keep the new message intact alongside your summary. Overwriting “garden tidy-up” with “garden tidy-up and gate repair” hides when the second request arrived and whether your business accepted it.
Use a four-part change note
Create this note in your existing quoting or job system. Link to the enquiry reference where useful, without making another unnecessary copy of the customer’s contact details.
- Current arrangement: the work actually agreed and the supporting message or document.
- Requested change: what the customer wants to add, omit or alter.
- Assessment needed: service fit, capacity, timing and any revised proposal.
- Confirmed outcome: what was subsequently agreed, with remaining questions left visible.
Worked example: a customer adds another task
Fictional example: a customer discussing a garden tidy-up asks whether you can repair the gate during the same visit. Your business handles garden maintenance, but gate work needs a separate decision. Do not send the worker a revised brief that silently includes the repair.
Suggested reply: “Thanks for asking about the gate. Our current arrangement covers the garden tasks listed in the earlier message. I will check whether we can offer the gate work and confirm any separate proposal before including it.”
After checking, give a definite response about what you can offer. If the customer accepts a revised proposal through your usual process, update the delivery brief and keep the confirmation. If they have not answered, leave the extra marked as undecided.
Keep the first enquiry useful without turning it into a job contract
A clear intake record helps you retrieve the customer’s original description and photos. Enquiry Fox supplies that starting record and follow-up status. Your direct messages, quotes and job records carry the later discussion and agreed changes.
Changing a status to Booked is a manual summary of an arrangement made elsewhere. It does not approve an extra task or update a quotation. Give the person doing the work the final confirmed brief through your usual channel.
Look for a recurring intake gap
If the same kind of extra appears late in several jobs, check whether your opening question makes the boundary clear. For example, ask customers to describe all the areas they want discussed before you assess the request.
Try a fictional broad request in the Enquiry Fox demo. Decide whether having that description and optional photos together would help your first conversation. Review the plan for intake and follow-up features, while keeping scope approval in your existing business process.
Sources and further reading
Enquiry Fox helps service businesses collect enquiries. Assessment, quotations, service delivery and customer arrangements stay with the business.
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