Qualifies a replacement inquiry properly before anybody drives out, including the two questions — ownership and openings — that decide whether the appointment was ever real.
Window and siding replacement is sold from the kitchen table, which means the scarce resource in the business is an estimator in a van. Four appointments is a good day, and each one costs an hour of driving on top of the hour inside. The inquiries that fill those slots arrive through a contact form that asks for a name, a phone number and a message, and that form cannot distinguish a homeowner with rotten sills and a decision to make from a tenant pricing something for a landlord who has not agreed to anything. Both look identical in the inbox. The result is a schedule where a share of appointments were never going to close, and the estimator finds that out standing on a driveway. The questions that separate them are not difficult and they are not intrusive. How many openings, what is there now, how old is the property, when do you want it done, and do you own it. Any homeowner will answer all five, and the answers change what the appointment is worth before anybody commits a morning to it. This agent asks them in a conversation instead of a form, follows up on the answers that need it, and books the measurement visit with the property already described. It quotes only from what the contractor has published, and it books a visit rather than pricing a job nobody has seen. Built on Agentplace: the agent runs on its own page, so a visitor finishes the whole request in the conversation.
It finds out what the property is before an estimator commits a morning to it.
Asks what is actually wrong — drafts, rot, damage, appearance, energy bills — because the answer changes which product is being sold.
Establishes how many openings, what material is there now, and the age and style of the property.
Asks whether the homeowner owns the property, which is the single question that most often reveals an appointment that was never real.
Establishes timeline and whether financing would change what they look at, before an estimator prices anything.
Books the measurement visit against real availability, with the property description attached for the estimator to read first.
Quotes only what the contractor has published and books a visit for anything else, rather than pricing a job nobody has seen.
The economics here are unusually easy to state. An estimator can run four appointments a day. If one of them is a tenant, a browser two years out, or a property where the decision-maker is not present, the business has spent a quarter of its selling capacity and displaced an appointment that would have closed. Contractors know this and try to fix it by having somebody call ahead, which works when there is somebody free to call and does not when there is not — and the calls that most need making are the ones that arrive at seven in the evening. Asking in the inquiry itself removes the dependency. The second effect is on what the estimator walks into. An appointment where the property age, the material, the opening count and the actual complaint are already known is a different appointment: the estimator arrives with the right samples, has read the history, and spends the hour selling rather than surveying. Contractors who make this change generally report the close rate moving more than the appointment count does, which is the more valuable of the two.
From an inquiry to a qualified measurement visit.
From the website, an ad landing page or a phone call, at any hour. The agent responds in that channel within seconds.
What is wrong, how many openings, what material is there now, the property's age and access, the timeline, and whether the homeowner owns it.
A qualified inquiry gets a measurement visit with the description attached. One that fails the contractor's own criteria is flagged for a person rather than silently booked.
A Tuesday morning that did not go to a tenant.
Scenario: a window and siding contractor running two estimators was closing about a fifth of the appointments they drove to. An inquiry arrives at 8:40 on a Sunday evening: drafty windows, wants a price. The agent asks the contractor's own questions. Eleven openings, original aluminum, a 1974 property, single story with clear access, wants the work before winter, and would consider financing. Then the ownership question: he rents, and the landlord has asked him to get prices. Under the old form that inquiry would have become a Tuesday morning appointment, an hour of driving and an hour of measuring for a decision the person in the room could not make. Instead the agent records it, tells him plainly that the contractor works with the property owner on quotes of this kind, and offers to send the landlord's details to the office so they can approach them directly. The Tuesday slot goes to an inquiry that came in on Monday from an owner with rotten sills and a date in mind. Across the quarter the contractor's appointment count falls by about a sixth and the close rate rises by more than that, which is the trade they wanted.
Anyone whose selling capacity is an estimator in a van.
Four appointments a day is the constraint, and this decides which four.
You arrive knowing the property age, the material and the complaint, with the right samples already loaded.
Close rate moves more than appointment count does, which is the trade worth making.
Nobody has to ring back every evening inquiry to ask the same five questions.
You are the estimator, and a wasted morning is a quarter of your selling week.
Whether financing changes the conversation is established before the quote, not after it.
It qualifies into the systems the contractor already runs.
Receives the qualified inquiry with the property description and the booked measurement visit.
Serves the same role for contractors running Housecall Pro.
Carries the inquiry conversation and sends the appointment confirmation.
Books the measurement visit against estimator availability.
Handles inquiries that arrive by email and sends written confirmations.
Flags inquiries that fail the contractor's criteria to a person rather than booking them.
Logs inquiries by source, qualification outcome and eventual close.
Takes a deposit where the contractor holds measurement slots with one.
Where qualifying first changes the week.
Every contractor has a contact form. The difference is whether it collects a message for somebody to read later, or establishes what the property is before an estimator commits a morning.
Agentplace, when the constraint is estimator hours rather than inquiry volume.
What contractors ask before turning this on.
Agentplace is our top pick when the goal is fewer, better appointments: it asks the ownership and opening-count questions in the inquiry itself, at any hour, and books only what meets your own criteria. A contact form plus a callback still works if somebody is genuinely free to ring every evening inquiry back.
It is an automated assistant that answers a replacement inquiry in whatever channel it arrives, establishes what is wrong, how many openings, the material and age of the property, the timeline and whether the homeowner owns it, and books a measurement visit with that description attached for the estimator.
It quotes only what the contractor has published. Replacement pricing depends on the openings, the material and the access, so anything outside the published list becomes a measurement visit rather than a number that will not hold.
Homeowners answer it without hesitation, because it is an ordinary thing for a contractor to establish. It is also the single question that most often prevents a wasted morning.
It is recorded rather than discarded, and the office is given what it needs to approach the owner. A tenant inquiry is a real lead with the wrong contact on it.
Yes, and that is where most of the value sits. Evening inquiries are the ones that currently do not get a qualifying call back.
No. It records what the homeowner describes and books the visit. What the property needs is determined on site by somebody looking at it.
It runs on Agentplace. Agentplace is an AI agent platform where the agent gets its own page, talks to your visitors there, and carries the request through to the end instead of handing it to a form. You can open this template and change any step before you publish it.
Qualifies a replacement inquiry properly before anybody drives out, including the two questions — ownership and openings — that decide whether the appointment was ever real. Open it in Agentplace and change any step before you publish.