The best phone system for home improvement and renovation companies
A home improvement enquiry is won in the first five minutes: Skipcall calls, qualifies and books the survey before your competitors do.
Hundreds of companies use 
to make every call pay off
The situation
What holds you back today
Bought leads that go cold within hours
Very low answer rates on consumer mobiles
High no-show rate on home surveys
The answer
What Skipcall changes
Specific to your industry
What you may still call, and how
No trade is more exposed than home improvement to the rules on calling consumers, because most of its enquiries are bought rather than earned. Knowing exactly which numbers you are allowed to dial is worth more than a list of ten thousand you cannot use.
Screening comes before everything else
A live marketing call must not be made to a number registered with the Telephone Preference Service, and the screening has to be repeated regularly because people register every week. Sole traders and ordinary partnerships count as individuals here, so their mobiles sit on the TPS side too. The only thing that gets you past a registration is the person's own consent to be called by you, given to you and recorded with a date.
What you are buying when you buy a lead
Ask the supplier for the collection page, the timestamp, the exact wording of the consent, and the list of companies that wording named. Consent given to a comparison site does not travel to you unless you were named or clearly described. You stay responsible at your end: a lawful basis you can document, a privacy notice at first contact, and any objection acted on. The ICO fines the company that made the call, not the one that sold the data.
The moment somebody says no
An objection is dealt with during the call and logged the same minute, on your own suppression list and not only on the lead record. It also has to go back to the source: a supplier delivering enquiries people do not recognise is a risk you carry, whatever the data costs.
Recording calls
You may record, but the person has to be told before it starts, with the reason and a retention period you actually apply. Skipcall records, transcribes and summarises every call. The announcement belongs in your script and has to be said out loud, not implied.
The survey visit and the fourteen day cancellation right
A contract signed in somebody's home is an off-premises contract: the customer has fourteen days to cancel, and you have to give them written notice of that right along with a cancellation form. If they want the work to start inside that period, get their express request in writing, otherwise you can end up doing the job and being unable to charge for it. Note the signing date on the record: a payment chased too early loses more jobs than any competitor.
Business to business is a different matter. Housing associations, letting and managing agents, architects and main contractors can be called under UK GDPR and PECR, with company numbers screened against the Corporate TPS and a documented lawful basis behind the list.
The script
Calling back a home improvement enquiry, word for word
This is a call back, not a cold call: the person has just asked for a quote, from you or from a lead provider, and they have very probably asked several other companies at the same time. The job of this call is not to sell the work, it is to get a survey booked with everyone who decides in the room.
The opening, within minutes of the enquiry
“Hello, [first name last name] from [company]. You have just put in an enquiry about [type of work] in [town], I am ringing you straight back. Have you got two minutes, or shall I call this evening?”
Naming the work and the town says in one sentence that you are answering a request. It also gives the person the chance to correct you immediately if the enquiry did not come from them.
Telling them about the recording
“Just so you know, I record my calls so I get the details of your job right. Say the word and I will turn it off.”
The notice is owed before the recording, not after. It takes one sentence and it has never made anybody hang up.
If they say they have asked several companies
“Good, that is what I would tell my own family to do. So I am not going to try to sell you anything over the phone: I will come out, measure up, and you will have a fixed price to compare with the others.”
If they want a price there and then
“I can give you a number on the phone, but it will be wrong, and you will find that out on the day the quote lands. What I can promise is a fixed price after the survey, with nothing added later.”
A ballpark given on the phone becomes the customer's reference price. Any quote above it then reads as an increase.
Booking the survey
“Is this your decision on your own, or are there two of you on it? I would rather come when you are both there, otherwise we end up doing the visit twice. I can do [day] at [time] or [day] at [time], which suits you?”
If they say they never asked for anything
“Sorry to have troubled you. I am deleting your number now and you will not be called by us again.”
An objection is dealt with during the call and logged on your own suppression list. It also has to go back to the lead supplier: enquiries people do not recognise are a risk you carry, not them.
At Skipcall, every call is recorded, transcribed and summarised, so the script gets corrected against what your reps actually say rather than what we imagine they say.
Avoid this
Three mistakes this industry makes on the phone
The mistake
Giving a price per square metre on the phone to reassure the prospect before the survey.
Do this instead
Say the price comes after the measure, and say why: access, the state of what is underneath, waste removal, whether the property is listed or in a conservation area, whether a freeholder or a managing agent is involved. A figure given blind becomes the customer's reference price and turns your quote into an increase.
The mistake
Leaving a late afternoon enquiry until the next morning.
Do this instead
Call the same evening, even late, even if it is three sentences and an agreed time for the real conversation. The same enquiry went to several companies, and the one that calls first is talking to somebody who has not compared anybody yet.
The mistake
Talking about the work for ten minutes without knowing whether the person can decide.
Do this instead
Get two questions into the first minute: owner or tenant, house or flat. A tenant does not sign, and windows or external work on a flat go through the freeholder or the managing agent, which changes the timetable entirely.
Frequently asked questions, Home improvement & renovation
Other industries that prospect by phone
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Long cycles, accounts with half a dozen contacts: Skipcall remembers every conversation and multiplies your points of contact.
Wholesale & B2B distribution
Your customer base is your best source of revenue: Skipcall turns it into a systematic calling campaign.
Transport & logistics
Shipper prospecting in the morning, subcontracting in the afternoon: one work line for both.
See what it does on your own lists
A demo runs on your own contacts, not on a sample data set.
Personalized demonstration