AI for Contractors: Real Use Cases (Not Hype)

Welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors, a podcast for home improvement contractors to help you crush your lead goals and take your business to the next level. Join us each episode as we give you powerful insights and practical tips on the best digital marketing strategies to help you grow your home improvement business. Let’s get started.

Caitlyn: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Digital Marketing for Contractors. I’m Caitlyn Noble.

Meredith: And I’m Meredith Medlin. And if you are new here, this show is all about practical marketing for home improvement contractors. No fluff, no jargon, just stuff that actually moves the needle.

Caitlyn: And today, we’re jumping into a topic that honestly I feel like we’ve been circling around for months, AI, specifically AI for contractors, because here’s what we keep seeing. Contractors are either getting bombarded by vendors promising AI that will run their entire business, or they’re completely ignoring it and low-key freaking out that they’re falling behind.

Meredith: And honestly, both reactions make sense, by the way.

Caitlyn: there.

Meredith: The hype is real, but so is the technology.

Caitlyn: Right. So today, we’re here… We’re not here, I promise. So today, we’re not here to tell AI is going to replace your sales team or do your estimates while you’re sleeping on the beach, even though that sounds like a dream.

Meredith: That would be nice.

Caitlyn: But what we are going to do is walk through three areas where AI is creating real, usable value for contractors right now, specifically with the digital marketing spin.

Meredith: Yeah, and these are things that we’re seeing in the field. These aren’t just things that we’re reading about on some tech blog.

Caitlyn: No, for sure, and things that we’re actually doing for our own clients. So today we’re gonna talk about AI for content and SEO, AI search visibility, which is a little different from traditional SEO, and we’ll explain that in a little bit, and AI for lead follow-up in CRM. So let’s get into it.

Meredith: All right, so let’s start with content and SEO, because I think this is probably where most contractors have at least dipped their toe in the water, even if it’s just asking ChatGPT to write a blog post.

Caitlyn: And look, there’s nothing wrong with that as a starting point, but there’s a big difference between using AI as a writing assistant and actually having a strategy behind it.

Meredith: Yeah, totally. So, let’s talk about where AI content is actually useful for your contractor website. The first thing that comes to mind for me is just scale. If you’re a roofing company and you serve 15 different cities across a metro

Caitlyn: Yep.

Meredith: you need 15 different location pages and maybe more, probably more. Writing those individually I mean, honestly, most contractors just don’t do it.

Caitlyn: Won’t do it.

Meredith: They’ll just have one generic service page or service area page that just lists the names of the cities in a bullet point list, and then they call it a day.

Caitlyn: Which is basically invisible from an SEO standpoint. Like, don’t get me wrong. We’ve seen this tactic. it wasn’t a bad tactic back in the day, but yeah, no longer visible.

Meredith: Yeah I mean, Because everything has advanced the way it has, that isn’t gonna cut it. So when you use AI, that’s gonna let you scale your content production. You build out a template, feed in the local signals, like city name, local landmarks, really specific services that you offer to that market, and it’s gonna output a really solid first draft, keyword “first draft,” much faster than you could otherwise.

Caitlyn: So we just, like, really jumped right in to what to do to get

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: content out there. I mean, and so you’re saying that that template, that built-out template can be plugged into any…

Meredith: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, we’re talking ChatGBT.

Caitlyn: Okay.

Meredith: We’re talking Claude. Those are probably the two big ones that you’ve heard of.

Caitlyn: Yeah.

Meredith: And are probably most accessible and easy to use.

Caitlyn: Okay.

Meredith: Yeah, those would be the two big ones.

Caitlyn: Okay, cool. I love it. Jumped right into a strategy. Okay, so but here’s where I wanna pump the brakes a little. And I say this as someone who has seen the results go both ways. Publishing raw AI content without any human review is a mistake.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: Not because of the quality, though it’s real, but because Google is getting better and better at identifying content that doesn’t actually help the reader. So, Meredith gave you guys that prompt to plug

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: but that’s not where it stops.

Meredith: Right. What AI is prioritizing is helpful content.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: So, no matter what AI outputs, when you put in a template, you could put really great stuff in there, but if you don’t review it, it may not be super helpful, and that’s not gonna result in anything good

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: search engines.

Caitlyn: Yeah, that’s a good point. I mean, I also say like, I mean, really, the timing. Like we were saying, you need 15 pages, use this template, but

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: go ahead and block off another hour to build out that content even more.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: So yeah, exactly like Meredith was saying what makes contractors’ content actually helpful and credible is the specific stuff.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: The project experience, the local knowledge. “We installed 400 roofs in this ZIP code last year,” all of that kind of detail. AI cannot invent that, but if you give it that raw material, it can shape it into something really solid.

Meredith: For sure. So, you know, talking about project experience, local

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: think about, I mean, hopefully you guys are doing things like featured projects or finished project galleries.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: But include links to those pages. Includes, include photos from projects in that area. That’s the really, really high-quality, specific stuff that you can add.

Caitlyn: I’ve even seen, like, us mentioning local landmarks.

Meredith: Oh, for sure.

Caitlyn: It has nothing to do at all with your project or the work that you do, but you’re, like, mentioning this local, you know, park.

Meredith: Yeah, something that just tells AI that you are honed

Caitlyn: yes.

Meredith: to the specific area and something that you talk about, yeah, no, conversationally, authentically with a potential customer. So-the workflow that we would

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: to repeat, let’s create a solid template that you’re going to put into ChatGPT or Claude. Let’s just take those two, for example. Then you’re going to gather some local details and signals. Remember, we’re talking about like we just said, landmarks or projects project photos. And then once you’ve input that, AI, so either ChatGPT or Claude, is going to do the heavy lifting and create a draft for you that it’s going to put out. And then somebody on your team or your marketing agency, if you have a great one, if you don’t call is going to review it. They’re going to proof it,

Caitlyn: Your marketing agency would just do the whole thing. But anyways,

Meredith: I mean, yeah. In all reality, yes.

Caitlyn: Okay.

Meredith: If you call us, we will do it for you.

Caitlyn: Okay. Sorry. But back to somebody on your team. Yes.

Meredith: Yeah. they’re going to review it, proof it, make sure that it sounds like a human wrote

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: and add any extra layers of specificity, real experience, things that differentiate your company to make it authentic. That’s kind of the name of the game authenticity.

Caitlyn: I’m gonna say it again. Think of AI as your first draft writer, not your final editor. And seriously, that first draft does save a ton of time.

Meredith: A ton of time.

Caitlyn: Yeah. So go for it.

Meredith: Yeah. And for contractors who are thinking about blog content too AI is great at just generating topic ideas.

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: They can just give you outlines if you want to do more writing and drafting. They can come up with FAQ sections.

Caitlyn: Oh, that’s great.

Meredith: And FAQ sections are huge especially for AI search engines and an SEO standpoint as well. People are trying to, or people are typing questions into Google to try to get answers.

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: And they’re also typing these questions into ChatGPT. Any AI chop, chat blot, chat blot.

Caitlyn: Chat feature.

Meredith: Good Lord. Chatbot. And if your site has clear, direct answers to those questions, like, “How long does a siding installation take?” Or, “What’s the difference between James Hardie and vinyl siding?” If you have those FAQs on your website answering those questions, you are setting yourself up really well.

Caitlyn: Yes. And add those FAQs, and those FAQs just do double duty, which we’ll get into in the next segment when we talk all about AI search visibility.

Meredith: Okay. Little teaser there.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: So one more content area I want to flag and that is review responses. This sounds small, but it’s not. Responding to Google reviews or consistently and hopefully as quickly as you can is a real time

Caitlyn: Yeah.

Meredith: especially for a busy contractor. But you can use AI to draft responses that feel personal, on brand, and your team can just review them and then post. Keeping your Google Business profile

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: you know, answering to these reviews quickly, it’s signaling to Google that you’re actually engaged with your customers. And that is gonna give you a leg when it comes to not only AI search, but also SEO and your presence online.

Caitlyn: Yeah. In-house at our agency, we literally just went through a practice of like, “Okay, is the client responding to the reviews or is the agency responding to the reviews?” And it was a really healthy practice because, you

Meredith: Someone has to be doing it.

Caitlyn: somebody has to be doing it.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: And the thing I always tell clients is, “Your Google Business profile is not a set it and forget it.” It’s not. It’s basically a social channel at this point. Post photos, review responses. AI keeps up with all of that and it just makes it way more manageable.

Meredith: Yeah. So, okay, before we move on, let’s do a quick recap.

Caitlyn: I know we talked about it a lot.

Meredith: On the content and SEO, we’re going to use AI to scale.

Caitlyn: Location pages.

Meredith: Mm-hmm. Location pages blog content ideas, FAQ sections, and review responses.

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: And just remember when you’re going into using AI for content, you always have to add that human layer of credibility. AI is the first draft, not the finished product.

Caitlyn: Yeah. I would say maybe the reviews though. you could. Like, you could copy and review

Meredith: As long as you, like, set it up with, like, “Here’s the tone.”

Caitlyn: Sure. Sure. Sure.

Meredith: “This the thing I want to make sure I mention.”

Caitlyn: Mention their name.

Meredith: Mention their name. If they include a project

Caitlyn: Yeah.

Meredith: put that in their response.

Caitlyn: I like that.

Meredith: So there’s upfront configuration, but you’re making it more personal.

Caitlyn: I love that. And the underlying point is, AI removes the “I don’t have time to create content” excuse. That excuse is gone. Obviously we’re an agency who creates a ton of content for many, many contractors.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: But if you’re listening to this and you don’t have an agency and you want to try to do this in-house, you’ve

Meredith: There’s your roadmap.

Caitlyn: you’ve got an answer.

Meredith: Yeah. So let’s go and talk about something a little bit more

Caitlyn: Oh,

Meredith: it’s newer, and that is AI search visibility.

Caitlyn: Yes. So this is a topic that I feel like people either fully nerd out on or completely glaze over when I bring it up, so I’m going to try to make it as concrete as possible.

Meredith: All right. Challenge accepted. Set the stage for us.

Caitlyn: All right. Everyone knows traditional SEO. You optimize your website to rank on Google, page one, map pack, whatever. That’s been the game for 20-plus years. Thank you, internet. But over the last couple of years, something has genuinely shifted. A big and growing chunk of people are starting their searches not on Google, but in AI tools. Okay. Here’s the breakdown of a few of them.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI overviews. Even Siri is pulling from AI now.

Meredith: Yeah. So when somebody asks one of those tools, “Who’s the best roofer in Charlotte?” Or, “What roofing companies are highly rated near me?” AI is gonna give them an answer. They’re not gonna give them ten blue links. They’re actually gonna give them a recommendation. And a lot of times, it’ll pull the reasons why as well.

Caitlyn: Yeah. And I guarantee, I mean, take the contractor side of this, out of this. I guarantee you’ve had this experience on a Google

Meredith: Oh,

Caitlyn: within the last, like, two months.

Meredith: last week.

Caitlyn: I mean, we just finished the JFK love story series, and I was looking up some kind of graphic details. Like, I just kind of wanted to know, like, some dates, et cetera about what happened with the crash.

Meredith: Uh-huh.

Caitlyn: And, I mean, it was, boom, AI overview.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: Like, I didn’t have to scroll down. Like, the only reason I scrolled down is ’cause I wanted to, like, read a little bit more. But it’s insane. It

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: you all the information you want.

Meredith: It really does.

Caitlyn: So, here’s the thing that should make every contractor pay attention, back to topic. If your company isn’t in that answer, it doesn’t matter how good your website is, you’re invisible to that person.

Meredith: Yeah. That is the big wake-up call.

Caitlyn: Ugh. The term that’s been emerging for this is GEO, generative engine optimization. As opposed to SEO, it’s the practice of making sure AI systems can find your business, understand what you do, and feel confident enough to recommend you.

Meredith: Yeah. And the question that contractors always ask is, “Okay, how does AI decide who to recommend?” And that’s a very fair question.

Caitlyn: Oh, we hear it all the time.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: Great question. So, the honest answer is, it’s a combination of things. One big factor… And just, like, cliff notes. this is the 31st of March of the year of our Lord, 2026

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: If you’re listening to this in March of 2027, like, one, thank you, but second of all, listen to this with a grain of salt.

Meredith: Yeah. I guarantee you, it’s gonna be different.

Caitlyn: It’s gonna be different. But as of right now, as of right

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: one big factor is how well your business is represented across the web. Reviews, not just on Google, but Yelp, Houzz, HomeAdvisor, BBB. Your website content, especially clearly written service pages and FAQs. Third-party mentions, local news, trade publications, partner websites that reference your company, even your social presence plays a huge role in this.

Meredith: We were talking about this as a team the other

Caitlyn: Yeah.

Meredith: talking about how AI visibility is kind of like brand

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: and

Caitlyn: Yes. Yeah.

Meredith: over traditional SEO, which is, you know, it… There’s a lot of foundational SEO that goes into

Caitlyn: That’s

Meredith: But it really is, like, thinking about your online brand awareness presence. It’s kind of like AI is doing a background check on your business recommends it to you.

Caitlyn: Oh, that’s a really good way to simplify all of this, is

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: how does your brand show up on the internet? Where is it linked? What are you doing? How are you telling this story?

Meredith: Are enough people recommending you?

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: Do you have enough street credit for AI to say, like, “Okay, yeah, they’re a legit business that can do what you’re asking”?

Caitlyn: Oh, I love that. There’s actually a… perfect way to put it. It’s synthesizing all of that information and forming a judgment about your credibility and relevance. And if your digital footprint is thin or inconsistent. Inconsistent is probably the one that I would focus on.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: Thin, it’s gonna be… I mean, it’s, it’s hard. You,

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: with time, will grow that footprint.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: But consistency is something you can fix right now.

Meredith: Right.

Caitlyn: You’re just not gonna make the cut.

Meredith: And so, I mean, that kind of brings us into what an contractor can actually do about it. Like, practically speaking, what can a contractor do about AI visibility?

Caitlyn: Yeah, a few things. First, do a gut check. Actually open ChatGPT or Perplexity and type something like, “Who are the top roofing companies in,” insert your city. Or, “Best siding contractor near,” insert your market. See if you, see if you come up. That’s your baseline.

Meredith: Okay.

Caitlyn: Because you’re searching. I mean,

Meredith: Right.

Caitlyn: you’re already searching in that location too.

Meredith: Right. So, if you do this exercise, what if your business doesn’t show up?

Caitlyn: Hey, that’s the gap you’re filling, and the fix isn’t completely different from good SEO. It’s about content quality, review volume, and weird, we already said this, but consistency of your business information across platforms. But the framing shifts. You’re not just trying to rank. You are just trying to fully be cited.

Meredith: Being cited. I feel like back in school and doing, like, a bibliography.

Caitlyn: I know.

Meredith: With micro citations.

Caitlyn: We talked about this.

Meredith: Yeah, those two things though you know, good SEO and AI visibility, doing things for that, there, there’s an interesting distinction especially when you look at ranking versus being cited.

Caitlyn: Mm. Yeah. No, think about it like this. When an AI answers a question, it’s essentially writing a response and drawing from sources even if it doesn’t always show you those sources explicitly. You want your business to be one of those sources. And that means your content needs to be clear, structured, and genuinely useful, not keyword stuffed, not thin.

Meredith: Substantive. Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: Exactly.

Meredith: So, the FAQ content we talked about in segment one, that directly is gonna play into this.

Caitlyn: Directly. A clearly written FAQ that answers, “How much does a roof replacement cost in city?” or, “What permits do I need for a bathroom remodel in county?” That is a prime AI citation material. It’s specific with… It’s local, and it’s genuinely helpful to a homeowner trying to make a decision.

Meredith: Okay. So, I do wanna talk about, and we talked about this a little bit with your example of Love

Caitlyn: Yep.

Meredith: when you put

Caitlyn: So relevant to everybody who’s listening.

Meredith: your question.

Caitlyn: know a few contractors have been watching Love Story.

Meredith: Oh, for sure. So the Google AI Overview, what pops up at the top this specifically I think is important to talk about because I think it’s the one thing that our contractors are all bumping into.

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: and you may not even realize it. But is first on the page for a lot of searches these days.

Caitlyn: Everything. Yeah, everything. So AI Overviews, it’s plural, is what Google is now showing at the top of the search result for a lot of queries. It’s that AI-generated summary block above the regular organic results. And here’s what most people don’t even realize. Like, even above paid results.

Meredith: Right.

Caitlyn: You can rank on page one and still not get referenced in the AI Overview. Oh, my God. It just makes

Meredith: So,

Caitlyn: my skin crawl.

Meredith: organic ranking. You could be, like, great, I rank number one citing contractors in Raleigh, and you’re like, great, pat on the back. And then you go to the actual screen.

Caitlyn: And you’re like…

Meredith: and you’re not even showing up because the user has to scroll so far down from AI Overview.

Caitlyn: Yeah, that’s it. Yeah, that’s exactly it. There it is.

Meredith: Mm-hmm. So, ranking page one, but you’re still invisible to a big chunk of your audience.

Caitlyn: Love that word. It’s a real shift, and it’s why we’ve been telling clients, “You can’t measure success just by where you rank anymore. You also need to look at whether you’re showing up in AI-generated answers.”

Meredith: Okay. So, let’s talk about tools. Are there tools that track this?

Caitlyn: Yes, yes, yes, yes. Ugh, we just went through a huge

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: at at our agency to do this and test, what, 10 at least?

Meredith: More than 10, yeah.

Caitlyn: Yeah, at least. And, and, and we’re still… Like, we’ve picked one, but, like, who knows?

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: So yeah, and they’re getting better and better and better and better. A few that we’ve been evaluating include RankScale and Profound. These tools specifically built a built out to track AI search visibility. They can show you which AI platforms are citing you, for which queries, and how often. It’s pretty young, but the data is starting to get more meaningful.

Meredith: Right. And so, one thing I’d add for contractors listening is, first off, don’t

Caitlyn: Yeah.

Meredith: hearing all of this. This

Caitlyn: We’ve already panicked for you.

Meredith: Yeah, we’ve, we’ve panicked for you, did the and we can safely tell you, you don’t need to panic. We’ve already done it. This isn’t saying, “Hey, throw out your SEO strategy and start over.”

Caitlyn: Please don’t.

Meredith: No. A lot of the fundamentals that you’ve put into practice with traditional SEO, they still apply. You know, writing good content, having strong reviews, having accurate and consistent business listings. Those are still the foundation. AI search visibility is built on top of that, not instead of it.

Caitlyn: Yeah, that’s very well said. And the contractors who get ahead here are the ones who start paying attention now.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: Before it gets crowded like traditional SEO already is. There’s a real first mover window right now.

Meredith: Love that. Yeah. So let’s get into the third piece of this puzzle.

Caitlyn: I know. We’ve been talking for a little while, but this is fun.

Meredith: Hang in there.

Caitlyn: there.

Meredith: This is a good one. Lead follow-up in CRM, because this is where I feel like there’s some super tangible, very direct ROI opportunities.

Caitlyn: All right. Lead follow-up. Let’s just say that quite, that part out loud.

Meredith: Yeah. Most contractors are not very good at following up and doing it quickly.

Caitlyn: No. I mean, they’re not.

Meredith: Not, and, it’s not because they don’t care. It’s because they’re busy. I mean, you guys know. You’re listening. you’re busy. You’re on job sites, managing crews, quoting projects, and if a lead comes in at 9:00 PM on a Tuesday, by the someone gets back to them on Thursday

Caitlyn: Ugh.

Meredith: lead has already signed with somebody else. That’s just the truth of the matter.

Caitlyn: Speed to lead is so real. There’s data showing that if you respond within five minutes of a lead coming in, your close rate goes way up. And if you wait 24 hours, you might has, as well not even have bothered to respond.

Meredith: Yeah. And AI’s making it possible, especially for smaller contractors that, you know, maybe you don’t have a full-time call center or dedicated intake staff AI’s making it possible to actually compete on response time, and this is a super great opportunity that if you’re not taking advantage of it, definitely look into it.

Caitlyn: Definitely. So let’s talk about what this looks like in practice. Most common, the most common starting point is automated text and email follow-up. Just do it. If you’re not doing it, just do it. A lead comes in from your website, a form on your website, or your Google ad, or your local services ad. Within seconds, the lead gets a text that says something like, “Hey, this is Mike from ABC Roofing. We got your request and we’ll be reaching out shortly to schedule your free estimate. In the meantime, here’s what you can expect from us.” Personalized, immediate, professional.

Meredith: Yeah. And that first contact isn’t necessarily AI writing the message on the fly.

Caitlyn: No.

Meredith: This could be really well-crafted template that fires automatically. So you’ve crafted the template, given it the tone, the messaging, what to mention.

Caitlyn: Yep.

Meredith: But AI comes in when you wanna get more sophisticated with the

Caitlyn: Yeah.

Meredith: essentially.

Caitlyn: Oh my gosh, yeah. I mean, if you’re, y’all are on any of the major CRMs, you should have something like this already set up.

Meredith: For sure.

Caitlyn: So maybe they don’t respond to that first text. AI can help you build a follow-up sequence, like Meredith said, that varies the messaging. Adjust the timing, maybe asks a question. “Are you looking to replace or repair? What’s your timeline on this project?” You’re getting the lead to engage and also giving your sales team useful information before they even pick up the phone.

Meredith: Yeah. And some of the newer AI tools are actually handling that back and forth conversation in real time. And they, they sound organic. They really

Caitlyn: recommend it a bunch.

Meredith: Yeah. The AI is in an SMS conversation, so like a texting conversation with the prospect. They’re answering basic questions, even booking the estimate

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: and then handing it off to a human when it’s time to have the actual sales conversation.

Caitlyn: Which is kinda wild but also kind of brilliant, because the job of that first touchpoint isn’t to close the deal. It’s to keep the lead warm and move them to the next step. And AI can do that 24/7 without taking a lunch break.

Meredith: For sure. And let’s talk about CRM integration, because I know a lot of contractors are using systems like ServiceTitan or Lead Perfection

Caitlyn: Revelate

Meredith: Yep. I think a lot of them aren’t getting close to the full value of what those systems actually have to offer.

Caitlyn: No, that’s such a good point. I mean, the CRM is only as good as the data going into it, and AI is starting to help with that side of things too. So we just talked about automated responses.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: Things like automatic call, automatic call transcription and note-taking, so when your sales rep hangs up a call, there’s already a summary logged in the CRM. Job details, objections, what was quoted, follow-up needed. That saves time, and honestly, brain space.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: Which means less, like, details that can fall through the cracks.

Meredith: I mean, that reminds me of something that we’re doing with our lead

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: tool right now, with, like, lead intelligence essentially.

Caitlyn: Yeah. We use WhatConverts awesome company similar to CallRail. Yeah.

Meredith: Mm-hmm. It basically using AI to go ahead and go through that call transcript and be able to tell, like, okay, the intent of this call was to set an appointment versus, okay, they called the wrong number

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: they didn’t get anything scheduled. Ai is gonna go ahead and not even generate the transcript, but tell you if it was a good lead or not, which is crazy.

Caitlyn: I think that’s amazing.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: It flags, I mean, and it flags other things too in your CRM if you have it set up the right way.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: Like, something’s been sitting for a while. No activity. Pipeline hygiene, it’s unglamorous, but it literally, it, it matters. Your CRM is a graveyard of stale leads if nobody’s following up with them. So you’re gonna leave money on the table, and AI can help solve that.

Meredith: For sure. Also wanna touch on review generation because Google’s reviews getting Google reviews is such a consistent pain point. We know you do great work. The homeowners love

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: and then crickets. They forget to leave a review. You ask nicely. They just, they’re busy too. Even if they had a great experience, they might forget.

Caitlyn: Yes. Those AI-assisted workflows can solve a lot of that automated review request text that go out after job completion with a direct link to your Google Business profile. The timing and the wording can be optimized, something that feels personal rather than obviously automated.

Meredith: Right ’cause there’s a real difference between getting a text that says, “Acme Roofing, please leave us a review.” Or one that says, “Hey, Sarah. Hope the new roof is treating you well. If you have a minute, we’d love to hear about your experience. Your feedback really helps other homeowners in your neighborhood-“

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: make competent decisions.” You’re asking for the same thing with a totally different feel, and you’re gonna get a much better response.

Caitlyn: And if we haven’t already said it, AI can help craft those variations again and again and again.

Meredith: Yeah. Exactly. So before we wrap up this segment, are there any big caveats on the AI follow-up piece?

Caitlyn: A couple. One, don’t automate your way out of being a human. Homeowners choosing a contractor for a $20,000 roofing job or a $40,000 kitchen remodel want to talk to a real person at some point. AI handles those initial touchpoints beautifully, but the actual sales conversation is the trust-building that-… a human still needs.

Meredith: Yeah, for sure. What about the next one?

Caitlyn: Yes. Data quality. If your CRM is a mess, duplicate contacts, wrong phone numbers, inconsistent tagging, I mean, how you source your… all of it.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: AI cannot fix that for you. It is just a mess. So before you go all AI with a follow-up, you have to make sure your CRM is cleaned up, please.

Meredith: Exactly. Do some spring cleaning. It’s March. It’s time.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: All right.

Caitlyn: Exactly.

Meredith: So let’s do a quick recap because we just covered a lot of ground today.

Caitlyn: Yes.

Meredith: We’ve got AI for content and SEO.

Caitlyn: Keep going.

Meredith: All right. We’re gonna use it to scale location pages, blog content, FAQs, review responses, and remember to always add the human layer. Think first draft, not finished product.

Caitlyn: Exactly. AI search visibility, start by actually testing whether you show up in AI answers today. Build the kind of content that AI systems want to cite, clear, specific, genuinely helpful. And keep an eye on the tools in this space because it is moving so fast.

Meredith: Yeah. Ai for follow-up on leads and your CRM. You can respond faster, follow up smarter, and keep your pipeline clean. So use AI to support your sales team, not to replace the human relationships that actually are gonna close the deals.

Caitlyn: That’s exactly right. The through line in all of this is AI is a tool, not a strategy. The contractors who win with AI are the ones who deploy it thoughtfully with clear goals, a human review layer, and realistic expectations.

Meredith: Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Caitlyn: Mm.

Meredith: All right. If this episode was useful, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave us a review, share it with a contractor friend who needs to hear it.

Caitlyn: And if you have a question or a topic that you want us to cover, reach out. Seriously, we love hearing from people in the field.

Meredith: Absolutely. Well, we will be back next week. Thanks for hanging out with us.

Caitlyn: Later, everyone.