The Call Qualification Questions Every Contractor Should Ask

Whoever answers your phone, an employee, a service, or an agent, needs a fixed list. Without one, every call captures something different and your dispatcher spends the morning ringing people back for things that should have been asked once.

Here is the list that works across home service trades, in the order that matters.

1. Is this an emergency?

Always first, and never phrased that way, because every caller thinks their problem is urgent. Ask the condition, not the label:

• Plumbing: "Is water running right now, and can you reach the shut-off?"
• HVAC: "Is there anyone in the house who is particularly vulnerable to the heat or cold?"
• Electrical: "Is there any burning smell, sparking, or anything hot to the touch?"

The answers sort the call before anything else is asked, and a false emergency costs you a night call-out while a missed one costs you a customer. More on this in emergency call triage.

2. What is actually wrong?

Let them describe it in their own words first, then narrow. The free-form version tells you things a checkbox cannot, how long it has been going on, what they already tried, how worried they are.

Capture both: their words and a structured category. The tech wants the category; the person doing the follow-up wants the words.

3. Where is it?

Full address, plus the detail that changes the visit: apartment or house, which floor, gate codes, parking, dogs. "Third floor walk-up, no lift" is the difference between a routine water heater swap and a job that needs two people.

4. When can you be there?

Not "when would you like someone", offer real slots. An open-ended question produces "as soon as possible", which is not a booking. Two or three actual windows produce a decision.

5. Who authorises the work?

The question most often skipped, and the one that most often wastes a visit. Tenants cannot approve spend. Adult children ringing for a parent may not be paying. Property managers have limits above which they need sign-off.

Ask it plainly: "And are you the one who approves the work, or is there someone else I should note down?"

6. Has anyone looked at this already?

Prior work changes the job, parts already replaced, a diagnosis already given, another company that failed to fix it. It also tells you whether you are the first call or the third, which tells you how the pricing conversation will go.

7. Best number to reach you?

Last, and always read it back. A transposed digit turns a qualified lead into nothing at all, and it is the single most expensive small error on a service call.

Trade-specific additions

Keep the core seven and add two or three:

• Plumbing: what is leaking, property age, and whether it is on a slab. (More here.)
• HVAC: system type, age, last service, warranty or maintenance agreement. (More here.)
• Electrical: what is out, outlet, circuit, whole property, and whether the breaker resets. (More here.)
• Roofing: storm date, insurance carrier, claim number, roof age. (More here.)
• Garage doors: vehicle trapped, spring or opener, door size and material. (More here.)
• Pest control: what they saw, how many, where, pets and children in the home. (More here.)

Questions to cut

• "How did you hear about us?" Useful data, wrong moment. It is the first thing to drop when the caller is stressed, and you can get it from your tracking anyway.
• Anything you can look up. Do not ask an existing customer for their address.
• Open-ended budget questions. "What's your budget?" on an emergency call reads as a prelude to being overcharged.
• Repeats. If they said it in their description, do not ask again. Nothing signals "nobody is listening" faster.

The part everyone forgets

The list is worth nothing if the answers go somewhere unreadable. Every answer should land as a structured field your dispatcher can sort by, plus the caller's own words, plus the recording.

That is the actual test of any answering setup, human or AI: can somebody who never heard the call dispatch it correctly without ringing the customer back? If not, the questions were asked for nothing.