The Three Clocks Every Lead Is Racing Against, with Olly Whittle of Aivi
Speed to Lead: Why Your “Bad Leads” Might Actually Be a Follow-Up Problem
Replacement contractors spend a lot of time and money generating leads. Far less attention goes to what happens in the minutes after a homeowner fills out a form, and that window is where a surprising amount of marketing budget quietly leaks away.
On a recent episode of Digital Marketing for Contractors, hosts Caitlyn Noble and Meredith Medlin of FatCat Strategies sat down with Olly Whittle, co-founder and chief revenue officer of Aivi, an AI customer outreach platform that works across voice, SMS, and email. The conversation was built around an idea Whittle uses often: every lead is racing against three clocks. The first is how fast a company responds. The second is how fast it qualifies the lead. The third is how fast a real person gets involved.
The “Bad Lead Quality” Myth
Whittle’s background is in paid media. He spent roughly 18 years running Facebook ads, first for e-commerce brands and later for lead generation clients in financial services and home services. That experience gave him a front-row seat to a complaint contractors know well: “These leads are bad.”
In fact, Aivi was born from that exact phrase. Whittle’s team was generating high-value leads for a personal injury law firm when the client suddenly reported that lead quality had dropped. After digging in, Whittle found the leads had not changed at all. The firm had simply stopped following up quickly. At one point, staff attended a conference and called leads back four days later.
At the same time, consumer behavior was shifting. People were less likely to answer unknown numbers, and new call screening features from Apple and Google made them harder to reach even when they wanted to be reached. What looked like a lead quality problem was really a combination of changing technology, changing habits, and slow follow-up. For contractors, the lesson is direct: before blaming the marketing channel, check how quickly and persistently the call center is working each lead.
Clock One: Respond Immediately
When a lead comes in, Aivi’s first move is to engage, typically with a text message sent within seconds. That message thanks the homeowner, reminds them which form they filled out and why, identifies the company, and tells them which number will be calling. If they miss the call, they know it is safe to call back.
This matters because intent fades fast. Whittle noted that with prefilled forms and constant distractions, a homeowner contacted just 30 minutes later may not remember submitting anything at all. The immediate text acknowledges the request and warms up the call that follows.
Whittle shared two figures that underline the stakes. He cited research showing that reaching a lead within the first minute can raise conversion rates by roughly 391%, and that about 78% of buyers go with the company that contacts them first. Since homeowners shopping for a roof or a bath remodel often submit several quote requests at once, being first often decides who gets the job.
Caitlyn pointed out that most FatCat clients have trained call center teams who, on a good day, might reach a fresh web lead within a couple of minutes. An instant, automated first touch changes that math entirely.
Making AI Outreach Feel Personal
Meredith raised a concern many contractors share: homeowners are getting better at spotting AI, and a clumsy message can erode trust.
Whittle explained that Aivi leans on personalization and localization. Messages use the homeowner’s name and repeat details from the form, such as location, so the outreach feels individual rather than mass-produced. The platform also uses local phone numbers and regional language, and can even adjust the assistant’s name by state. According to Whittle, these localization touches alone produce about a 15% lift.
Text, voice, and email also work together, so homeowners engage on their own terms. Someone who cannot take a call might answer an email or reply by text to book a later appointment. Caitlyn noted how important this is for contractors serving a wide range of ages, from homeowners who prefer a phone call to those who can only respond by email late at night.
Does It Sound Like a Robot?
Contractors selling large, emotional purchases often worry that an AI voice will turn prospects off. Whittle said Aivi’s data does not support that fear. In its own campaigns, he said, negative sentiment tied to the AI agent runs under 2%. He also referenced an Invoca report on home services that put the share of consumers turned off by AI agents at around 16%, still low compared with the lift fast engagement provides.
Transparency is a big part of why. Every call opens by identifying the assistant as AI working on behalf of the company. Whittle stressed that Aivi never tries to pass as human, because a homeowner who later feels deceived is a lost customer.
Clock Two: Qualify Before Anyone Dials
Aivi also offers a feature called Aivi Insights, which scores a lead before a sales rep ever picks up the phone. It can flag invalid contact details, identify whether a number is a landline or a cell for TCPA compliance, and pull deeper data such as potential income and debt levels. For contractors whose customers often rely on financing, that helps answer a critical question early: is this homeowner likely to qualify?
Leads that do not fit can be excluded from calling or moved into a different funnel with a smaller offer. Caitlyn added that this data can also flow back to the marketing team or agency, helping refine ad targeting over time.
Clock Three: Get a Human Involved
Once a lead is engaged and qualified, Aivi transfers the call to the right person on the sales team. Routing can account for language, sending Spanish speakers to a Spanish-speaking agent, or geography, sending callers to the right regional department.
Both hosts emphasized that the goal is not to replace call centers, and Whittle agreed that a human in the loop remains essential. The value is in freeing call center staff from voicemails and call screening so they spend their time talking with high-intent, qualified homeowners.
Found Money in Old Leads
Aivi is also used for database reactivation. Most contractors are sitting on months of leads that were never fully worked, often because weekend backlogs push older inquiries aside. A simple text asking whether the homeowner still needs help can prompt a reply, which triggers a call and a transfer. For leads a company has already paid for, anything recovered is a bonus.
Setup and CRM Integration
Aivi offers a self-serve platform, but Whittle said his team typically guides new clients through building agents, prompts, and sequences. The platform integrates with virtually any CRM that has an API, including custom systems. Caitlyn noted she has seen it work alongside WhatConverts, so lead source data stays connected. Call transcripts and status changes, from uncontacted to transferred to booked, can all feed back into the CRM.
Four Action Items for Contractors
- Test your own speed to lead. Fill out your website form tonight, ideally after hours, and time how long it takes for a human to contact you.
- Check set rates by hour and day in your CRM. Nights and weekends are often where inquiries go to die, and that gap is the opportunity.
- Separate your problems. What looks like a lead quality issue may actually be a speed to lead issue.
- Triage aggregator leads. If you buy leads that are also sold to competitors, find a way to work the best ones first. Even a manual system can save the call center hours.
Learn More
To explore Aivi, visit aivi.io or connect with Olly Whittle on LinkedIn. Contractors who want help tightening the gap between lead generation and booked appointments can reach FatCat Strategies at fatcatstrategies.com or 919-341-4190. The FatCat team is also happy to make a warm introduction to Aivi.
Podcast Transcript
Intro: 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: Welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors, the show where we help home improvement and replacement contractors get more leads, close more jobs, and stop lighting marketing dollars on fire. I am Caitlyn Noble.
Meredith: And I’m Meredith Medlin. This podcast is brought to you by Fat Cat Strategies. We are the digital marketing agency built specifically for replacement contractors. We’re talking roofing, siding, windows, bath, gutters, doors, you name it. And if that is your world, this is your show.
Caitlyn: Yes. We talk a lot on this show about generating leads, SEO, now AI, paid search, your Google business profile, all of it, but we do not spend nearly as much time on what happens after the lead comes in, and that is where a ton of money leaks out.
Meredith: So today we brought somebody in who thinks about that follow-up window and I want to loosely organize our conversation around an idea that he uses, which is that every lead is really racing against three different clocks: how fast you respond, how fast you qualify, and how fast you get a real human involved.
Caitlyn: Yes. I’m so excited. We have demoed and played with this tool. We’ve introduced it to clients. It’s unbelievable. We are so grateful and glad to have Olly Whittle, the co-founder and chief revenue officer of Ivy, on the show. Olly, welcome.
Olly: Thank you. Yeah, really excited to be here. Appreciate the invite, and looking forward to chatting it all through with you.
Caitlyn: Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Meredith: Beautiful.
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Caitlyn: Okay. Well, obviously, we teased it up a little bit, but before we get into what Ivy does, you know, just tell our listeners more about you and who you are.
Olly: Yeah. So as you can probably tell by my funny accent based in the UK on the South Coast. My background is actually a media buyer, like, actually in the weeds of running Facebook ads. And I’ve probably done that for, like, near along 18 years or so. Like, initially, I was just helping clients run their social media profiles. That came, became quite difficult to track when they’re like, “What’s the ROI?” And I was like, “Oh, you got some likes and some comments.”
Meredith: Mm.
Caitlyn: Oh.
Olly: which they weren’t thrilled about. And then Ads Manager started developing and coming out, and that was, like, perfect for me because then I could say, “Your cost per click is X, your cost per lead is Y, your cost per acquisition…” You know, so I could really show metrics. And initially, I was working with, like, e-commerce sites just running ads to their Shopify store, and then that very much developed into lead gen. So working with, like, financial services, home services, and really trying to generate that lead for them, which they could then follow up with and close.
Meredith: Yeah.
Olly: And then as a result, that’s kind of led to Ivy, which is the you know, AI customer outreach tool across voice, SMS, and email.
Caitlyn: Amazing. Amazing. It’s it’s such a cool tool.
Meredith: It is. And I mean, we work with mostly contractors, one’s listening to this, and contractors we often hear complain about, quote-unquote, “bad lead quality.”
Olly: Yeah.
Meredith: So in your experience, is that always the case? Is it actually bad lead or is something else actually happening?
Olly: So funny enough, like, the phrase bad lead quality is actually how Ivy started.
Caitlyn: Wow.
Olly: So we were working with a law firm at the time, and we were generating those leads. They were purchasing those leads from us, and they were, you know, they were expensive leads, like personal injury, like motor vehicle accidents, you know, anywhere from, like, $300 upwards per lead.
Meredith: Wow.
Olly: And so they’re very very valuable in terms of, like, getting high conversions from them.
Meredith: Mm-hmm.
Olly: And then suddenly one day, the client that we were working with said, “Hey, these are bad quality leads.” And I was like, okay, that seems odd that they’ve, like, suddenly changed in quality so much, you know. We’ve been working together for a number of months. And then delving into it, I kind of started to uncover that they weren’t calling the leads very quickly. They weren’t following up with them. Oh, actually, we did go to a conference for a couple of days, so we were quite busy, and then we called them, like, four days later. And I was like, well, you know, we are talking about, like, minutes here. So you know, the fact like it’s extended across hours, these bad quality leads are actually not being followed up with quickly enough. They’re not being nurtured. They’re not being pre-qualified.
Caitlyn: Right.
Olly: And at the same time, like, people’s behaviors were shifting.
Caitlyn: Mm.
Olly: So like we were noticing… And again, this is why the timing of Ivy was so perfect, was that people were interacting differently post-click. So they’d fill out a form, and they’d no longer just pick up the phone an hour later, or they’d no longer engage with an unknown number.
Caitlyn: Mm.
Olly: So people’s actual behavior was changing, and at, then at the same time, technology was changing. So Apple call screening was coming out, Google caller systems coming out. So even if they wanted to receive that number, it was actually getting harder to get in contact with them. So that’s really where Ivy was born, was out You know, bad lead quality, quote-unquote, which was actually technology, people’s behaviors, and a lack of, like, follow-up and speed to lead.
Meredith: Yeah.
Caitlyn: Oh, we talk about lead.
Meredith: We talk about speed to lead all the time.
Caitlyn: Yes.
Meredith: Yes.
Olly: Yeah.
Caitlyn: So let’s kind of get into those clocks in that we talked about. Like, that first, that response clock.
Meredith: Mm-hmm.
Caitlyn: So we just talked about speed to lead, but what does Aivvi actually do the second a lead comes in?
Olly: Most importantly, the thing we do when a lead comes in is we engage with them.
Caitlyn: Good.
Olly: So within split seconds, you will get some form of communication, which we generally lead with a text message. And, like, as you know in, like, lead gen, like, and how, like, let’s say a meta form, how easy it is for that form to be pre-populated, and people’s, like, intent or their distractions are going up.
Caitlyn: Yeah
Olly: you could call, you could call that lead in 30 minutes and someone will forget what they’ve done. They forget they filled it out, or they just deny that they filled it out. We’re like, “Well, we’ve got your details. We can see your submission.” So the first thing we always try and lead with is a text message say, “Hey, thanks for filling out the form. This is the form that you filled out. This is why you filled it out. We are company X, and we’re gonna call from this number. So either look out for it, save it, or if you’re not available to pick up the call, then call us back and you know it’s, like, safe to do so.”
Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.
Olly: So they’ve got that reminder and pre-warning, so it’s not just Even though it shouldn’t be a cold call ’cause they’ve just filled out a form, like, they’re getting that reminder and that warning, and then we lead them through the nurture sequence of, you know calls then maybe another text message to remind them or give them the option to book an appointment. so take them through that nurture sequence. But ultimately, the first thing we do is send a text message to engage, acknowledge them, and pre-warn them.
Caitlyn: like, immediately?
Olly: Immediately, yeah, within, like, seconds and it makes such a difference.
Caitlyn: That’s, that’s huge because I know most of our listeners have real call centers with trained staff. On a good day, they might reach a fresh web lead within a couple minutes. So this tool, like, that changes that math immediately. How did Like, because the text goes out, correct?
Meredith: Mm-hmm.
Olly: That’s right, yeah. And, like, it is crazy. Like, every sort of second and minute counts. So,
Caitlyn: Yeah
Olly: one of the stats is, like, if you’re able to contact someone within the first minute, then your conversion rates go up, like, something like 391%.
Caitlyn: Yes.
Olly: And it’s not only down to also the conversion rates and the contact rates, but actually what people tend to do now is, like, let’s say they are looking for roofing, for instance. Often they’re not just filling out one form. They’re filling out multiple forms to get some quotes back because they don’t know if the submission’s gonna go through. They’re just generally doing some browsing. And so being the first person to contact them is also essential because 78% of people buy from the company that contacts them first. So it’s not just a contact rate issue. It’s also, like, a conversion and a purchase statistic as well.
Caitlyn: That’s fabulous.
Meredith: Mm-hmm. And, I mean, speed is crucial. Like we just said, we know the stats, but if, if the, the outreach doesn’t feel it doesn’t feel
Caitlyn: Mm-hmm
Meredith: you know, I feel like people are getting They’re, they’re catching on to the use of AI.
Caitlyn: This AI.
Olly: Yeah.
Meredith: so, I mean, how does Aivvi differ, and how does it make that communication trustworthy to those leads?
Caitlyn: That’s good.
Olly: Yeah. So we try and do a couple of things which have an impact. One is, like, personalization, so we call out the person’s name. A second part of it is, like, if there’s any details that we can, like repeat back that they filled out in the form.
Meredith: Mm-hmm.
Olly: Location, anything like that which tries to make it as personalized as possible.
Meredith: Yeah.
Olly: That, again, just makes them feel like that message was sent to them, Just a mass, you know, sending of messages to everyone, and it’s just trying to catch as many as possible.
Meredith: Right.
Olly: And then the second part of that is, like, localization. So we try and use, like local numbers. We try and use a bit of local verbiage. We try and make any kind of reference to you know, parts that make them feel unique again. And by doing that, we see about a 15% lift just by using local numbers or local verbiage or anything like that. And it’s interesting just how much. And also, we even, like, sometimes change the name of the rep. So, you know, for one state we might say Sarah, for another state we might say Amy, just in terms of, the popularity of those names.
Meredith: Oh, interesting
Olly: and what people might, you know, connect with better. And you know, those parts might feel small and like fine detail, but when you’re looking at contact rate and potential uplift in revenue, they all make, you know, they all stack up to make a difference.
Meredith: That’s definitely… So we obviously have talked lot about texting. So beyond texting, you, I mean, you’re also doing voice and email as well?
Olly: Yeah. Yeah.
Meredith: Tell me more about that multi-channel process.
Olly: Yeah. So we kind of see that, like, they all link in together. So you know, there are different touch points. Obviously, like, people may be busy at that second. They might not be able to pick up a phone call, but they might be able to respond to an email, and the email call to action might be to call an inbound number. They might not be able to do either at that time, but say they’re busy via text and say they’d like to book an appointment for another time. But, you know, having those different touch points throughout the sequence makes sure that ultimately you’re trying to reach them, but importantly for the consumer is contacting them on their terms.
Meredith: Mm-hmm.
Olly: So someone might prefer an email over a phone call. Someone might prefer, you know, a phone call over a text message, whatever that is. But they get the option to be able to engage. And because it’s all conversational
Meredith: Mm-hmm
Olly: you know, there’s, that conversation can take place on their terms. And I think that’s the important thing. Like, you
Meredith: Right
Olly: don’t call me, text me.
Meredith: Right.
Olly: And we can, and we can do that. So yeah, the multi-channel all links together and is, like, really important in terms of the outreach and working on their terms.
Meredith: Right.
Caitlyn: I think that’s really important. Like, our clients are dealing with a wide variety of demographics.
Meredith: Mm-hmm.
Caitlyn: You know somebody more maybe our age wants to communicate via text, you know? Somebody might be, may wanna do a phone call. And then email is always good, because I can do it late at night, you
Meredith: Mm-hmm
Caitlyn: after the baby’s down. So like, I love that all three of those options
Meredith: Mm-hmm
Caitlyn: a way to interact back and you know, with this.
Meredith: And I’m imagining, you talk about the voice, the calls.
Caitlyn: Mm.
Meredith: I can already hear some of our clients, some of our contractors saying, “Well, okay, if it’s AI, does it, does it sound like a robot?” Because my, my leads, my potential customers are
Caitlyn: That’s true
Meredith: large emotional purchases, you know? Like that. So what is
Caitlyn: It’s real
Meredith: voice call, what, what is that like?
Olly: Yeah, so this is, like, a really interesting, like, part of the discussion, because people often think that the AI agent is actually gonna turn off the consumer in terms of proceeding their submission or, like, engaging with the company, but we just don’t see that at all. In fact, like, what we see in terms of, like, negative sentiment of someone not proceeding because it’s an AI agent is, like, less than 2%. What, what we’re noticing is that consumers are actually quite happy that someone has acknowledged their submission and is engaging with them quickly, because actually they prioritize, like, customer service and customer engagement more than they do, like, you know, the fact, whatever medium it is. And, like, the other thing we’re very mindful of is that we are very open and transparent the fact that it is an AI assistant. So at the beginning of the call, it will say, “Hi, you know, I’m Amy, and I’m an AI assistant working with X, and I’m here to assist you with your submission.” We are not trying to,
Caitlyn: Hide it
Olly: suggest that it’s a human or try and fool them. Because actually, ultimately down the line, they’re gonna feel deceived, whereas actually what we’re trying to say is, like, “We are using an AI assistant to support you better and quicker and get you through to the appropriate human so you, that you can then have the conversation with them and deal with what you’ve requested or what you’ve submitted.” So yeah, I think even, like, there’s a report from Invoca, which does the home services, and they said something like 16% of consumers are turned off because it’s an AI agent. So it’s very low.
Meredith: Sure
Olly: and the lift that you get from using it far outweighs, like, the negative side of it.
Meredith: Yeah.
Caitlyn: Definitely. I mean, and I’ve heard the voice. Like, it’s… I’d rather just, to your point, be interacting with somebody.
Meredith: Yeah. I know I’m making progress.
Caitlyn: Exactly.
Meredith: There’s action.
Caitlyn: I’m getting to the end point, the end goal of why I requested a you know, a form submission from you guys. This is something we haven’t touched on, and it’s super cool and I think the, the, the listeners are gonna love this. You have a piece of this tool that’s scoring a lead before the rep even dials?
Olly: Yeah. So we’ve basically produced Aivvi Insights, and that gave us the ability that when we receive the lead, we could, like, tell a client, like, either just don’t bother contacting this one because, like, you’re you’re gonna get an error message. It’s not it’s not valid. We can for, like, TCPA compliance. We can check whether it’s a landline or a cell number. We can also go in deeper and draw, like details on, you know potential income debt levels, things like that. So then we can start to understand firstly, are they gonna pick up, and secondly, are they a good fit for what they’re, like, even applying for? You know, if they need to take financing for, like, roofing or something like that, are they even likely to get that financing?
Caitlyn: Right.
Olly: And so it gives us the ability to rather than just take a load of leads from clients to be able to work them, say, “Hey, here’s some of them back.” we’re gonna save you money here by not even dialing them because, you know, there’s, they’re, they’re not gonna match your criteria.
Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.
Olly: And that’s been a really important tool to help us assist clients and save them costs as well.
Caitlyn: That’s amazing. And then, like taking it to, like, a technical level, so then whether it’s, you know, the marketing agency who has insight to those leads that were qualified or not qualified or, you know, the marketing department of that company, then they can see that list of leads that were bad, and then possibly exclude them from
Olly: Mm-hmm.
Meredith: Yeah
Caitlyn: targeting. That’s amazing.
Olly: Yeah.
Caitlyn: That’s amazing.
Olly: Or maybe downsell them, like, you know rather than, you know, they’re going for that big roofing contract, maybe they go for something else, you know, depending on what the data tells you that it comes back with, you know, income levels or something like that. So yeah, either exclude them or you know, move them into another funnel.
Caitlyn: Love it.
Meredith: Yeah.
Caitlyn: I love it. So they Let’s say they go through the process, like the lead gets scored high, you have this great interaction going. Then what happens?
Olly: Well, you know, transfer them through to one of the sales team to close. Like, that’s, that’s the name of the game, right? So, you know, what we’re trying to do is make sure that they were the right lead, get in contact with them, pre-qualify them, and then once they fit the criteria that we’ve set
Caitlyn: Mm-hmm
Olly: then send them through to the right department. And we have the ability to send You know, if someone’s speaking Spanish, send them through to a Spanish-speaking agent. You know, if someone is a certain, in a certain state, make sure they go to, you know, that particular department. You know, so ultimately it’s transferring that call because a lot of the clients we work with still rely on speaking to someone on the phone to actually close the deal. And so that is the ultimate sort of metric really is transfer rate and leads close rate.
Meredith: Right. And I mean, a lot of our clients, a lot of our listeners right now have a, a pretty good size call center team. And so we’re not saying you need to replace these call center teams or people with Aivvi. We’re saying let Aivvi help your call center by pre-qualifying to transfer, right?
Olly: Yeah. Like, the human in the loop is still important here. we’re not at a point where the agent is doing everything end to end, where they’re contacting them, and they’re closing them, and they’re sending out contracts, and they’re taking payments. Like, we’re not far, but we’re we’re not, we’re not there at the moment. And the human in the loop is really important. I think what we’re trying to say is, like, your contact centers, they need to be speaking to, like, high intent, highly qualified
Meredith: Right
Olly: for them to, like, spend their time, you know, working them through the process to ultimately, you know take out the roofing maintenance that they want them to do. Save the, all the time on, like, trying to call, “Oh, it’s another, another voicemail. Oh no, it’s Apple Call Screen again. Oh no.” They’re be like, that’s where, like, you know, they could be used better to speak to high quality leads rather than all the sort Follow-up work and the, you know, hitting voicemails they’re wasting time on. that’s where it really comes into play, really.
Caitlyn: That’s awesome. I, I’m sitting here thinking, like, so we are talking about, like, these inbound calls that are coming through. Could we give you… Like, could we give Aivy a list of, you know, phone numbers that have ghosted us over the last, you know, year who obviously consented to be contacted? So, like, could we give you a rehash list?
Olly: Yeah. Yeah, we do quite a lot of reactivation with clients, actually. So, you know, they are sitting on a
Caitlyn: Yeah
Olly: which people have signed up to. They’ve shown their intent, they’ve shown their but, you know, just haven’t been worked because, you know, the high-intent leads are are deemed as the real-time leads, and, you know, maybe on a Saturday and Sunday, those have come through, and then on Monday you’ve got a backlog and you’re trying to work. So you never get back to the leads, like, from a week ago or two months ago or somewhere like that. Whereas, what’s really worked well is that, again, we lead with a text message, “Hey, remember that you signed up for X. You know, you were looking for it at the time. Is this something that we can still assist with? Is it something that you still require? Would you like to speak to someone?” And then, you know, they can either just reply “yes” via the message and we trigger an outbound call to then get them on the phone and then transfer them again.
Caitlyn: Love it.
Olly (2): Or they call in because they’ve been reminded and they’ve seen the message. So yeah, database reactivation is something that companies really enjoy doing because they’re like, “I’m sitting on this data. I’ve paid-“
Meredith: Yeah
Olly: for this data. We haven’t worked it for ages.”
Meredith: Mm-hmm.
Olly: So anything can you can get out of it is just, like, a bonus.
Meredith: Right. And for any of the contractors that are listening right
Caitlyn: Thank
Meredith: that want to give Aivy a try or they’re curious, what is the setup like?
Caitlyn: Love it
Meredith: intensive is it? How much of their time will it take?
Caitlyn: yeah.
Meredith: Like, what’s that process like big picture?
Caitlyn: Scripting.
Meredith: Yeah, scripting. That’s what was thinking as well.
Olly: Yeah. So we have a platform whereby it’s self-serve. Like, people can set everything up themselves. They can create their agents, they can create the sequences. They can potentially do everything themselves. But what we’re often doing is actually, like, guiding them through that process at the moment. So, you know, we are happily working with clients in terms of, like building the agent for them, the prompting for them, the sequences, making sure that when a lead comes in, it’s being texted and called and,
Meredith: Yeah
Olly: going through the nurture as it should do. So there’s two… You know, there’s two models. They can do the self-serve if they just want to be left to do it, or you know, we’re always supporting them to be able to get the best out of it. It’s a bit like meta ads, right? It’s to do yourself, but it’s a bit… It can be… If you want to really squeeze the best out of it,
Meredith: Right
Olly: you know need to work with someone.
Meredith: all, of our clients, most of them, let’s say 99% of them, are using a CRM.
Olly: Yeah.
Meredith: Is there an integration with CRMs between Aivy? Is that part of the process as well?
Olly: Yeah. I mean, we can integrate with pretty much everything as long as it’s
Meredith: Okay
Olly: an API. You know, we… It can feed into… The leads can feed into our system. So that bit’s pretty straightforward. And yeah, we haven’t had any problems to date in terms of integrating with even bespoke CRMs. So,
Caitlyn: Good.
Meredith: Yeah
Olly: yeah, that’s pretty straightforward.
Caitlyn: I’ve… And I can attest. I’ve seen this tool, like, integrate… We love what converts in terms of lead source tracking.
Meredith: Mm.
Caitlyn: And I’ve seen this tool as well integrate with what converts.
Meredith: awesome.
Caitlyn: So we can truly see, you
Olly: Yeah
Caitlyn: where leads came from, you know, in terms of those statuses and what ended up happening to them once Aivy started to call, email, text, et cetera.
Olly: Yeah. And we can feed all of that back in. So, like, you know, once the call’s taken place, we can feed the transcripts back into the CRM, we can update the event. So did they go from, you know uncontacted to transferred, to closed, to booked an appointment? All of the, you know, all the messaging, the interaction that took place, that can be all fed back into the CRM. So you’re watching the status change of that lead as we’re, like, you know, engaging and updating them.
Caitlyn: Oh, that’s amazing.
Meredith: That is.
Caitlyn: It’s the coolest tool. I love it. I absolutely love it.
Olly: Thanks.
Caitlyn: no, seriously. Oh, and we wouldn’t have you on here if we feel passionately about it. This is a part of the show, we usually like to give our listeners some action items, homework, because you don’t have much going on.
Meredith: Yeah.
Caitlyn: You’re already listening. Yeah, you’re already listening to this.
Meredith: Yeah.
Caitlyn: Just add a few more things to your list.
Meredith: Mm-hmm.
Caitlyn: So we’re gonna tie this back, of course, to Aivy. So I would say Marisa, like, kick us off. Like, if they’re trying to decide, like, should they sign up and,
Meredith: Mm-hmm
Caitlyn: do a demo with Aivy, what are, like, a few action items to, like, take into that conversation?
Meredith: I think figuring out your speed to lead first. What… How long does it actually take for somebody after they submit a
Caitlyn: Mm
Meredith: on your website to be contacted? So go ahead, fill out your own website form, see how long it takes for your call center to reach out.
Caitlyn: Tonight. Do it tonight. Do it, like, after hours.
Meredith: Yeah, after hours good.
Olly: Yeah, after after hours is a really good one.
Caitlyn: Huge
Olly: yeah.
Caitlyn: Huge.
Olly: Yeah.
Meredith: You know? And then I would
Caitlyn: How long until a human
Meredith: Contacts
Caitlyn: contacts you? A human.
Meredith: A human.
Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.
Meredith: Any, any contact.
Caitlyn: So how long does that take?
Meredith: Right.
Caitlyn: time that. First action.
Meredith: Second one.
Caitlyn: Look at your set rate by hour and day in your CRM. I love this. I bet your nights and weekends are absolutely
Meredith: Mm-hmm
Caitlyn: your inquiries go to die. I mean, As a working
Meredith: Yeah
Caitlyn: that’s the only time I have to actually
Meredith: Reach out
Caitlyn: and reach out to somebody. So what does that set rate look like?
Meredith: Yeah, but it’s much lower,
Caitlyn: And the, the gap is your opportunity to look at a tool like this.
Meredith: Exactly. Number three, separate your problems.
Caitlyn: Mm.
Meredith: I think a lot of contractors, we talked about top of the call, think it’s a lead quality problem but actually it’s a speed to lead problem.
Caitlyn: 100%.
Meredith: That is why Aivi was started.
Caitlyn: Yeah.
Meredith: let’s circle back around that. But,
Caitlyn: I mean, if you’re already spending the advertising dollars, my gosh.
Meredith: Yeah. Make the most out of it.
Caitlyn: 100%. And then I think, you know, last but not least, if you do buy… We just talked about advertising through Meta, Google, et cetera, but if you’re also buying, like, aggregator
Meredith: Mm
Caitlyn: ask whether you can work all of them equally.
Meredith: Yeah.
Caitlyn: Any way to triage the good ones first, even a manual one, that’s gonna save your call center hours, oh, like tons of hours.
Meredith: 100%
Caitlyn: those aggregator leads are being sourced to multiple clients and… Or multiple gosh,
Meredith: Competitors
Caitlyn: competitors. Yeah, exactly.
Meredith: Mm-hmm. Then think about if Aivi could shoot you off, you, your
Caitlyn: Yes
Meredith: get a text seconds after they fill out the form. Even though your lead was being sent to three of your competitors, Aivi’s touching base with them first.
Caitlyn: I’ve seen my husband do it. He’ll, like, put out an inquiry on via HomeAdvisor, and whoever responds to him fast, like, the
Meredith: Yeah
Caitlyn: he,
Meredith: Is the one
Caitlyn: he’s like, he, and, like, he’s like, “I don’t even care about the price. They responded the fastest.”
Meredith: Right. What was that stat you said earlier, Oli?
Caitlyn: Yeah.
Olly: 78%.
Meredith: That’s crazy.
Olly: Go with the first person who
Caitlyn: We’re impatient
Olly: you, buy from them.
Caitlyn: We’re impatient.
Meredith: Humans.
Caitlyn: We’re impatient humans.
Meredith: Exactly.
Caitlyn: Use a tool that helps make this faster and better.
Meredith: Exactly. Well, Oli, this has been fantastic. If our listeners want to know more about Aivi, what should they do? Where should they go?
Olly: So if they wanna learn more, probably go onto the website, which is W-W.Aivi, A-I-V-I, .io. To contact me personally, which I’d love to hear from anyone,
Caitlyn: Yeah
Olly: oli@aivi.io, and that’s O-L-L-Y. Or search for me on LinkedIn. Again, Olly Whittle. My surname’s W-H-I-T-T-L-E. Any of those and be great to speak to people, just assist anyone that is looking for some help or advice.
Caitlyn: Absolutely.
Meredith: Perfect.
Caitlyn: And we’re, we’ll put all that information in the show notes as well. And always feel free to email us, reach out to Fat Cat too, and we’ll do a warm intro to
Meredith: Mm-hmm
Caitlyn: and, and his team. They’re amazing, so.
Meredith: Exactly.
Caitlyn: So it’s A-I-V-I.I-O.
Olly: Exactly.
Caitlyn: Go see the product. You can demo it, like, I think live right there on the
Olly: Yeah
Caitlyn: well, which is amazing.
Olly: Yeah. Yeah. And by this time we should have a new website as well. We’re literally just changing it. So,
Caitlyn: Yay
Olly: yeah, go and have a look. And, let me know if you like it
Caitlyn: yeah
Olly: feedback kind of welcome. As long as it’s nice.
Caitlyn: Well,
Olly: lot of time’s gone into it.
Caitlyn: Right.
Meredith: Oh, my gosh, yes.
Caitlyn: This has been so amazing. Thank you so much.
Olly: Thank you
Caitlyn: we appreciate your time, your partnership
Meredith: Yeah
Caitlyn: the resources, what you’re doing for the industry
Meredith: Yeah
Caitlyn: help that speed to lead.
Meredith: Mm-hmm
Caitlyn: I know Fat Cat’s good at generating leads, but beyond that, we need tools like
Meredith: Yes
Caitlyn: help those set and close, so.
Meredith: Exactly.
Olly: Yeah, and that’s how it all started. That’s… We faced the same problem. Our clients were facing the same problem. So yeah, Aivi was born.
Caitlyn: Yes. Amazing. Well, we really appreciate it, Oli.
Meredith: Absolutely. Thank you, Oli. And thank you to all of our listeners. This has been Digital Marketing for Contractors, brought to you by Fat Cat Strategies. We will talk to you guys next time.
Caitlyn: Bye. Thanks. Thanks, Oli.
Outro: Digital marketing for contractors is created by Fat Cat Strategies. For more information, visit fatcatstrategies.com.