What questions should an AI receptionist ask to qualify leads for my gutter and drainage company?

For a gutter and drainage company, your AI receptionist should focus on four core questions: what specific problem the caller is experiencing, whether they own or rent the property, the approximate square footage or home size, and how urgently they need service. These questions give you enough to prioritize callbacks, route jobs correctly, and send the right crew with the right materials.

The problem identification question matters more than most owners realize. Someone calling about standing water in their yard after rain is a completely different job than someone requesting a routine gutter cleaning or asking about a new French drain installation. Your AI receptionist should be trained to recognize the difference between a drainage emergency, a maintenance request, and an estimate inquiry — because each of those has a different urgency level and different profit margin attached to it. Getting that detail upfront saves your team from playing phone tag just to figure out what kind of appointment to schedule.

Ownership status and home size are practical qualifiers that directly affect whether a lead is worth pursuing. Renters typically can't authorize work and will need landlord approval, so it's worth flagging those calls differently. Home size helps you estimate job scope before you ever send someone out — a 4,000 square foot home with a complex roofline is a very different proposal than a small ranch house. You should also ask whether they've had work done before and if they're getting multiple bids, since that tells you a lot about where they are in the buying process and how price-sensitive the conversation is going to be.

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