WhatsApp CRM · Construction & Interior Design
A WhatsApp CRM for contractors and interior designers
Written for how construction & interior design actually work
New-build contractors, renovation firms doing extensions and bathroom or kitchen redos, interior-only design practices working through subcontracted trades, and pantry, wardrobe and built-in furniture specialists.
This is the longest cycle of any trade we write for. Months, sometimes more than a year, from the first message to a signed scope, and months more of actual work. The budget-shaping phase alone can run several weeks even when it's handled well, because the customer has to talk to family, revisit a bank, and often go back and look at their land again. Follow-up is measured in weeks — a light, useful touch every few weeks beats a chase every few days.
Demand here follows household money more than the calendar. Enquiries tend to cluster after Avurudu and after a family's savings or land purchase decision, while actual site work slows through the monsoon because concrete, roofing and painting are all weather-dependent — which stretches an already long project further.
A normal day in your inbox
- "How much to build a house?"
- "I have about 10 perches — can you do a three-bedroom house on it?"
- "I don't have a plan yet. Can you design something for our site?"
- "Is there a design fee, or do you only quote after a site visit?"
- "We want to renovate the kitchen but I don't understand the budget side. Can you explain what's possible?"
- "I'll discuss with the family and let you know."
- "Cement prices have gone up, does that change the quotation?"
- "Can we start with only part of it? We don't have the full amount now."
Where the deals leak
- Vague enquiry, no plan or budget
- Budget-shaping conversation
- Scope agreed
- Drawing / plan stage
- Site visit
- Quotation or BOQ
- Family discussion gap
- Advance and stage payments
Right at the start, in the budget conversation. Most firms either demand a figure the customer genuinely cannot give yet, or quote a number the customer has no way to judge. Both end a conversation that was never unqualified — only unformed.
A house or a full renovation is a household decision involving a spouse, parents who may be contributing, and sometimes a bank. "I'll discuss with the family" is literal, and it can take weeks. Chase too soon and it reads as pressure; go silent and you are forgotten by the time they are ready.
A board that matches your job
Set a deal value on the ones that have a real scope, and leave it blank on the ones that don't — a guessed figure on an unformed enquiry makes the board lie to you. What you actually want to see between site visits is how long each household has been sitting in its current stage.
Stage 1
Enquiry
A dream with no numbers attached. Land, scope and intent all still unknown.
Stage 2
Budget discussion
Working out together what they want and what is realistic. Usually several touches, not one question.
Stage 3
Drawing / plan
Design work under way, and it is clear who is paying for it.
Stage 4
Site visit
Visit booked or done. This and the drawing stage are the two steps that actually qualify a project.
Stage 5
Quotation sent
BOQ or quotation out, with a validity date noted.
Stage 6
Family discussing
Waiting on a household decision. The stage that needs the lightest touch and the longest patience.
Stage 7
In progress
Advance paid, work running stage by stage.
Tags worth having
- New build
- Renovation
- Interior only
- Pantry / wardrobe
- Has land
- Still looking for land
- Phased build
- Referred by past client
Set it up once
Everything below happens inside WhatsApp Web, on the number you already use. No API, no new inbox.
Add InboxCRM to Chrome- 1
Answer "how much?" with a grounding question, not a rate
Save a quick reply that asks whether they already have land or are still looking. It moves a dream toward a shape without interrogating someone who feels embarrassed for not knowing their own budget yet, and it costs you one message.
- 2
Put the household on the contact, not just the person
Custom fields for land size and location, who the real decision-makers are, the budget range actually discussed, which stage the family conversation is at, and what you promised last time. Across a nine-month conversation, memory does not hold this for more than a handful of live projects.
- 3
Use the board as a stage-age check, not a sales funnel
Once a week, look at who has been sitting in Family discussing or Quotation sent the longest. That is the whole review. A long-cycle trade doesn't need daily pipeline management; it needs someone to notice a household that has gone quiet for two months.
- 4
Let follow-up rules set the patience for you
A rule on Family discussing that surfaces the chat after four or six weeks, not four days. The timing is the skill here — chasing a household decision too early is the single quickest way to look pushy about the biggest purchase of their life.
- 5
Keep the things you send to the family in quick replies
Photos and short videos of past work at different budget levels, saved and ready. When someone says they'll discuss with the family, you send something they can actually show, rather than waiting silently for a decision you have no part in.
- 6
Ask for the photo and the referral at completion
Schedule a message for a week after handover asking whether you can photograph the finished work and whether they know anyone else about to build. Referral is this trade's most trusted channel and almost nobody asks for it on purpose.
The messages that stall a sale
“"How much to build a house?"”
Usually means
They have a photo of a house they liked and nothing else — no land measurement, no budget, sometimes not even a firm decision to build this year.What works
Don't quote a rate and don't demand a budget figure in the first reply. Ask one grounding question — do you have the land already, or are you still looking — and build from there. Both of the usual answers lose the lead.“"Is there a design fee, or is it free until the site visit?"”
Usually means
They want to know whether this is a sales conversation or a paid professional service, and they don't want a surprise invoice later.What works
Be specific about what's free — the first chat, often the first site visit — and what is paid work, like detailed drawings, and why. Being vague to avoid scaring them off just moves the argument to the day the invoice arrives.“"I'll discuss with the family and let you know."”
Usually means
Genuinely true. A spouse, parents contributing money or land, sometimes adult children all have a say, and they may not be on this chat at all.What works
Treat it as normal, not as a stall. Send something they can show the family — photos of similar work, a one-page summary of the scope so far — and then leave real space. Weeks, not days.“"Will cement and steel prices go up? Is this quotation still valid?"”
Usually means
They have heard, correctly, that material prices move, and they're worried about being asked for more money mid-project.What works
Say plainly that material prices are outside your control and that an old quotation shouldn't be treated as current, then give a validity window and offer to re-confirm when they're ready to start. Never predict a price movement in either direction.“"Can we do just part of it? We don't have the whole amount."”
Usually means
The household's real capacity is smaller than the dream, and they're looking for a way to start without saying so directly.What works
Treat phased building as completely normal, because it is — foundation now, walls later, finishing after that. Pushing for full scope either loses the client or locks them into payments they can't sustain.
Quick replies to save first
Copy these, swap the details in [brackets], and save them as quick replies so you stop retyping them.
First reply to "how much?"
Thanks for messaging! Before I give you a number, one quick question — do you already have the land, or are you still looking? The next step depends on that.
When they have no budget in mind
That's completely fine — most people start without an exact budget. If you have a rough idea of [how many bedrooms / how many floors], tell me that and we'll work from there.
Design fee, said clearly
The first chat and the initial discussion are free. A detailed plan or drawing is separate work with its own fee, and I'll tell you what that is before we start it.
Material price question
Material prices aren't something we control, so please don't treat an old quotation as the current number. This one is valid for about [1 month]. Tell me when you're ready to start and I'll re-confirm the latest figures.
The quiet follow-up, weeks later
Hi [name] — we spoke a couple of months back about the [house / pantry]. Still in the planning stage, or getting closer to starting? No rush either way, just wanted to check in.
Free tools that help here: WhatsApp Link Generator, WhatsApp Text Formatter.
The parts of InboxCRM you'll use most
Pipeline board
Seven stages that match how a build actually moves, and a glance between site visits tells you who has been stuck in one of them too long.
Contact notes and custom fields
Land size, decision-makers, budget range discussed, what stage the family conversation is at, and what you promised last time — held for the nine months this takes.
Follow-up rules
Stage-age rules tuned to weeks, not days, so a household in the middle of a family decision resurfaces at the right moment rather than the impatient one.
Quick replies
Past-project photos and videos at different budget levels, plus the grounding question and the design-fee answer, ready to send from a dusty site.
Scheduled messages
A check-in written today and sent in six weeks, and the completion message that asks for photos and a referral — the two touches nobody ever gets round to.
Questions from construction & interior design
Will it draw plans or calculate a BOQ?
No. It doesn't produce drawings, cost a bill of quantities, assess a site or advise on bank loans. It also won't find you leads. What it does is remember where each household's conversation stands — the land details, the budget range discussed, who else decides — and make sure the ones that went quiet come back to you.
How do I follow up without being pushy about a family decision?
Set the follow-up rule in weeks rather than days, and make the touch useful rather than a chase — photos of similar work, or a note that you're around when they're ready. In this trade a family conversation genuinely takes weeks, and a message every few days about the biggest purchase of someone's life reads as pressure.
Can I track stage payments?
You can record what's agreed and what's been paid in custom fields on the contact, and use the order tracking feature to follow a job through its stages. It isn't accounting software and it won't invoice. Keep card numbers, CVVs and banking passwords out of the chat entirely — a bank transfer with a receipt is the safe pattern.
I have drawings and PDFs to send constantly. Does that work?
Quick replies can hold images, video, audio and documents, so a set of past-project photos or a standard scope summary can go out in one click. Because it runs on WhatsApp Web in desktop Chrome, sending files from the same machine you draw on is usually easier than from your phone.
Should I send a campaign to my old enquiries?
Generally no. A household weighing up the largest purchase of their life doesn't want to feel like one of a list. Campaigns exist, they go only to lists you provide of people who opted in, and they send slowly with caps and quiet hours — but for this trade a personal message to one contact is almost always the better tool.