Purpose
Turn unstructured notes from a customer visit, phone call, or inbound inquiry into a clean, standardized intake summary — capturing what the customer needs, the constraints that shape the job, and the specific next steps to move toward a quote or scheduled work. Eliminates the "I know I wrote it down somewhere" problem and makes every handoff between rep, estimator, and crew clean.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Summarize notes from a customer site visit or sales call
- Turn messy visit notes into a clean job brief before quoting
- Prepare a handoff summary for an estimator, PM, or install crew
- Organize what a customer said into needs, constraints, and next steps
- Clean up a voice-to-text dump or scattered bullet points from a walkthrough
- Flag open questions and missing info before writing a proposal
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Raw notes: The unedited notes, transcript, or bullet dump from the visit or call
- Service type: The trade or job category (e.g., roofing, HVAC, remodel, plumbing, landscaping, painting)
- Customer name / property: Who the customer is and the property address or identifier
- Contact channel: Was this an on-site visit, phone call, or inbound form
- Job stage: First contact / follow-up / ready to quote / ready to schedule
- Company defaults (optional): Standard service areas, minimum job size, or scheduling constraints worth flagging against
If job stage or contact channel is missing, infer from the notes and state the assumption at the top of the summary.
Instructions
Step 1: Parse and Categorize the Raw Notes
Read the full notes once, then sort every meaningful detail into these buckets. Do not invent facts — if the notes don't say it, it goes in Open Questions, not in a summary line.
- Explicit needs: What the customer directly asked for
- Implied needs: Problems the customer described that suggest additional scope
- Constraints: Anything that limits how, when, or whether the job can be done
- Signals: Budget hints, urgency cues, decision-maker comments, competitor mentions
- Noise: Small talk, tangents, and irrelevant detail — discard these
Step 2: Define the Scope of Work
Write a plain-language description of the job in 3–6 bullet points.
- Lead with the primary job the customer wants done
- List secondary or "while you're here" items separately, marked as (secondary)
- Note anything the customer explicitly ruled out
- If scope is ambiguous, write the most defensible interpretation and add the ambiguity to Open Questions
Step 3: Capture Site and Job Constraints
List the practical realities that affect execution:
- Access: Gate codes, parking, stairs, tight spaces, pets, locked areas
- Site conditions: Age of home, existing damage, code/permit concerns, hazards (asbestos-era materials, electrical, water)
- Scheduling constraints: Customer availability, blackout dates, events, HOA rules
- Material/product constraints: Specified brands, color matches, existing systems to tie into
Step 4: Read the Commercial Signals
Interpret the buying context — clearly separating what was stated from what is inferred:
- Budget signal: Any dollar figures, "just looking," "whatever it takes," or comparison shopping cues
- Urgency signal: Hard deadlines, active leaks/failures, "no rush," seasonal drivers
- Decision-maker dynamics: Who was present, who needs to sign off, "I'll check with my spouse"
- Competition: Other quotes mentioned, prior contractor issues
Step 5: Flag Open Questions
List every question that must be answered before an accurate quote or schedule. Each item should be answerable by one phone call or one measurement — not vague ("need more info").
Step 6: Recommend Next Steps
Write 2–5 concrete, sequenced actions with an owner and a rough timeframe. Each step is a verb the rep can act on today (e.g., "Call to confirm attic access before scheduling estimator — this week"). End with a single recommended next action if the rep only does one thing.
Output Format
- Structure: Headed sections in the order below, scannable bullets — not paragraphs
- Length: 250–450 words
- Format: Structured brief with a one-line header block (customer, property, service type, job stage, contact channel, date)
- Sections: Header block → Scope of Work → Site & Job Constraints → Commercial Signals → Open Questions → Recommended Next Steps → Recommended First Action
- Tone: Practical field-ops shorthand — direct, factual, no filler; written so a crew lead or estimator can read it in under a minute
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] Every section is present and in order, with the header block filled from the inputs
- [ ] Scope items are drawn only from the notes — no invented services or specs
- [ ] Stated facts and inferred signals are clearly distinguished (inferred items are labeled)
- [ ] Every open question is specific and answerable in one call or measurement
- [ ] Each next step has an implied owner and a rough timeframe
- [ ] A single Recommended First Action is named — no hedging
Notes
- When notes conflict (e.g., "no rush" but "roof is actively leaking"), surface the contradiction in Open Questions rather than picking one silently.
- Voice-to-text notes often contain garbled words — interpret conservatively and flag anything you had to guess.
- If the notes suggest the job may fall outside standard service area or below minimum job size, flag it explicitly under Commercial Signals so the rep can qualify early.
- This summary is a handoff artifact — assume the reader was not on the visit.
How to use this skill
This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.
Installing in Claude Code:
~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)
Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.
Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:
- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
- Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits
For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills