From the Yellow Chair
From the Yellow Chair
Why Slow Lead Response Is Killing Your Sales
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In this episode of From the Yellow Chair, Crystal sits down with Nick Miller of VIIRL Marketing to discuss why slow lead response is costing home service companies valuable revenue and how contractors can build a complete speed-to-lead strategy.
From missed calls and after-hours inquiries to AI answering services, call center support, and automated lead response tools, Crystal and Nick break down the entire customer journey and explain why responding quickly is no longer optional. They share real-world insights from hundreds of home service businesses, including HVAC companies, and discuss how customer expectations have changed in an on-demand world.
Whether you're struggling with missed opportunities, overwhelmed during busy season, or looking to improve your lead conversion rates, this episode offers practical strategies to help you answer more calls, book more jobs, and create a better customer experience.
In this episode, you'll learn:
* Why speed to lead directly impacts sales and revenue
* How missed calls hurt your marketing ROI
* The role of AI and automation in lead response
* Best practices for after-hours call coverage
* How to create a seamless customer experience from first contact to booked appointment
* Why home service companies need a lead response ecosystem, not just a phone number
If you're an HVAC contractor, plumber, electrician, roofer, or home service business owner looking to improve lead conversion and maximize every marketing dollar, this episode is packed with actionable insights.
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From the Yellow Chair is powered by Lemon Seed, a marketing strategy and branding company for the trades. Lemon Seed specializes in rebrands, creating unique, comprehensive, organized marketing plans, social media, and graphic design. Learn more at www.LemonSeedMarketing.com
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We'll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
Welcome And The Speed-To-Lead Problem
SPEAKER_00What's up, Lemon Heads? Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I am Crystal, and I'm not riding solo today in the Lemonade Stand. I have someone that you all know. He's been on here before. But guys, today we are talking about the full ecosystem of why slow lead response is killing your sales, but really that ecosystem to help you know how to prevent disaster, as I call it, from happening when you're not actually able to put a full strategy around how do you answer the phone and take care of these leads as they're coming in. It's going into the busy season for my HVAC people. But honestly, we just need to know a plan. So you know what I say here get yourself together, get situated, set the cruise control, make sure your seatbelts on, all that jazz. But let's zip some lemonade. All right, Nick Miller, what's going on?
SPEAKER_01What's up, what's up? How are we doing?
SPEAKER_00We're making it. You know what? It's summer in Texas, and so we all know how fun that is.
SPEAKER_01I can imagine.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Well, you know, uh, June in the month of June for Lemon Seed, our theme is all around speed to lead. So, how can we, as good owner operators, good contractors, good dispatch managers, all those things that are in control? How do we get really efficient and good at being prepared to take the calls that are coming in? How do we cover all of the things that could go wrong in a call center? And so I knew you were the guy to talk to, but real quick, give us a quick introduction so people know why they should care what Nick Miller has to say.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Nick Miller, uh I'm a director of sales uh over at Viral Marketing. And uh we have you know 400 plus home service clients, and um we really see the ins and outs of everything that you guys see every day, which is what our friends struggle with on a daily basis and and figuring out how to best set up their home service clients. So um, yeah, I think I think we hear all the pain points and and we try our best to push them in the right direction.
SPEAKER_00Love, love it. So, and you guys do a great job. But okay, let's just jump into this. So, I'm gonna preface a little bit with saying when we say speed to lead, what we are focusing on is how quickly your team contractor answers the phone, the message, the text, whatever, all of it, how quickly your team responds with urgency and the ability to book and gets them on the books. No longer gone are the days when people are like, Well, I left a message. People don't want to leave a message, they don't want to wait a minute, they don't even want to wait on hold. Okay, so welcome to the day of immediate response. And if you haven't figured that out yet, we you're gonna be in for a rude awakening. But I
Building A No-Gaps Lead Ecosystem
SPEAKER_00think right now our biggest focus needs to be on a full, and you mentioned this earlier when we were preparing for this call, an ecosystem, a full like system of how we approach that. So tell me where your brain was going with that. I love that that vein of conversation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, I think everyone is gonna be in a different stage, right? So you're gonna have your your mom and pops that are still picking up the phone at you know nine o'clock at night when they're sitting down to dinner with their family, and then you're gonna have your, you know, I got seven different, you know, uh call centers that are picking up at different times or whatnot. Um, or or you know, you have seven CSRs that all have different shifts. So I think the hardest part is where you know the overlap does matter and and figuring out between your systems of just picking up the phone, which is obviously the most important thing, pick up the damn phone, uh, and then also your automation that you put in place, if you have automation, which everybody should, um just making sure that there's no gaps, there's no holes. And when you know, this uh, you know, end user customer is pinging around your systems, making sure there's no holes in that system so that they don't get lost in the sauce.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about automation. So let's, you know, customer journey is such a part of the brand presence for your brand, for your company. So the customer journey is like, what does life look like from the minute I engage with your business till the minute, well, it should honestly never end. The customer journey is perpetual, right? So I call in, I'm a consumer, I call in, and let's say I'm like, hey, got home, my air is out, or my water, you know, line is busted. There needs to be, what if my CSRs can't answer? I should have a backup answering service, right? So step one in the customer journey is a backup to your team. What do you think?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I agree. I think that um you, you know, you need to map this out as as a as a business owner and say, okay, what are all the different scenarios? I think the number one lack of coverage is obviously like overnight. Um, and especially when when when people are running their their Google Google ads at you know overnight, but they have nobody to pick up the phone, you're just wasting money, right? And it's a bad customer experience, too.
SPEAKER_00Yes, tell the truth there. Like, listen, testify as I say about that. So here's what cracks me up
After-Hours Coverage And Ad Scheduling
SPEAKER_00we are actively running Google local service ads, PPC ads, social media ads all after five o'clock and on the weekends, but then we are irritated as heck. They're like, Well, why are people calling us? I'm like, You're spending ad money on those days as if you are a current option.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, set set set an ad schedule and don't say that you are a 24-7 service provider when you're not gonna pick up the phone at two o'clock in the morning. I'm sorry, but that that really is um, you know, I get it. Like that is people are busy during the day, they don't have necessarily always the time to call you during business hours. Um, and yes, you're gonna be missing out on some of that business if you're not running ads on weekends or if you're not able to get there on weekends, but at the same time, you got to remember that that's a bad experience for a client when they they call you, or or even the most common thing I see, I'm I'm looking at you know, Yelp listings and I see a six or eight hour response time or a one-day response time, and like that conveys that you don't, you know, whether it's true or not, and it's usually not true. It conveys that you don't care about your clients, you you're not there for them immediately. So perception is uh a big factor in you know how professional you're gonna be as well. Like if you're thinking about someone who calls in, they have to sit on hold, maybe they leave a voicemail, maybe you call them back six hours later, even if it's a referral, they're not feeling the best that like you haven't prioritized them as a client and as a paying customer.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's I love it. I love it, and honestly, too, like we um the expectation, whether you like it or not, the expectation is people want to be served and you should serve them, you should be thankful for their business. I don't disagree, like I get it, right? I get and we are thankful. We are thankful for everyone that chooses to call our company, but at the same time, we have to control the balance of keeping our people safe and happy and enjoying work and serving a constant flow of of customers. But just having
Automation Versus Control And Quality
SPEAKER_00these systems in place really can change the game.
SPEAKER_01I think I think some people get uh worried. Um, I'm not gonna call anybody out or point any fingers, but there are some people who like a little more control than others, right? And they don't they don't trust the process, they don't trust the automation, they don't trust the tools. Um, I think the hard thing with that is you know, there's only one of you and you're wearing 10 hats, or or maybe there's a few people you trust, whatever. But the the the the argument I get the most of the time is well, if I respond to them with this, you know, response directly from me, they're gonna, you know, feel so much better about it, right? Uh, because they're gonna feel that it's from a person. But listen, at the end of the day, that is not what the that's not what the data shows, right? Like, yes, you could get a couple percent lift, a couple percent, but in reality, you are gonna get so many more clients in the door because you're responding in 30 seconds with an autoresponder, or because you're answering the phone on the first ring with uh AI, you know, answering service or uh a CSR team um that is you know third party, um, that stuff matters more. So although, yes, we get a maybe a little slight dip in quality there, um the it it's it's not it's not outweighed by uh the ability to service someone. And honestly, it's getting worse and worse where people, you know, we're on our phones and we just we click a button and the Amazon package shows up at our door an hour later, right? And so we are becoming less and less patient people uh altogether. And so I think that that's just becoming more of the norm, is like, okay, if you can't help me immediately, I'm on to the next.
SPEAKER_00Correct. And and I don't know how to position this better for people, but it it's it's like you they ask and you answer kind of conversation, you know, and speed to lead style conversations. It's again, I use the word preparedness and you called it an ecosystem, right? So this preparedness is a mindset. I'm gonna make sure that I have whatever tools I needed. There's a million tools, like hundreds of tools, maybe, but hundreds of tools for you to choose from to help you intermittently where you need it, right? To make sure that that customer experience and that customer journey is really connecting all the dots and not letting anything fall and not missing a beat when people agree, it's unrealistic expectations, but at the same time, we now have tools that help us be unrealistic, right? Like there is literally 24-hour robots agents that will answer phones for you, so it's just about being prepared.
SPEAKER_01And I think also, you know, people once again back to the quality thing, they want control on the quality, but uh I think it's important that like still still be your same hours. Like if you have this set schedule in place where you currently have great coverage, like just use the tech for after hours, just use the tech for um, you know, filling those gaps where you're not gonna be. Uh, especially, you know, you would mention Google local service ads, right? Like those calls are not cheap. You know, you're paying a hundred, you're paying a hundred, you know, $150, $200 a call, and you're you're letting it go to voicemail, or you know, it's better to have someone pick up the phone and have a conversation and reschedule them for something, right? Than to not answer at all. So and and you also let's not take into account you getting punished by some of these platforms for not answering, right? Like that's another thing when advertising, like you the majority of platforms will punish you and they will push you down because they don't want to pay money to get the client and then have them have a bad experience.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, absolutely. This is, I mean, it's a game in all different directions, it's a customer journey experience situation, it's a monthly billing situation, it's just resource-driven importance of having that importance of just collecting all of that together. So go ahead. No, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01No, I was just gonna say, I think like the the stack in specific, like, you know, we talk about the hundreds of different options,
The Simple Stack Phones Then Follow-Up
SPEAKER_01right? And I that probably sounds daunting of like, well, where where do I start? Right, where where can I fill in? Like, first and foremost, you need to have your phones answered. So, like, starting point would be making sure you either have the CSRs to answer the phones 24-7, uh, or if you're if you're not gonna advertise, like, or don't advertise in the middle of the night, or don't you know try to drive that traffic. But um after that, then you want to go to automation in you know, lead responses, um, making sure you have automated text messages going out, automated emails, making sure that in any individual platform that you're in, that they get responses immediately. So those things all fill those gaps. And then after that, what happens after they come in? Maybe you don't close them right away. Do you have follow-up later on down the line? Like those are all the three different systems in place. And I know it's also probably confusing for a lot of them because the CRMs is, you know, gets pushed into this mix, and it's like what CRM does and doesn't do that, you know, all of these channels do some, but not all, and some of them do all. So that's another probably difficult thing is like figuring out a starting point. But I think just one step at a time is gonna be most important because it's better than what's currently going.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, I say this all the time. Um, I say uh you eat an elephant and a cookie the same way, one bite at a time. So while it feels daunting, you know, it is there is a purpose to what's going on. Well,
Slow Response Breaks Trust In Big Tickets
SPEAKER_00let's talk a little bit about uh damaging trust, right? So you you leaned into this a little earlier, but you know, when I call somebody, I want you to think about the last time you had a high-end expectation. So remember, the most the majority of us, when we have a product for our home service company, we have a higher-end product. Okay, we're trying to sell a $20,000 system, a $10,000 something, right? Those are uh large ticket items. We have to have so much trust, so you can think about if their overall experience is very fragmented and broken and slow and antiquated, they are going to assume that the product is as well.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Perception is reality. So even if you have a billion five-star reviews on Google and Yelp, um, but you drop the ball for a day or a week because you're sick or whatever it is, um, those clients that come across you during that time frame, then in their head, you have lost that potential for business for all of the times that you could have got them back. And that's usually a pretty decent sized chunk of business.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Absolutely. So let's do some final thoughts
One Priority Answer The Phone 24/7
SPEAKER_00here. A couple little things. Um, I'm gonna put you on the spot here. But if you got to talk to a brand new company to you guys, and they were like, okay, Nick, I can do one thing, I can do one thing well over the next couple of weeks. What would you tell them to do first?
SPEAKER_01The the one thing that makes everything after and all the money you spend much better is going to be have someone to pick up the phone 24-7. That's it. Whatever it takes. All the all all the rest of the stuff can is is tweaks and is small in comparison. But the the clients that we see that are hyper successful and are getting the numbers that everybody wants to get are the ones who have a rock star team answering the phone. And our clients who some of them spending you know $50,000, $100,000 a month in ads, but have atrocious. Sorry, I'm not pointing any fingers and I'm not going to call anyone out, but CSR teams. Oh, come on, right? I'm not giving names, but they are the ones who are struggling and and having tough conversations every week when we're, you know, listening to calls and saying, you know, you guys took five minutes, it was a miracle they stayed on the phone. And then even when you got on the phone, it was lackluster. So um, you know, that that's another thing that we didn't necessarily talk about is it it does matter a little bit uh how well they're able to, you know, handle the calls and and have the conversations. And I know that's a really hot topic of of you know why people generally go hire a third party because they just can't keep someone in that seat in-house, you know. No, it's hard.
SPEAKER_00It's hard. So I would probably give the same exact answer is one thing I want you to do is let's worry about why you can't answer the phone. What do we need to do? What tools do we need to put in place to help you there? So and to everybody listening, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01The other the other thing that I was thinking is a lot of people struggle when they're trying to grow their business to to figure out what comes first, right? Like, do they need the the like a lot of people? It will come to us and they'll be like, Well, I don't want to, I don't want to start spending a bunch of money on ads, uh, or or you know, fixing up my my image and stuff like that if I don't have this perfect, right? Oh yeah, and I think that's a that's the incorrect uh you know mentality, yeah. Mentality. It's just you don't it doesn't have to be perfect, but it it does, you just need to have the general big check boxes. And you know, if if you're gonna have someone answer the phone between this time and this time, that's when you run the ads. If you're gonna, you know, if you're gonna spend money towards it. Um, if you're gonna spend money towards it, you want to make sure that just everything looks good. You don't you're not showing up on these platforms, you know, it's like another employee out there. Your your website is an employee, your uh, you know, Yelp listing is an employee, your Google GMB is an employee. Like these are all employees that you want to show up that look as good as you look and and and have pride in the work that they do as well. Um, but it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be uh you know good enough to make sure you're there for your clients when they need you to be there for them.
SPEAKER_00No, absolutely. And our perfection is procrastination in disguise. Okay, that's that's just what it is. That's what it
Homework Action Beats Perfection
SPEAKER_00is. So listen, for all of you that are listening today, the whole point of Nick and I doing this quick little shot of energy for you during June, which is our month of speed to lead here at From the Yellow Chair and Lemon Seed Marketing, is think about the customer interaction, think about the customer journey, and then like this last point, just start with getting the phones answered. What does that look like? Get that done. That's your encouragement today from this episode is either perfect or start creating the exact ideal uh customer journey that you want people to go through, get those phones answered, and then start fixing issues from there. So, Nick, any last words?
SPEAKER_01Uh you guys got some homework. Don't wait on it, don't think about it, don't overthink it, go do it. Um, in in a world that's getting more competitive and more crazy by the minute, um, action is going to uh uh outweigh the the perfection. So I appreciate you having me on and um look forward to uh seeing seeing some some people making some phone calls out there.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. That's so let's do it for sure. So and Nick again, thank you. You are the enterprise sales team leader at Viral. Viral Viral does wonderful things. All of Nick's contact info will be down in the show notes for you to reference if you want to reach out to them. If you're a lemon seed client, let us know. We'd happy to make connections. Um, and friends and family talk free. So if you want us to connect you with Nick, please let us know. We would love for him to be able to show you what he does. Lemon Seed Marketing is basically, these are my words today, the drum major of your marching band here. So Lemon Seed keeps everybody going the same direction on the same boot beat of music and really killing it for your long term marketing strategies. And so thank you so much for listening to another episode of From The Yellow Chair with me and Nick. We will see you next time.