Storm week: more leads than you can call back
After a hail storm, your web form can fill up in one afternoon. You are on a roof doing an inspection, your phone is in the truck, and half the street has filled out the same form for two or three other roofers. The roofer who calls first usually gets on the roof first.
That is hard to hit when you are the one on the ladder. And the clock matters more than most roofers think. The MIT / InsideSales Lead Response Management study found that leads contacted within 5 minutes were 21 times more likely to qualify than leads contacted at 30 minutes, and the odds of reaching them at all were 100 times better. A Harvard Business Review study of more than 2,000 companies found that the average response time to a web lead was 42 hours.
Shared leads make it worse. Roofing leads on Angi and HomeAdvisor are reported to cost about $25 to $60 each and to go to 3 to 5 contractors at once, according to a third-party breakdown of the lead marketplaces. You pay for the lead either way. If another roofer calls first, you paid for a phone number.
What happens when a roofing lead comes in
- A homeowner fills out your form: “Hail last night, shingles in the yard, adjuster coming Friday.”
- HelloSetter calls them within 60 seconds. In our testing, the call starts about one second after the lead arrives.
- The AI says it is calling for your company, confirms they asked about their roof, and works through the questions below.
- If the job is a fit, it books the inspection into an open slot on your HelloSetter Calendar.
- You get an email summary of the call. The recording and transcript are in your dashboard.
- No answer? It detects voicemail, leaves a short message, and tries again on a schedule: up to 16 attempts spread over days, only inside your calling hours.
- If the homeowner calls your local number back, the same AI answers and finishes the booking.
What the AI asks on a roofing call
The questions are built for roofing estimates, so you show up knowing what you are walking into.
- Is this a repair, or are you thinking about a full replacement?
- What happened: hail, wind, a leak, a missing section, or just an old roof?
- Is water coming inside right now?
- Has an insurance claim been opened, or has an adjuster been out yet?
- What is the property address?
- Are you the homeowner? If not, who makes the call on the roof?
- Roughly how old is the roof, and what is on it now: asphalt shingle, metal, tile, or flat?
- When can someone come out for the inspection?
The answers land in your call summary. You do not have to ask them again in the driveway.
How it handles roofing objections
“I’m just getting prices right now.”
Normal for roofing. Most homeowners pricing a replacement call several companies. The AI does not push. It explains that nobody can give an honest roof price without looking at it, and that the inspection is how they get a real number. Then it offers a couple of times.
“I need to talk to my spouse first.”
It offers to book a time when both of them can be home, so the spouse hears the same thing you would say. If they still want to wait, it notes that in the summary.
“A new roof sounds expensive.”
It does not quote or discount. It points out that plenty of roof problems turn out to be repairs, and the inspection tells them which one they have. If there is storm damage, it mentions that inspection notes are useful when they talk to their insurer.
“Call me next week.”
It sets the callback for the time they ask for, inside calling hours, and logs it. The lead does not slip because you were busy on a tear-off.
AI receptionist or roofing answering service? Here is the honest answer
HelloSetter calls your new web leads fast and answers when those homeowners call back. It is not a general answering service for every call on your business line. It will not take supplier calls or questions about jobs already in progress. It does one job: turning new roofing leads into booked inspections.
It only calls leads who gave consent on your form, and it honors opt-outs. That matters. In February 2024 the FCC ruled that AI-generated voices count as an “artificial voice” under the TCPA.
Setup takes one 30-minute call
You do not configure anything alone. On a 30-minute setup call, the team connects your lead sources: your website forms, a Google Sheet, or a webhook or Zapier connection from places like Angi, Thumbtack or Google Local Services Ads. You get a local phone number, and your HelloSetter Calendar is set up with the hours you do inspections.
You can subscribe to that calendar on your phone with an iCal link, so booked inspections show up next to everything else. If you already keep a calendar for jobs, paste its link in and the AI checks it before booking, so it never double-books you.
Pricing
Founding plans are $197, $347 or $697 a month (regular price $297, $497 and $997). After the setup call you get a free 14-day pilot on your real leads. It is month-to-month, with no setup fee. See the plans and what each one includes.
Hear it yourself
The quickest way to judge it is to hear it. Call (307) 414-8089 and talk to it like a homeowner with a leaking roof. Or use Call me now on the homepage and the AI calls you within 60 seconds. Push it a little: tell it you are just getting prices.