A hot weekend and a full inbox
The first hot weekend of the year. By Monday the website has a flood of enquiries for home air conditioning, most saying something like 'how much for two bedrooms?'. Some are in flats where the external unit needs freeholder permission. Some want a portable unit, which you do not sell. Some are ready to go and want an install before the next heatwave. The office starts phoning in the order they arrived, and the ready ones get quotes from whoever called first.
An enquiry form that asks nothing
Home air conditioning quotes depend on a few facts: which rooms, their size, where the external unit could go, the pipe route, the electrical supply, whether the customer owns the property or needs permission, and whether planning or freeholder consent might be relevant. A generic contact form asks none of them, so the first call is spent collecting them.
- Enquiries arrive without rooms, sizes or photos.
- Ownership, lease and permission questions come up late.
- Customers who want products you do not sell are called anyway.
- Callbacks happen in arrival order, not readiness.
- Survey booking needs another round of calls.
What the surge costs
Good enquiries lost to faster competitors. Office staff buried in calls that go nowhere. Surveyors driving to homes where the install was never possible. And a busy season that ends with less work booked than the enquiry count suggested.
Home air conditioning also brings some enquiries that need honest handling: people expecting a quick install before a heatwave that is already forecast, or rooms where the only outside wall is shared or listed. A clear, early answer is better for everyone than a survey that ends in disappointment.
The intake we build
- A short, branching web form: which rooms and rough sizes, house or flat, owner or tenant, where the outside unit might go, with photos of the room and the outside wall.
- For flats and rentals, the form explains that permission may be needed and records whether the customer has asked, without giving legal advice.
- Email enquiries are read by an AI model and turned into the same fields, with missing items listed.
- Each enquiry is sorted by your rules: ready for survey, needs a call with the specific question, or not suitable, with a polite reply.
- Ready customers get a link to book a survey slot from your surveyors' diary, or a remote survey if your team quotes some jobs from photos.
- Everything lands in one queue in your CRM or job system, with photos attached for the surveyor.
| Enquiry | Handled now | Handled with the intake |
|---|---|---|
| Owner, house, photos sent | Waits in the call list | Books a survey slot |
| Flat, permission unknown | Long call | Flagged with the question to ask |
| Wants a portable unit | Called, then declined | Polite reply, reason recorded |
| Email enquiry | Retyped | Fields extracted |
A summer that converts
Ready customers book surveys while they are still keen. The office calls the enquiries that need a person, with the question already written. Surveyors arrive at homes where an install is plausible, with photos already seen. After the season, you know where enquiries came from and how many were suitable.
Your surveyors also plan better routes. With surveys booked from a diary rather than squeezed in by phone, they can group visits by area and spend more time surveying and less time driving.
Is summer like this for you?
- Hot weather brings more enquiries than you can call back.
- Most first calls collect the same basic information.
- Surveys have been wasted on homes where the install could not go ahead.
- Good enquiries have gone to faster competitors.
- Survey booking takes several calls.