Request Basics Updated June 27, 2024 21:35

Overview

Let your clients or new leads request work through your website or client hub—and receive a notification as soon as it happens.

Requests are online forms hosted by Jobber that allow your clients to request work to be done. These forms can be put on your website, social media pages, or clients can use the form by logging into client hub.

Jump to request settings

Customize your request form

Request settings can be found by going to Gear Icon > Settings > Requests.

Let's start by creating a request form. This is the form that your clients will see when they submit a request online as well as the form that you will fill out if you create a request internally. To edit the form, click Customize Form.

You can customize a Client Message that will appear at the top of your form. This is where you can introduce your company, or add verbiage about information that you'd like your client to include.

Next will be the client's contact details. The address that is submitted will be created as a property for the client. Existing customers can sign in via the client hub and select their already entered address or add a new address for a new property.
Note: it is not required for a potential client to submit an address when filling out the request form.

To add a new section, select the buttons for Add New Section or Add Customer Availability section.

Or to add a new section (not a customer availability section), select one of the field options. 

When adding a new section, you can add in add some questions to collect information about what the services the client would like. You can add checkboxes, short answer text fields, long answer text fields, and dropdown menus. This means that you can add inputs for anything from "number of bedrooms" to "size of yard" to "special instructions".

Note: the request form is not a secure way to collect a client's credit card information as these are text fields that do not obscure their sensitive information. If you wish to securely collect payment information upfront, check out our guide to Saving and Charging Payment Methods with Jobber Payments.

Switch the Required toggle option to ON below a field to make it required for your client to fill out. This is a great way to make sure you're receiving specific information up front if needed. When you make a field required, your clients won't be able to submit a booking request if that field is left blank, they will receive a message prompting them to fill out that section before being able to submit.

If you add an customer availability section, there will be questions about which date and times work best for booking in the client. They will be able to select from a date picker the date that they would like to have this service done. For arrival times, you can customize the options. Maybe you'd prefer to display AM or PM, or maybe you'd rather not offer evening ability. These options can be customized.

If you'd like your clients to have an option to upload an image, from the Upload images section, turn on the toggle for Allow uploads. This will add a section to your request form where your clients can select images to upload along with the request. To make image uploads required with every request submission, turn on the Required toggle.

Up to 4 files per booking can be uploaded, where each file must be under 10MB individually and the collective file size cannot exceed 40MB. Supported file types for request image uploads are:

• JPEG
• PNG
• HEIC
• PDF

One your request form is customized. click the Preview Form button at the top right to see what your clients will see when submitting a request.

Sharing your request form

Now that we have a form created, let's share it so that your customers can access it and fill it out.

From Settings > Requests, there is a section for Share Request Form. There is a toggle switch that makes the request form accessible to clients where they can submit requests through the client hub, your website, and on social media.

This setting makes the request form visible in the client hub where it is hosted. The next step is setting up touch points on your website and social media to direct your clients to fill out the form.

Add your request form to your website or social media

Now that your request form is set up, let's put it in the places your clients are already going to learn more about your company, such as your website or social media account. 

Learn how to Add Your Request Form to Your Website and Social Media.

How do clients submit a request?

Once the form is set up, your clients can click on the request button now on your social media page, website, or access it through client hub. They can then fill out a form to request work by entering their contact information and service address, and filling out the different fields you've created before clicking Send Request. 

Learn more about What Your Clients See in Client Hub?

When a new client submits a request, they are automatically added to your client list. On select plans, this person will appear as a lead since they have not yet met the criteria to be a client. On all plans, by default their phone number will be set as 'text message enabled' which sets you up to send them a quote via text or communicate via two-way SMS on select plans. 

If you have business hours set up for your account. When filling out the customer availability section, the days that you are unavailable will appear greyed out. This will prevent clients from requesting work when you are unavailable.

After a client has submitted a request they will be emailed a copy for their records.  If you'd like to add any next steps for the client you can customize the email response they receive in Settings > Email Templates.

In your Settings > Emails and Text Messages Settings a team member can be designated to receive replies in case clients reply back to any request emails (including assessment reminders) and be notified when new requests come in. If it's not always the same person in the company that handles requests, you can also select the email sender or the company email (this is the email listed in Settings > Company Settings). 

Note: If the reply-to for requests is the sender, all admin users will receive an email about the new request since there was no original sender.

Creating a request internally

Your clients can submit requests, but you can also create requests internally. An internal work request might be used when a client calls to book work. If you need to collect details upfront and schedule a time to do a quote, creating a request with an assessment is a good first step to get client on your calendar.

You can create work requests internally from several places in Jobber including:

• a client page
• schedule
• requests page

To make a new request, click More Actions > Request. Here you can fill out the information relevant to this client's services and availability.

By clicking More Actions on the saved request, you can convert the request into a quote or job. You can also make edits, archive, or print the request.

If you do need to spend time at the property before moving on with this work. From the request, click Schedule Assessment in the top right corner. This will add an assessment to your calendar where you can schedule your team to assess the property.

This will add a section to your booking request form where you can enter the instructions for the assessment as well as a scheduled date, time, and assign a team member.

When you save a request for the first time, there are two options:

• Save request: This saves the request and takes you out of the edit screen, back to the top of the request where you can view the request details.
• Save and...: Clicking this button gives you a list of other actions you can do in addition to saving the quote. These are things that might save you a step or a few clicks. Your options are to:
  
  • Save and Convert to Quote: the request is saved and you are brought to the quote creation screen with a reference of the details from the request so that you can build a quote based off that information.
  • Save and Convert to Job: the request is saved and you are brought to the job creation screen with a reference of the details from the request so that you can build a job based off that information.

Once a request has already been created, the button changes from Save Request to Update Request. The update options are to:

• Update Request: The request is updated with the changes you have made to it. 
• Update and...:  Clicking this button gives you a list of other actions you can do in addition to updating the request. These are things that might save you a step or a few clicks. Your options are to:
  • Update and Convert to Quote: the request is updated with your changes and you are brought to the quote creation screen with a reference of the updated details from the request so that you can build a quote based off that information.
  • Update and Convert to Job: the request is updated and you are brought to the job creation screen with a reference of the details from the updated request so that you can build a job based off that information.
    • Note: These update options create new quotes or jobs. These options do not update any existing quotes or jobs that were based on this request. 

Note:

• New requests that you directly add into Jobber will not be visible in the client hub.
• Fields that were created as required will not be mandatory if you create a new request from your account, however, if you edit a request your client submitted you must still keep those required fields filled in.

Requests list

You can think of the requests list as the inbox for all your requests. They will show here no matter how they were created. To get to the requests page, click Requests from the side navigation. 

You can see all your requests ordered by date. To view the details of a request, click on it.

Like you see with other work items, requests have a field for notes and attachments when you view them online. The notes in this field are internal only, so if there is a message that you need to communicate to your team or photos that need to be included, this is a great place to enter them.

Request statuses

There are several statuses for requests:

• New: these are requests that have been created internally or submitted by a client, but no further action has been taken yet.
• Unscheduled: requests with an assessment required but not scheduled.
• Overdue: the assessment for the request has not been completed, but its scheduled date has passed.
• Assessment Completed: the assessment for this request has been completed, but the request hasn't been converted (if moving ahead) or archived. This status is a prompt that something needs to be done with the request, whether that's archiving it or converting it.
• Converted: these requests that have been converted into a quote or job. This is a final status for a request.
• Archived: these are requests that are not moving ahead. Archived requests were never converted and are not visible to clients. This is a final status for a request.

Who has access to requests?

Requests are one of the areas of Jobber that you can customize user permissions to select which users can view, create, edit and delete requests. By default, the ability to view requests (not including seeing requests on the side navigation) is included in all the preset permission levels (limited worker, worker, dispatcher, and manager) but it can also be customized further.

To customize request permissions, navigate to the Gear Icon > Manage Team > User, then from the permissions section of the user's profile, scroll down to Requests. Select the permission option you'd like to give that user for requests. The options are:

• On/off: To allow or restrict access to this information, set the toggle to On or Off.
  • Note: When a permission level is toggled Off, it is minimized from the permissions list. To select any of the following options, the toggle must be On. 
• View only: This allows the user to have a read-only view of requests.
• View, create, and edit: This allows the user to see, add, and edit requests.
• View, create, edit, and delete: This allows the user to view, edit, add, and delete requests.
• Show: This allows the user to see the tab for this request in the side navigation as well as requests in the search.

Learn more about user permissions.

Reporting

The requests report is where you will see an itemized list of your requests so that you can track their progress. To navigate to the requests report, go to Reports from the side navigation. The requests report is located in the Work reports section. 

Learn more about Requests Report.

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