Home Service Lead Follow Up: From Quote to Contract

A homeowner's AC quits on a Friday afternoon. They fill out a quote form on one site, request a callback on another and tap the call button on a third. Your crew is on a roof across town, the office line is busy, and the first company to reply gets the job. In a 2026 survey of 2,000 US consumers by Moneypenny, 83% said they choose the business that responds first to an inquiry¹.

Most of those requests are already paid for. Lead sites and ad platforms charge for the request whether you win the job or not. Google's Local Services Ads, for example, charge for each valid lead you receive². Once that money is spent, what you earn back depends on follow-up: how fast someone answers, whether anyone chases the estimate that went out last Tuesday, and whether a lapsed maintenance plan gets a call before the next heat wave.

This guide walks through that follow-up for HVAC, plumbing, electrical and roofing companies, from the first reply to the signed contract and the renewal a year later. It shows where VYG fits, with one homeowner profile (Earth), automated flows (Jupiter, in beta), real people who text as your company (Venus) and engineers who connect your systems (FDE). For the product overview, see VYG for home services.

What does the customer journey look like for a home service company?

The market is large and the demand is steady. Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies reports that US remodeling spending rose above $600 billion after the pandemic and remains 50 percent above pre-pandemic levels³. Repairs, replacements and maintenance keep the phones ringing in most seasons. The problem is rarely a shortage of requests. It is the gaps between the steps that follow each one.

A typical job moves through the same stages, whether it is a water heater, a panel upgrade or a new roof:

1. The request. A homeowner calls, fills out a web form, or sends a request through Angi, Thumbtack, Yelp or Google Local Services Ads.
2. The first reply. Someone confirms the request, answers a basic question and offers a time for the visit.
3. The estimate visit. A tech or comfort advisor inspects the system and prices the options.
4. The estimate decision. The homeowner signs on the spot, asks for time to think, or goes quiet.
5. The job. The work is scheduled, sometimes rescheduled or cancelled, then completed and invoiced.
6. The relationship. A review request, a maintenance plan, seasonal tune-ups and a renewal each year.

Speed matters most at step two. In Scorpion's consumer research, 54% of consumers said they decide on a home services provider within four hours of researching options, and 70% said they favor companies that offer several ways to get in touch, such as phone, text messaging and online chat⁴. A lead that waits until the crew is back at the shop at 6 p.m. has usually been decided.

Steps four through six are where the quiet losses happen. An estimate that is sent and never signed has no one assigned to it. A cancelled job drops off the schedule and nobody offers a new date. A maintenance member whose plan lapses in March is not on anyone's list until they call a competitor in July. Each of these is a homeowner who already knows your company, which makes them cheaper to win back than a new lead.

Stage	What usually goes wrong	What good follow-up looks like	VYG piece
New request	No reply until the crew is free	A reply within minutes, with a time offered	Venus, Jupiter
Estimate sent	No owner, no follow-up date	A set schedule of check-ins, with a person on high-value estimates	Jupiter, Venus
Cancelled job	Falls off the schedule	A same-week text offering a new date	Venus
Completed job	No review request	A review request after a good visit	Jupiter
Maintenance plan	Lapses quietly at renewal	Reminders before the date, a person after it	Jupiter, Venus
All of the above	Data split across software	One profile per homeowner	Earth, connected by FDE

Trade press has started to make the same point about lead spend. Buying more leads does not fix a leaky process, and the value is often sitting in requests and estimates the company already has.

More leads don’t automatically mean more profit.

Four hidden levers can help HVAC contractors capture more value from existing opportunities.

How does Earth bring every homeowner into one profile?

Follow-up breaks down when the facts about a homeowner live in four places. The lead source is in the lead site's inbox, the call recording is in CallRail, the estimate and job history are in ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, FieldEdge or Workiz, and the membership status is a field nobody checks before sending a promotion. A CSR who texts a homeowner about a tune-up without knowing they have a large replacement estimate open sounds like a different company from the one that wrote it.

Earth, VYG's customer data platform, builds one living profile per homeowner from the systems you already run. For a home service company that profile holds the lead source, estimates, jobs, invoices, equipment and memberships, matched to one customer. Earth matches the same person across devices and email addresses, so a homeowner who called once and filled out a form twice is one record, not three.

Because the profile is complete, segments can update themselves as it changes. Useful ones for a home service company include:

• Open estimates, sorted by value and age, so the largest unsigned work gets attention first.
• Aging systems, such as customers whose AC unit is more than 12 years old, ready for a tune-up or replacement conversation.
• Memberships due, such as members who renew in the next 30 days.
• Cancelled and unscheduled jobs, so nothing drops off the board without a follow-up.

Equipment segments matter because nearly every customer has something to maintain. The US Energy Information Administration found that 88% of US households used air conditioning in 2020⁵. Each of those systems ages, needs service and eventually needs replacing, and the profile is where you see which ones are next.

Your team can also ask Earth questions in plain English, including through Claude and ChatGPT over MCP. "Which estimates from last month are still open?" returns each estimate, sorted by value. "Whose membership renews in the next 30 days?" returns the members, ready for renewal reminders.

How does Jupiter automate the routine follow-up?

Jupiter, which is in beta, runs flows and AI agents that read the whole Earth profile. A message can branch on what the company knows about the homeowner, such as the estimate amount, an open service call or a lapsed plan, rather than on the last link they clicked. One flow can mix email, SMS and a human step handled by Venus.

Here is how an unsold estimate flow can work for an HVAC replacement:

1. Trigger: a replacement estimate is sent and not accepted.
2. Wait: three days, so the homeowner has time to read it and compare.
3. Branch: is the estimate over $5,000?
4. Yes: a Venus agent texts the homeowner about financing and timing.
5. No: a reminder email goes out with the estimate link.
6. Goal: the job is booked, and the flow stops.

The same pattern covers the other routine messages a home service company sends: a confirmation when a request comes in, a reminder the day before a visit, a review request after a five-star job, and a text offering a new date when a homeowner cancels.

Seasonal maintenance and plan renewals

Maintenance reminders follow the calendar. ENERGY STAR recommends annual pre-season check-ups, with the cooling system checked in the spring and the heating system in the fall, because contractors get busy once summer and winter arrive. It also notes that airflow problems can reduce a system's efficiency by up to 15 percent⁶. That gives each reminder a reason beyond the sale: the visit protects the equipment and the homeowner's energy bill.

Renewals need a clear offer. In a survey conducted for ACHR News, homeowners were split on how much maintenance agreements matter: 15% called them extremely important, 24% very important and 35% important. If they were to buy one, 57% would look to spend about $100 a year, and they would expect a discount on labor (80%), priority service (77%) and a discount on parts (76%)⁷.

A renewal flow in Jupiter can use those benefits directly. Thirty days before the renewal date, members get a reminder that lists the visits they had this year and the discount and priority scheduling they keep by renewing. Members who have not renewed by the date get a second message. Members who still have not answered a week later go to a Venus agent, who can ask what changed and book the next tune-up.

The HVAC maintenance agreement is evolving. Connected technology can help contractors move beyond the traditional tune-up to year-round monitoring, proactive service, stronger retention, and recurring revenue.

When should a real person step in with Venus?

Automation handles reminders well. It handles a homeowner who writes back "that's more than I expected, and can you come after 5?" badly. That is where Venus fits. Venus puts a real, professionally trained person inside your text flows. When a homeowner stalls, pushes back on price or asks something off-script, an agent reads the moment and replies as your company.

Text is the right channel for this because it reaches almost everyone. Pew Research Center reports that 98% of US adults own a cellphone and 91% own a smartphone, up from 35% smartphone ownership in 2011⁸. A text sits on the homeowner's phone until they have a minute, which is often the evening after work, when your office is closed.

Expectations for a reply are high, and owners tend to guess them wrong. In the Moneypenny survey, 34% of construction and building trade companies believed customers expect a response within seconds, while 17% of consumers said so. Another 41% of consumers said a reply within minutes would meet their expectations¹. Minutes is achievable for a person reading a queue of conversations. It is hard for a tech on a ladder.

Venus agents are trained on your services, service area, policies and voice before they send a text. In home services, that means:

• New requests: agents text homeowners who requested a quote, answer basic questions and book the estimate visit from the availability you share, including same-day slots.
• Unsigned estimates: agents follow up on estimates that were sent and never signed, and answer questions about timing and next steps. Financing questions can point to the options your company offers through GreenSky or Wisetack, which VYG builds on request.
• Cancelled jobs: when a homeowner cancels, an agent reaches out and helps them pick a new date.
• Lapsed plans: agents text customers whose maintenance plan lapsed and get them signed back up.

Pricing stays with your team. Agents text as your company and follow your rules on pricing, scheduling and service area. Every conversation and decision is written back to the homeowner's profile in Earth, so the comfort advisor who walks in for the estimate can read what was already said.

For benchmarks, a reply rate of 10-15% is good when a real person reaches out, and 15-25% is excellent.

How does FDE connect the field service software you already run?

None of this works if the data stays where it is. Every home service company tracks leads, estimates and memberships a little differently, with its own job types, custom fields and lead source names. FDE, forward deployed engineering, is how VYG closes that gap.

VYG engineers join your team in Slack and do the connection work with you. For a home service company that usually means:

• Field service software: ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, FieldEdge and Workiz connections are built on request during setup, so estimates, jobs, invoices, equipment and memberships flow into Earth.
• Lead sources and calls: Angi, Thumbtack, Google Local Services Ads, Yelp and CallRail connections are built on request, so every request and call lands on the right profile.
• Everything else: CSV and SFTP imports and Zapier connections are built on request, and a custom webhook and API is in beta.
• The first flows: engineers build the first flows with you on your real jobs, such as unsold estimates and membership renewals.
• Your team: they train your CSRs to use it, handle web changes and set your team up on AI.

FDE is billed as one monthly fee. The point is that your office manager does not become an integration project manager. The engineers own the connections between systems, and your team owns the conversations.

What rules apply to texting homeowners about leads and estimates?

Texting homeowners is regulated, mainly by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the FCC rules under it, plus state laws that can be stricter. This section explains the main rules. It is not legal advice, and your company is responsible for following them, so have counsel review your consent language and texting practices.

Consent. Marketing texts sent with automated tools generally need the homeowner's prior express written consent. The FCC defines that as a written agreement, bearing the person's signature, that clearly authorizes the seller to send advertisements or telemarketing messages to a specific number, after a clear and conspicuous disclosure⁹. Replies to a homeowner who texted you first, and messages about a job they booked, generally fall under different consent rules than promotions, so keep the two kinds of messages separate in your flows.

Leads bought from lead sites. The FCC had adopted a one-to-one consent rule that would have required consent for one seller at a time, aimed at lead generators and comparison sites that used one consent for many companies. The Eleventh Circuit vacated that rule in January 2025, days before it was to take effect on January 27, 2025¹⁰. In July 2025 the FCC deleted the vacated language and reinstated the prior version of its rules¹¹. The older definition of prior express written consent still applies, so check what the lead site's form actually disclosed before texting a purchased lead.

Quiet hours. Telephone solicitations to a residential subscriber may not be made before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., local time at the called party's location⁹. Some states set narrower windows, so set your flows to the strictest rule that applies.

Opt-outs. A homeowner can revoke consent by any reasonable method, including replies such as "stop" or "unsubscribe." Revocation requests must be honored within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days⁹. Keep each opt-out on the homeowner's profile so every flow can see it. Telephone solicitations also cannot go to numbers on the national do-not-call registry unless an exception applies, such as the homeowner's written permission or an established business relationship.

How do you get started?

Start with the leak that costs the most, not with every flow at once. For most home service companies that is unsigned estimates, because the homeowner has already met your team and seen a price.

1. Count what is open. List the estimates sent in the last 60 days that were not signed, and the memberships that lapsed this year.
2. Connect the source. FDE connects your field service software and lead sources to Earth, so those lists stay current without exports.
3. Pick one flow. Run the unsold estimate flow in Jupiter, with Venus agents on the higher-value estimates.
4. Share availability. Give agents the estimate slots and rules on pricing and service area they should work from.
5. Measure and add. Track replies, booked visits and signed estimates for a month, then add cancellations, renewals and new-lead response.

Most companies start with one piece, usually Venus on the conversations that stall or Earth to pull their data together, and add the rest when it makes sense.

If your crew is still calling leads back at the end of the day, book a demo and we will show you how VYG answers, follows up and books the work you already paid for.