Why do contractors and electricians lose so many new leads?
The nature of the work is the problem. An electrician cannot answer a phone while working in a panel. A contractor cannot step off a roof mid-job to take a call. The physical demands of trade work make continuous phone availability structurally impossible.
Research shows that home services businesses miss 27% of all inbound calls on average (Invoca, 2024). For solo operators and small crews, the miss rate is likely higher — there's simply no one designated to handle communications while the work is being done.
And 85% of missed callers never try again (Local Splash, 2024). They move to the next company on Google. If that company answers — or texts back within a minute — the job is gone.
What are contractors' most common new customer inquiries?
Almost always one of these:
An AI can answer every one of these accurately and instantly — while Tony is elbow-deep in a circuit panel three floors up. The potential customer gets a response, feels taken care of, and is still in conversation when Tony surfaces and can take over.
See how contractors are winning more jobs with AI. Try our demo →
How does faster response time affect contractor win rates?
Significantly. Research from Harvard Business Review shows that responding within the first hour of a lead inquiry makes conversion 7x more likely than responding after that window. For contractors competing on Google where a customer may have called three businesses simultaneously, the first to respond almost always gets the first shot at the job.
The contractor who calls back two days later — even if they're better and cheaper — is starting from a disadvantaged position. The customer has already built a relationship, however brief, with whoever engaged them first.
How do contractors add AI response without disrupting their workflow?
Polu.ai is set up once and runs in the background. There's no app to monitor constantly, no dashboard to check between jobs.
When a potential customer calls or texts your business number and you can't answer, the AI responds within seconds. It gathers the basic job information, answers common questions, and either books an estimate appointment or flags the inquiry for your follow-up. When you have a moment at the end of the day, your leads are organized and ready — not a pile of missed calls from unknown numbers.
Tony's work doesn't change. His pipeline does.
See how it works →
Get started → polu.ai/register
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Sources: Invoca (2024), Local Splash (2024), Harvard Business Review