The problem
Quote requests arrive from the website, comparison sites and estate agents, and late ones are the ones that go elsewhere. If you get 30 a month and logging and acknowledging each takes 7 minutes, that's 210 minutes, 3.5 hours a month.
What the AI does
A Google Form on your website asks for the basics a quote needs: sale or purchase, rough price band, mortgage or cash, and a phone number. Each response saves to a Google Sheet. A two-step Zapier automation watches for each new row in the Google Sheet and sends a short acknowledgement from Gmail saying you have the request and when you will send a quote. The acknowledgement is not a quote and gives no advice; your team sends the quote itself.
A worked example
A small conveyancing firm in Norwich gets about 30 quote requests a month. A Google Form on their website saves responses to a sheet, and a Zap sends a short acknowledgement from the office Gmail account. The quote itself is sent by a caseworker the same day.
Before
30 quote requests a month logged and acknowledged by hand at 7 minutes each, some left until the next day
After
30 requests logged automatically and acknowledged within minutes; about 1 minute each to check the row
What it's worth
About 3 hours a month saved (6 of the 7 minutes on each of 30 requests = 180 minutes), worth around £105 if staff time is worth £35 an hour, plus faster first replies. This assumes you already have Gmail or Google Workspace.
How to set it up
- Create a Google Form asking only what a quote needs, with a short privacy line and a link to your privacy notice.
- Save the form's responses to a Google Sheet that only the quoting team can open.
- In Zapier, create an automation that starts when a new row is added to the Google Sheet.
- Add one action: send a short acknowledgement from your Gmail account to the email address in the response.
- Submit a test request from your phone, then check the row and the email, and confirm the stated reply time matches what your team really does.
What goes wrong
- Zapier's Free plan allows only two-step Zaps and 100 tasks a month. Adding steps, such as logging the row through Zapier as well, needs Pro: $19.99 (about £15) a month billed annually, or $29.99 (about £22) monthly.
- Quote enquiries are personal data. Keep the sheet private, say why you hold it in your privacy notice and delete old rows under UK GDPR.
- Do not put a price in the automatic reply. SRA transparency rules affect how you present prices, so have your COLP agree the wording.
- Calls, texts and agent referrals still need adding by hand.