The 5-Minute Rule: Why Speed to Lead Determines Who Wins the Job

Hosts Caitlyn Noble and Meredith Medlin tackle the least flashy and highest-leverage change a replacement contractor can make: how fast you respond to a lead. Homeowners shopping for roofing, windows, siding, or baths are reaching out to three or four companies at once and booking with whoever responds first and seems competent. This episode breaks down exactly where speed dies in a typical contractor's funnel, gives you a three-gate framework to measure it, and sends you off with three things you can do this week.

In this episode:

• Why speed to lead matters more for replacement contractors than for most other businesses: competition, urgency, and the real dollar cost of every lead ($40 to $200 a pop).
• The four failure points where speed quietly dies: the form submission gap, after-hours leads, the "we'll get back to you" handoff, and the sales rep delay.
• The Three Gates framework for diagnosing your funnel: inquiry to contact, contact to appointment set, and appointment set to issued, with a target time for each.
• Why aggregator leads (Angie, HomeAdvisor, Modernize) are a compounding speed problem, and why "low quality" is often a response-time problem in disguise.
• The four-part tech stack for competing on speed, plus why recording your intake calls is one of the most underused tools in the industry.
• How to answer the four most common objections, including "our quality is so good homeowners will wait."

Key targets to remember:

• Gate 1, inquiry to contact: under 5 minutes during business hours, under 30 minutes after hours.
• Gate 2, contact to appointment set: the same call.
• Gate 3, appointment set to issued: within 24 hours, ideally same day.

Listener Checklist: Measure Your Three Gates This Week

• Gate 1 check. Pull a CRM report of the last 90 days. For every lead, compare the timestamp it came in against the timestamp of first contact, then calculate the average. Over 15 minutes means you have a Gate 1 problem. Start there.
• Gate 2 check. Sit with your call center manager and listen to 10 random calls (or pull recordings if you have them). Count how many ended with a real appointment booked versus a "we'll have somebody call you back." Too many callbacks means a Gate 2 problem.
• Gate 3 check. Look at your cancel-prior-to-issue rate over the last quarter. Above 10% means appointments are getting set but confirmation and rep assignment are too slow. Fix the confirmation cadence.
• Quick wins. Switch new-lead alerts from email to text or push. Turn on an SMS auto-responder. Make sure your call center can see the live calendar and book on the first call. Get instant mobile alerts to your sales reps.

Get the full show notes and transcript: fatcatstrategies.com/podcast

Ready to find your gaps? Book a strategy call at fatcatstrategies.com or call 919-341-4190.

Want to find out how we can create a custom digital marketing game plan for your contractor business? Schedule a call with us at fatcatstrategies.com.

Transcript

Intro: Welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors, a podcast for home improvement contractors to help you crush your lead goals and take your business to the next level. Join us each episode as we give you powerful insights and practical tips on the best digital marketing strategies to help you grow your home improvement business. Let's get started.

Caitlyn: Welcome back to Digital Marketing for Contractors. I'm Caitlyn Noble.

Meredith: And I'm Meredith Medlin, and we work exclusively with home improvement contractors. We're talking windows, roofing, siding, baths, gutters, companies that are doing somewhere between 3 and 30 million in annual revenue.

Caitlyn: And today's topic is one that doesn't get talked about enough. It's not flashy, it's not new, but it's probably the highest leverage operational change most contractors could make this year.

Meredith: Exciting.

Caitlyn: I guess we got half of a year left if you're listening to this, but still.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: Note it, and then do it next year.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: Okay, Meredith, let's start here. Why does speed to lead matter more for replacement contractors than, say, for a dentist or a financial advisor?

Meredith: I mean, a few reasons, and they kind of stack on top of each other. The first one is competition. When a homeowner is shopping for a bath remodel or a roof replacement, they're almost never just calling one company. They're gonna compare. They're submitting forms on three to four websites probably, and they're filling out lead forms on Angie and Modernize and all those other lead aggregators. So the homeowner experience isn't, "I called this contractor, and now I'm waiting." It's, "I reached out to four contractors, and I'm gonna go with whichever one calls me back first and actually seems competent."

Caitlyn: That's the part that gets missed. The homeowner isn't waiting on you. They're picking the first competent option that responds.

Meredith: Right, and the second reason is urgency. A lot of replacement projects are being driven by something visibly going wrong at the house. We're talking a leak, a broken window, a tub that doesn't work for an aging parent. There's pressure, and the homeowner wants this resolved, and they want it on the book schedule. They want it done quickly.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: So the longer you make them wait, the more that they're just sitting on the problem, and they're gonna get more frustrated.

Caitlyn: And the third?

Meredith: Lead cost. I mean, replacement contractors are often paying anywhere from $40 to $200 a lead, depending on the channel and the service. Ppc leads, lead aggregator leads, even organic leads have a real acquisition cost when you look back into it. If your response time is letting half of those leads die in the inbox, you're not just losing revenue on jobs.

Caitlyn: Yeah.

Meredith: You're burning your entire marketing budget on leads that you didn't actually compete for.

Caitlyn: That's the part that makes contractors angry once they see it. They'll spend $40,000 a month on Google Ads, generate 300 leads, and then the operations side of the business converts a quarter of them because the response process is broken.

Meredith: And then they call us and say My Google Ads aren't working."

Caitlyn: Yep.

Meredith: Well, then we have to point out, Google Ads worked great. Google delivered the lead, but the problem is, unfortunately, internal.

Caitlyn: So let's walk through the typical contractor's lead response process. Where does speed actually die?

Meredith: Okay, so there's four common failure points. Let's go through them.

Caitlyn: Start with the obvious one.

Meredith: Okay, the form submission gap.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: Phone calls. Most contractors handle those well. Call rings, call center picks up, the lead enters the system, yay. But form submissions are where it falls apart. A homeowner fills out a contact form on the website. That form goes into an email inbox where somewhere, sometimes it's the owner's inbox, sometimes it's a generic info at inbox. Sometimes it's the call center manager's inbox. It could be anywhere. And then somebody has to actually see it, route it, and act on it. That whole chain, that's where you're losing

Caitlyn: I didn't...

Meredith: time just disappears

Caitlyn: you've lost me just, just explaining that.

Meredith: You're I kind of the same. But yes.

Caitlyn: And meanwhile, the homeowner is just sitting there.

Meredith: Yeah, or honestly, they're calling the next company on their

Caitlyn: Definitely

Meredith: because they want it done quickly.

Caitlyn: Definitely

Meredith: the form submission gap is honestly where most contractors are losing the most leads. We've seen contractors with average form to call times of four hours, six hours, eight hours.

Caitlyn: Oh, my pearls.

Meredith: By the time they call, the homeowner has already moved on.

Caitlyn: Failure point two.

Meredith: After hours.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: And I mean, it may seem like, well, what am I supposed to do about that? Most contractors are open 8:00 to 5:00, maybe 8:00 to 6:00, maybe a Saturday morning shift, but homeowners are shopping at other times. They're shopping at night.

Caitlyn: On the weekends.

Meredith: Maybe they're filled out a form at 7:00, 8:00, PM after they put the kids to bed.

Caitlyn: My task list legitimately does not happen until it is Saturday.

Meredith: I

Caitlyn: I build it all week

Meredith: as parent, I can only imagine.

Caitlyn: But like, like, but I build it all week, and then Saturday, Sunday,

Meredith: Sit down, knock it out

Caitlyn: yes.

Meredith: So I mean, when your homeowners, your, your potential customers are shopping on the weekends and after your business is closed if your next response opportunity is 8:00 AM the next day, that's a 15-hour gap, and the contractor who has any kind of after-hours coverage is going to win those leads.

Caitlyn: Yes. And I will say, like, a lot of that is product specific. Obviously, you

Meredith: Sure

Caitlyn: I'm, not, you know, the, the aging in place audience who is asleep by 7:00 PM, you know?

Meredith: Fair.

Caitlyn: You know, so I, I think keep that in mind, too. So number three.

Meredith: The we'll get back to you hand off. This one is subtle, but it does cost jobs. The call center picks up the phone, and the homeowner says, "Hey, I'm interested in a bath remodel." The call center says, "Great. Let me get your info, and I will have somebody call you back and get you on the schedule." Well, that callback doesn't happen for hours, sometimes not until the next day.

Caitlyn: Yikes.

Meredith: That lead has already cooled cooled down by the time the actual scheduler reaches out.

Caitlyn: So the fix is?

Meredith: Set the appointment on the first call. Don't just take information and promise a call back. Have the call center trained and equipped to schedule the appointment right there. If the home, in-home consultation needs to be booked through a separate scheduler, then that scheduler needs to be available in real time. There should not have to be a call back.

Caitlyn: One of the best hacks that I've seen recently is CRMs, and there's other tools too out there, but that allow that automatic scheduling.

Meredith: That's fantastic.

Caitlyn: Like, on the form.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: Like, like you can literally schedule... I mean, wow. The I've just seen such, great set rates through that.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: But yeah, failure point number four, Meredith?

Meredith: Is the sales rep delay.

Caitlyn: Ooh.

Meredith: This is the one that happens after the appointment is already set. The lead gets issued to a sales rep, but the sales rep is in another appointment, or they're driving, or they just don't check their messages until the end of the day. And the homeowner who agreed to the appointment three hours ago gets a confirmation call that night. That gap, it's gonna create cancellations. The longer between, "Okay, I had agreed to an appointment," and, "This is real and scheduled," the more likely a homeowner's gonna back out of it.

Caitlyn: I'm gonna say, like, obviously making a plug for us too, we had generated so many leads for a client through Google that we actually... Like, there were no more appointments available, like, for a couple weeks, and we had to scale down our spend

Meredith: Mm-hmm

Caitlyn: scheduling an appointment out several weeks in advance to replace a roof, people are gonna move on and find somebody who's available, 'cause they obviously need their roof replaced.

Meredith: Right.

Caitlyn: So think about that, too. Like, if you actually don't have appointments available, think about how you're spending your money.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: So that ties back to your cancel prior to issue metric, which most call centers track, but a lot of contractors don't act on.

Meredith: That's right. So if you're seeing a high cancel prior to issue rate, that's almost always a speed problem. The appointment was set, but it didn't get confirmed or locked in fast enough, so the homeowner had time to second-guess. Speed to confirm matters more than just speed to call.

Caitlyn: All right. Let's give the people, our people a framework. You've walked and talked

Meredith: We walked and talked, baby

Caitlyn: about three gates in the funnel where speed determines outcome. Now, let's walk through it.

Meredith: Okay. Fair enough. Okay. Gate one is inquiry to contact. That is the classic five-minute rule. From the moment a homeowner reaches out, whether it be phone call, form, lead aggregator handoff, how long until somebody from your company is talking to them matters. The target should be under five minutes during business hours and under 30 minutes after hours.

Caitlyn: Gate two.

Meredith: Is the contact to appointment set. From the moment of first contact, how long until you've got an in-home consultation booked on the calendar? The target, same call. The homeowner shouldn't have to be waiting after a hang-up and not have a date or a time, thinking you're gonna get a call back. If your call center is taking the information, they should be scheduling. That's, if that's not happening, that's broken.

Caitlyn: Gate number three.

Meredith: The appointment set to issued. So from scheduling to the lead being assigned to a specific sales rep with a confirmed time. The target here should be within 24 hours, ideally the same day for appointments more than 48 hours out. The homeowner needs to feel like the appointment is real, it's locked in, and that a specific person is coming to see them. The longer it takes to confirm and issue, the higher your cancel rate gets.

Caitlyn: And the way to use this framework is...

Meredith: Go ahead and measure each of those gates we just talked about. Pull the data from your CRM. Most CRMs track timestamps for each stage of the funnel. So look at the average time on each gate, each point in this process, over the last 90 days. Where's your biggest gap? That is where you should start.

Caitlyn: Most contractors have not pulled that data.

Meredith: No, they haven't, and when they do, they're often surprised. We had a client recently, they were sure they knew where their problem was, and they thought, "It's lead quality. That's, that's the issue."

Caitlyn: Yeah.

Meredith: Well, we pulled the numbers, and their average inquiry to contact time was six hours.

Caitlyn: Oof.

Meredith: Lead quality was not the issue. They were just calling the leads back way too late to be able to actually convert them. We fixed that gate, and the conversion rates jumped almost immediately, and suddenly the lead quality problem disappeared.

Caitlyn: Let's go through each gate with specifics. Gate one, inquiry to contact. What does five-minute compliance actually look like operationally?

Meredith: A few things have to be true for this. One, every form submission triggers an instant alert, text or push notification, not just an email, to whoever is on, on intake duty. An email's gonna be too slow. People don't refresh their email constantly, I mean, unless you're people like us, who are constantly on their email. A text or a CRM push notification is what's gonna hit in real time. Two, the call center has clear ownership. There's a specific person whose job it is to make the call back happen, not a queue that everybody assumes somebody else is handling. Three, the script is ready to go. The intake person isn't figuring out what to say three minutes past. They've got the call lined up, and they are dialing.

Caitlyn: I love it, and I also love that you get to read all these words this time.

Meredith: I'm very good at reading.

Caitlyn: You're very good at reading. I, anybody who's listened to any prior episode, I, I'm the one who usually does most of it. For no reason. Gate number two, contact to appointment set. What does same call compliance look like?

Meredith: This is training and tooling. The, I mean, if you have a problem here, that's where it is.

Caitlyn: Yep.

Meredith: The call center needs access to the live appointment calendar.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: They need to see what's actually open today, tomorrow, and this weekend, and they need to be empowered to book, not just pre-book a pending approval. They need to know what to say when a homeowner hesitates. They need to know, okay, if they say, "Well, I have an opening tomorrow at 2:00 or Thursday at 6:00. Which works better?" That's a different conversation than, "Let me have somebody call you back to schedule." That's way too open-ended.

Caitlyn: Yeah. I definitely agree with you on that one. And gate three, we're talking now appointment set to issued, same-day confirmation.

Meredith: Yeah. This is a CRM and process question, honestly.

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: As soon as the appointment is set, the system needs to assign a sales rep, round robin by territory, however you specifically do it, and that rep needs to know that they have an appointment within minutes of it being booked, and then a confirmation goes out within the same business day.

Caitlyn: Mm.

Meredith: Ideally, it would be within the hour. Text is best for confirmations, with the rep's name and phone number. The homeowner should hang up from that initial call, get a confirmation text within the hour, and feel like, all right, the whole thing is real, handled, set, and we're ready to roll.

Caitlyn: No, it makes me so happy, like, when something like that happens so seamlessly. I mean,

Meredith: for sure

Caitlyn: beyond just you guys, like personal reasons, Like, okay, I booked the dog grooming appointment. Okay, I signed my kid up for this gymnastics thing.

Meredith: Right People love instant gratification.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: You've checked something off your list, you don't want a half-checked to-do list item.

Caitlyn: Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And then the reminders are really nice too.

Meredith: Oh my gosh, please.

Caitlyn: Like, I'm

Meredith: seven reminders for

Caitlyn: today, I thought my workout was at 12:30, and they're like, "Hey, actually it's at 1:30." I'm like, "Okay, that

Meredith: Glad I didn't show up an hour early

Caitlyn: a lot." Correct.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: Okay, moving on, you guys. We've got to talk about lead aggregators specifically. we had an our agency, we don't manage lead aggregators, but I do think it's something to talk about in terms of this compounding speed problem.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: Angie, HomeAdvisor, Modernize Networks. Speed matters here even more.

Meredith: Right, because the lead aggregator model is built around shared leads. When a homeowner submits to Angie, that lead doesn't just go to one contractor. It doesn't just go to you.

Caitlyn: Mm.

Meredith: It goes to three or four all at the same time. So now you're

Caitlyn: I knew this.

Meredith: Yeah, and if you didn't, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Caitlyn: Ugh

Meredith: if you don't know that, now you do. You are in direct competition with the other contractors that the homeowner is now gonna be reached out to by. You're literally in a speed race with those contractors, and I mean, you're getting it the same second, so I mean, you can figure out why it's important to reach out quickly.

Caitlyn: It's honestly, like, because I know this, I avoid those

Meredith: Mm-hmm

Caitlyn: because I don't want, you know, I'd rather my own research than have somebody else do it for me.

Meredith: Right.

Caitlyn: So the contractor who calls first is usually gonna win, of course.

Meredith: Mm-hmm. Almost always. I mean, there's industry research that says something like 78% of customers buy from the company that responds first, which is a wild stat. For lead aggregator leads, I would argue that that number is probably higher, because the homeowner knows they're being contacted by multiple companies, so they're explicitly choosing the one that reaches out to them first.

Caitlyn: And contractors complain about lead aggregator quality.

Meredith: They do, and I get it. And you know, some of the leads are genuinely low quality.

Caitlyn: Mm.

Meredith: But a lot of the low quality complaint is actually a speed problem on their end. If you're paying for a lead from Modernize, and you're not calling it back for two hours, of course it's gonna feel like it's low quality.

Caitlyn: Why waste?

Meredith: I mean, by then the lead has already booked an appointment with your competitor who called within 15 minutes, if not sooner.

Caitlyn: So what's the fix?

Meredith: I mean, you should be treating aggregator leads as a separate high priority intake stream.

Caitlyn: Mm.

Meredith: They go to the front of the line, the instant alert hits, somebody calls within the first few minutes. I mean, some of our clients who really commit to this, we're talking like sub two minutes response on aggregator leads.

Caitlyn: Unbelievable.

Meredith: Turn around and, you know, tell us those leads certainly look, suddenly look way better than they did before when they've implemented that, and it makes sense. Same lead source, same quality, but they have a totally different response time.

Caitlyn: So the so onto the broader question, should contractors even be paying for aggregator leads?

Meredith: Lord, that is a much longer conversation.

Caitlyn: You've heard my opinion about it.

Meredith: It depends on whether you've got a real exclusive lead source built up or not.

Caitlyn: that's a good answer.

Meredith: But I mean, the short answer is if you're gonna buy lead aggregator leads, you have to compete on speed, otherwise you're funding the contractor who's faster than you, and you're burning your money in the parking lot.

Caitlyn: Mm.

Meredith: I mean, that's the honest truth.

Caitlyn: Love it. We love to hear that.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: Okay, y'all, let's get tactical. What does the tech stack look like for a contractor who's actually competing on speed?

Meredith: Okay, so there's gonna be like four pieces here. First is gonna be your CRM. It has to fire out instant alerts for new leads. Most CRMs in our industry like MarketSharp, Lead Perfection, Job Progress, they can do this, but it's not often configured. So the form submits, the CRM creates the lead, and an alert fires to the on-duty intake person via text or app push. If your CRM is just sending an email to a general inbox, that's the first thing you need to fix.

Caitlyn: Woof.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: Those were the good old days.

Meredith: I mean, if only.

Caitlyn: What's the second?

Meredith: Second thing is gonna be an SMS auto-response.

Caitlyn: Obsessed Obsessed. Obsessed

Meredith: auto-responder. The moment a lead comes in, an automatic text is gonna go to the homeowner saying something like, "Hey, name, thanks for reaching out. We got your message, and we're calling you in the next couple of minutes." That auto-text is gonna do two things. A, it's gonna tell the homeowner that you're real and responsive. B, it buys you a few minutes of patience while your team gets to the phone to call them.

Caitlyn: I love that one. Third.

Meredith: All right. Live chat or chat bot on the website.

Caitlyn: Mm.

Meredith: More and more and more common especially for after-hours. Now, a chat bot doesn't have to be sophisticated. It just has to capture the inquiry, set the expectations, and I mean, ideally, book the appointment if you've got that integration. Even basic chat that captures name, phone, and project type is gonna beat a contact form that to the homeowner is just going into a black hole overnight.

Caitlyn: And what's the fourth?

Meredith: Mobile alerts. Your sales rep should have these, 100%. When a lead is assigned to a sales rep, that rep needs an instant push notification on their phone, not an email that they'll see at the end of the day. The reps who are the first to the homeowner are the ones who have the information in their pocket immediately. So get those alerts to your sales reps.

Caitlyn: And what about call recording and review?

Meredith: call recording on the intake side is definitely one of the most underused tools in the industry.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: You should be recording every intake call. Spend, I mean, like an hour a week listening to the sample that you've recorded. You'll find process gaps you didn't even know existed. You'll hear missed opportunities to set an appointment right there on the first call. You'll catch intake people fumbling with the script Data is, I mean, it's right there at your fingertips when you record it, so take time, record, listen.

Caitlyn: I am proud to say that we have some resources here at Fat Cat who do listen to the

Meredith: They

Caitlyn: specifically on the, you know, paid channels that we're managing because we're obviously managing your budget, and we wanna hear how those leads are setting and selling.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: So it's good for us to listen to those, but my gosh, you guys should be also listening to those calls.

Meredith: For sure, and if you hear things, like if you hear the call center fumbling the script, that's not a, "Oh my gosh, it's the call center's fault." That's a, "Hey, this is a training opportunity, or maybe we can improve the process."

Caitlyn: Totally. Okay, let's address the pushback. Why do contractors say when we talk about this stuff?

Meredith: Okay.

Caitlyn: What, what do contractors say when we talk about this?

Meredith: do they say? They, they say many things. Many words also.

Caitlyn: And why, what do they say?

Meredith: When, where, when, why. Three things. Mainly three things I would say. So first we don't have the staff to cover this, and I get it. That's a fair concern. The fix isn't always hire more people, though. A lot of

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm

Meredith: let's redistribute the work.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: If your call center is spending an hour a day on cold outbound and it's not converting, let's redirect that hour to instant inbound coverage because it's a better use of time with the same headcount.

Caitlyn: Love that tip, Meredith. What's the second?

Meredith: The second is gonna be after-hours coverage is too expensive. We've heard and we get it. It can be if you're staffing internally, but there are after-hours answering services that

Caitlyn: We love 'em. We have 'em, AI.

Meredith: Yes. We can recommend multiple if you are interested. And they specialize in home services. They can take inbound calls. They can capture lead info and even book appointments using your calendar, which is amazing. And all of this for a fraction of the cost of having to staff a night shift of humans. It's not perfect, but it's way better than letting those after-hours leads go straight to voicemail.

Caitlyn: Especially if you're paying for them.

Meredith: Amen.

Caitlyn: I would say if you're going to pay for them and you're not gonna have after hours, then don't pay... Like, then don't.

Meredith: Stop it.

Caitlyn: Don't run the ads.

Meredith: Stop right

Caitlyn: Like, don't, like, turn,

Meredith: Yeah Use a schedule.

Caitlyn: Correct. Ooh, yeah, 100%. Okay, number three.

Meredith: All right. This one. Well, my sales reps are too busy to take those immediate alerts.

Caitlyn: Mm.

Meredith: This one, you know, we'll push back on the hardest, I think. Sales reps are paid to close jobs.

Caitlyn: Mm.

Meredith: A new lead is a potential commission for them. I mean, if your reps aren't responding to lead alerts within minutes, that's not a workload problem. It's a culture problem and a comp plan problem. The reps who win the most are the ones who treat speed as part of their job. So restructure if you need to so that the comp plan is rewarding it.

Caitlyn: Love that. Okay, what about the contractor who says, "Our quality is so good that homeowners will wait for us"?

Meredith: I mean, I love that confidence unfortunately, they're almost always wrong. There are a handful of brands in any given market with that kind of, you know, repertoire and ability, but even they lose their jobs to faster competitors. Quality matters, but speed matters, too.

Caitlyn: Especially considering the type of job you're looking for.

Meredith: exactly. I mean, think about your average ticket tell me that somebody is going to or not going to.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: just think about it. Put yourself

Caitlyn: Word of mouth referral, different situation.

Meredith: Sure.

Caitlyn: Your roof is a mess. They're just gonna find the person who can come fix it.

Meredith: And, I mean, quality versus speed, they're not in conflict, but you can be good at both of those things, and the contractors who are winning the most jobs are the ones who are refusing to choose between them.

Caitlyn: All right, you guys. We are gonna send you off with a clear next step because, one, we love you guys.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: Thanks for listening.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: And we said a lot of great things, but here's a clear step.

Meredith: Okay,

Caitlyn: It sounds like actually there might be three.

Meredith: There's gonna be three. All right? First, pull a report from your CRM of the last 90 days, and for every single lead, look at the timestamp of when it came in and the timestamp of the first contact. Calculate the average. If it's over 15 minutes, you've got a gate one problem, and that is where you need to start.

Caitlyn: What is the second step?

Meredith: Second step is sit on your call center manager and listen to 10

Caitlyn: on them?

Meredith: HR, probably not.

Caitlyn: I swear you said sit on them. Or you're gonna sit

Meredith: don't

Caitlyn: you're gonna sit with your call center manager, and you're gonna listen.

Meredith: sit with them. You're gonna listen to them, next to them preferably. Listen to 10 random calls and you know, specifically listen for whether the appointment got set on that first call or whether the call ended with a, "We'll have somebody call you back."

Caitlyn: Yikes.

Meredith: Count how many ended in a real appointment booked versus a callback promise. Or if you're already ready to record your calls, you can do that, and you won't have to sit in, next to, around, whatever, your call center manager. So that is gate number two.

Caitlyn: I wanna make a quick plug because I think this is really, really, really good information, and if you're obviously listening and driving around, I mean, you're not gonna be able to take notes on it. So I'm gonna make a plug. Go to our website, fatcatstrategies.com/podcast, and you can get literally the full show notes, the transcription, everything. So, like, yes, you're listening. First of all, thank you, but if you're like, "Hey, those are really good tips," they're written on our website. Okay, Meredith, bring us home. Number three.

Meredith: Look at your cancel prior to issue rate over the last quarter. If it's above 10%, you've got a gate three problem. Appointments are getting set, but the confirmation and rep assignment is just too slow, and the homeowners are bailing before the rep ever gets to the door. So fix the confirmation cadence if that is the case.

Caitlyn: You take this one.

Meredith: All right.

Caitlyn: Last thoughts?

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: I'll take it. I'll take it. Last thoughts, just this. Speed to lead is the single most underrated lever in our industry. It costs almost nothing to fix relative to the leverage it creates, and it's one of the few changes you can make where you'll see the results in your booked appointments within 30 days. If you can take one thing from this episode, go measure your three gates this week, which you can also find listed out on our website. Whatever you find, the fix is almost certainly cheaper and faster than buying more leads.

Meredith: Amen, and not to mention, if you want help diagnosing those gaps, building the alert systems, training your call center on the same appointment scheduling, that is what we are here for.

Caitlyn: Yes, we are.

Meredith: So head to our website, fatcatstrategies.com, and book a strategy call. We will look at your funnel timing and tell you specifically where you're losing jobs.

Caitlyn: Obsessed. As always, you guys, thank you so much for listening to Digital Marketing for Contractors.

Meredith: We will see you next episode.

Caitlyn: Bye.

Outro: Digital marketing for contractors is created by Fat Cat Strategies. For more information, visit fatcatstrategies.com.