The Not-in-Our-Catalog Referral-Out Decision Tree

Why this matters

Every shop gets calls for work that is not on the price book. A customer wants something adjacent to what you do, or something you used to offer and quietly dropped, or something a tech could technically handle but nobody has ever priced. Say yes to all of it and your catalog turns into a junk drawer, every job becomes a one-off quote, and your best techs get pulled off their strong lane to fumble through something unfamiliar. Say no to all of it and you leave easy revenue and easy referral relationships on the table. The fix is not a gut call per phone call, it is a standing decision tree your office staff can run without pulling you in every time.

Start here: is this actually outside the catalog

Before routing the call anywhere, confirm it is a real gap and not a naming problem. Check two things first:

• Does an existing catalog entry already cover this under different words? Customers describe problems, not service names. "My outside unit is buzzing" might just be a diagnostic visit you already sell. Match the customer's words to your catalog's actual scope before assuming it is a gap.
• Is this a natural add-on to a job already on the books? A request that only makes sense bundled with existing work is a scoping question, not a referral question. Handle it inside that job's estimate.

If neither applies, you have a genuine outside-the-catalog request. Move to the branch below.

If it is inside your trade but outside your catalog

This is work your license and skill set cover, but you have never built a priced line item for it, or you deliberately don't offer it.

1. Check whether it is a one-off or a pattern. One call this quarter is noise. Three calls this quarter for the same uncataloged request is a signal. Log every "we don't do that" call with the specific ask, even briefly, so the pattern is visible later instead of living in someone's memory.
2. If it is a one-off: quote it manually as a custom line, same as any non-standard job, and move on. Do not build a catalog entry for a single request.
3. If it is a pattern: flag it for a catalog review. A repeated ask that fits your skill set and equipment is the strongest signal you have for what to add next. Route to your building-a-new-catalog-entry process rather than continuing to ad-lib quotes for it indefinitely.
4. If you deliberately excluded it (low margin, high liability, equipment you don't stock, a specialty license you don't carry), say so plainly to the customer and go straight to the referral branch below. Don't quote something you have already decided not to do.

If it is genuinely outside your trade

This is work you are not licensed, equipped, or trained for, even if it sounds adjacent.

1. Do not attempt it "as a favor" or to avoid losing the customer. Off-scope work done without the right license or training is the single fastest way to turn a good customer relationship into a liability claim.
2. Name the boundary honestly. "That's outside what we're licensed to touch, here's who I'd call" reads as competence, not weakness, to most customers.
3. Refer to a trusted partner, not a generic web search suggestion. A named referral with a real relationship behind it protects your reputation; a vague "you could try looking online" does neither the customer nor you any good.
4. Log the referral. Referral volume by category is itself catalog intelligence: if you are sending the same type of job out five times a month, that is either a partnership worth formalizing or a service worth adding, depending on margin and complexity.

If it used to be in your catalog and was retired

Customers and even your own office staff sometimes remember a line item that has since been removed.

1. Check the retirement reason before re-quoting it. If it was cut for low margin or chronic callbacks, don't resurrect it for a single customer without addressing whatever killed it the first time.
2. If demand resurfaces meaningfully, treat it as a new catalog decision, not an automatic reinstatement. Price and scope it fresh; the market and your cost basis may have moved since it was cut.
3. If it was cut for a hard reason (safety, liability, discontinued equipment support), the answer is a referral, same as the outside-your-trade branch. A retired line item is not automatically a live option again just because someone asked.

The recap

Match the request to an existing entry first. If it is a real gap inside your trade, log it, quote a one-off if it's rare, and flag it for a catalog decision if it repeats. If it is outside your trade or licensing, refer out to a named partner and log the referral. If it used to be offered, check why it was cut before treating a new ask as a green light to bring it back. The goal of the tree is the same every time: never leave the customer with a dead end, and never let ad hoc yeses quietly rewrite what your shop actually sells.

References

• See related: Building the Catalog Entry for a Brand-New Service Line
• See related: Auditing the Catalog for Dead or Unprofitable Entries
• Trade-standard practice for licensed scope-of-work boundaries
• Better Business Bureau guidance on subcontractor and referral disclosure to customers