Lots of interest, few ready to go
Heat pumps get a lot of attention, and you get a lot of enquiries. Some customers have done their homework. Many haven't: no idea of their EPC, a small terraced house with no outdoor space, radiators that would need replacing, or a belief that the grant covers everything. Your surveyor visits each one, spends a long time explaining, and comes away with a lead that won't go ahead this year.
Why heat pump enquiries are different
A boiler swap is well understood. A heat pump involves the property's heat loss, emitters, outdoor unit position, hot water storage and often a grant scheme with its own requirements. Customers vary enormously in how much of this they know. A phone call can't cover it all, and the surveyor ends up doing education rather than surveying.
| What matters for suitability | Often unknown at enquiry |
|---|---|
| EPC and insulation | Customer hasn't looked |
| Outdoor unit space | Not considered |
| Hot water cylinder space | Not considered |
| Radiators and emitters | Assumed to be fine |
| Grant eligibility | Assumed, not checked |
Whether a property suits a heat pump, and whether a grant applies, is for your designer and the scheme rules to decide. We're only talking about gathering the facts first.
The grant side adds work too. Where a scheme applies, it will have its own requirements for evidence, and some of it needs collecting before any work starts. Customers often assume the installer handles all of it, and are surprised when asked for documents weeks into the process.
What unready enquiries cost
Surveyor time is the scarce resource in heat pump work. Visits to unready customers delay visits to ready ones. Leads that go cold are hard to track. And customers disappointed on the doorstep sometimes blame the installer for the grant or the cost.
There is also a reputational cost. A customer who is told on the doorstep that their home is not ready may feel misled by the wider publicity around heat pumps and take it out on the nearest installer in a review.
The pre-survey step we build
- Enquiry form: the customer answers plain questions about the property, heating, hot water and what they want to achieve.
- EPC look-up: the property's EPC is looked up from the public register where one exists and its key details are shown to your team.
- Photos: the customer adds photos of the current boiler, the proposed outdoor unit location, the airing cupboard and a few radiators, with guidance.
- Readiness summary: your team sees a summary with anything that needs discussing, such as insulation, space or missing EPC, laid out for a quick call.
- Grant paperwork list: for enquiries that go ahead, a checklist of what the relevant scheme will need is started, so evidence is collected from the first visit.
- Nurture: customers who aren't ready yet get useful information in your wording and are followed up when they say they will be.
The enquiry form can sit on your website, be sent as a link in reply to an email enquiry, or be filled in by the office during a call.
Surveys for customers who are ready
Your surveyor visits customers who understand the basics and have the details to hand. Conversations start at design, not at explaining what an EPC is. Customers who aren't ready are kept warm, not lost. And grant paperwork starts on day one rather than being pieced together after the install.
It also improves your pipeline view. The owner can see how many enquiries are ready, how many are waiting on insulation or an EPC, and how many are simply curious, which makes planning surveyor and installer time far more realistic.
Does this match your heat pump enquiries?
- Many heat pump surveys don't lead to a job.
- Customers don't know their EPC or insulation details.
- Surveyors spend visits explaining basics.
- Grant evidence is gathered late in the job.
- Unready leads are forgotten rather than followed up.