A price on a website commits you to something, and the form of words decides what. A customer who reads a number on your site brings that number with them when they get in touch, and expects the job to be measured against it. The exact wording decides how far that expectation stretches, because "from £85" and "£85" read as two different promises even though only four characters separate them.

Why the wording carries so much weight

A visitor reading a price on a screen has no way to describe the boiler, the fuse box, or the state of the roof before they decide whether to pick up the phone. The words on the page are the only information they have, so whatever those words imply about cost becomes the figure they turn up expecting to pay. Any gap between that expectation and the real job then has to be explained at the door.

This is most obvious in work that genuinely cannot be priced from a description alone. Two boilers of the same make can need very different work depending on what is behind the wall. Two similarly sized gardens can need different amounts of clearance. Two rewires in near-identical houses can turn up different amounts of rot once the plaster comes off. A website has to say something useful about cost in situations like these without claiming to have already seen the job, and the two sections below set out the forms of words that manage that.

A customer reading your website does not know what a job costs. What they read is the word you used, and each of these four words tells them something different about how the price will be reached.

Call-out charge

A call-out charge is a fixed amount for attending, whether or not any work follows it. Publishing one tells the reader that turning up costs something regardless of outcome, and that the amount they see is what they will pay for you to arrive and look at the job, before any further cost is discussed.

Hourly rate

An hourly rate is a price for time. Publishing one is useful for work that genuinely varies in length, but it tells the reader nothing about how many hours their job will take, so it works best alongside a typical range.

Day rate

A day rate covers a fixed block of time, usually a working day, regardless of how much of that day the job actually fills. It suits work that is normally booked in full days, such as a room strip-out or a full rewire of a small property, where the customer is paying for the day being kept clear for them.

Estimate

An estimate is a figure given before the job has been seen, and it is understood to be approximate. The Competition and Markets Authority, the government body that oversees fair trading practice, expects an estimate to be a genuine attempt at the likely cost. Where the word 'estimate' appears on a website, it should mean that, because a customer who later receives a bill well above it has grounds to feel misled.

None of these words has to be published at all. A page can set out how you price a job without quoting a figure for a job you have not seen, and the difference between the two is the subject of its own section on this page.

A website can say a great deal about cost without naming a figure for work it hasn't priced. The trick is describing what moves the price.

Naming what changes the price

A list of the things that genuinely affect what a job costs tells a reader more than a number would. For a plumber that might be the length of pipe run, whether a wall needs opening up, or whether parts are supplied or fitted only. Listing the factors lets someone size up their own job against it, which a single figure can't do.

• What the job involves (a straightforward swap versus one that needs new pipework, wiring or structural work)
• Access (a ground-floor bathroom versus a loft conversion three storeys up)
• Materials (customer-supplied versus fitted by the tradesperson)
• Timing (a routine booking versus one that has to happen outside normal hours)

A range instead of a figure

Where a range is used, it should describe jobs of the same kind. A range for a boiler swap and a range for a full central heating system are two different sentences. A reader comparing quotes wants to know which kind of job the range is talking about.

Saying what a figure includes

A figure means little until it says what sits inside it. Labour only, or labour and materials. VAT included, or added on top. Disposal of old fittings, or not. Stating this once, next to the figure, removes the need to explain it on the phone every time someone asks.

Words that commit less

Phrases like typical cost, starting from and subject to survey each carry a different weight, and picking the wrong one for the situation is where the trouble starts. Starting from only works if there's a real job that costs that much and nothing simpler. Subject to survey is honest where the price genuinely can't be set until someone has seen the job.