SimpliScaleInquiry → conversation
If requests sit unowned, start with capture, duplicate handling and assignment. Inspect whether the team received enough context and an appropriate response route.
Roofing follow-up audit
Where roofing
leads go cold.
Trace your own inquiries from first contact to the next action. Find the actual handoff gap before choosing automation or estimating its economics.
SCOPED TO YOUR PROCESS · HUMAN OWNERSHIP · OBSERVABLE OUTCOMES
ReceivedThe original inquiry
Source · timestamp · requested help
OwnedThe person responsible
Assignment · response · unresolved context
AdvancedThe actual next action
Stage · appointment state · loss reason
Trace what happened. Do not multiply every missed call by the average roof price.
01Use your records02Locate the transition03Test one useful repair
01 / Start with your own records
Find the gap before estimating its cost.
A roofing inquiry can stall before a conversation, before an inspection, after an estimate, or during the handoff into customer service. Those gaps need different fixes. A response-time benchmark cannot tell you which one your team has.
Choose a defined period and one lead source. Use anonymized records to trace the same group of people through inquiry, conversation, inspection, estimate and sales decision. Keep repeated contacts and appointment activity separate from newly acquired people.
02 / A record-by-record worksheet
Make the next action visible.
For each in-scope inquiry, record the original source, time received, assigned owner, first meaningful response, current stage, next action and loss reason. Keep a link to the internal source so the audit can be checked.
Inquiry evidence
What came in?
Source, received time, requested help and repeat-contact status.
Ownership evidence
Who acted?
Assigned teammate, response time, actual conversation and unresolved questions.
Outcome evidence
What advanced?
Current stage, verified appointment, estimate or sales decision, next action and loss reason.
The CSV contains column headings only. Keep real customer information in your approved internal systems.
03 / Find the transition that stalled
The stage tells you where to look.
Conversation → inspection
If scheduling stalls, inspect service-area rules, missing details, owner responsibilities and the actual appointment state. A requested slot is not a confirmed visit.
Inspection → estimate
If the next document never appears, review the estimator’s handoff and missing information. Keep inspection findings and pricing under the company’s professional process.
Estimate → decision
If homeowners go quiet, distinguish scope questions, timing issues, a decline and unknown status. A more frequent generic reminder may not resolve the actual decision.
Won → customer service
If signed customers re-enter the sales queue, inspect relationship updates and ownership. Project questions need a service handoff rather than another new-lead sequence.
04 / Use observed outcomes
A useful rate needs a real denominator.
For the same eligible inquiry group and period, calculate conversation rate, inspection booking rate, inspection completion rate, estimate-to-decision rate and won-work outcomes separately.
A rate definition, not a forecast
Inquiry-to-booking rate
Unique in-scope people with a verified inspection booking
Unique eligible inquiries in the same defined group
Use your own records for job value, costs and collected revenue. A change in inquiries, season, offer, staffing or job mix can change the result. Do not attribute the full difference to a workflow change when those conditions also changed.
05 / Make one change you can evaluate
Choose the smallest useful repair.
Choose a transition with repeated, documented friction. Define the field, owner, next action and exception before selecting a tool.
- Unowned inquiries: establish assignment and a visible review queue.
- Repeated questions: preserve the original request and structured context through the handoff.
- Booking confusion: distinguish intent, pending review and verified appointment records.
- Stalled estimates: route the reason for hesitation to the appropriate person.
- Conflicting sequences: test relationship changes, human ownership and covered stop conditions.
Agree on the baseline and a comparable follow-up period. Check both normal records and awkward cases. A custom AI step is justified when it helps a repeatable gap pass those tests; a simpler assignment rule may be enough.
Start with one workflow
Find the gap.
Bring the evidence.
Bring one anonymized inquiry and one stalled job. Use them to define a first workflow and the tests it needs to pass.
Discuss my workflow
Bring your lead sources, CRM, current handoffs and calendar rules. Scope and integration readiness are reviewed before a build.