Pond Roofing has been in business for 62 years in Northern Virginia. They do residential re-roofing, siding, windows, and gutters. They have a real internal call center. Most importantly, they have a Marketing Director who tracks her numbers.
Their booking rate on inbound leads was around 20%.
The Problem
"Before Alivo, we would just have them leave a message, and we would call them back as soon as the next business day as soon as we opened," said Taylor Carroll, Pond's marketing director. Which is what most people do.
The contractor who responds to a new lead first wins the job approximately 78% of the time. Leads that came in Friday night sat until Monday morning. Busy-day overflow went to voicemail.
Unsurprisingly, the booking rate stayed around 20%.
Memorial Day Weekend
Heavy rain hit Northern Virginia over Memorial Day weekend. Ten leads came in while the office was closed.
Lilly, the inbound phone agent, answered all of them. Ten appointments on the calendar by Monday morning.
"We demo'd at 90% and sold 30% of those appointments so far at almost $92,000 worth of sales. That was pretty awesome to see."
Before Alivo, those would have been voicemails
What Changed
Pond Roofing implemented Alivo back in January. Every lead got a response within 90 seconds, regardless of when it came in.
As with any new hire, the first week required some adjustment. Taylor's team had to tweak Lilly's qualification questions to match how Pond Roofing wanted to communicate with homeowners calling in. A few early bookings came in outside of their normal business hours, even before their scripting was dialed in.
"It took us a little back and forth to get the scripting right," Taylor said. "But once we had it, she was consistent."
In comparison to a new hire, a few weeks (and still booking qualified appointments in that time) vs. a few months is night and day.
Within the first month, the booking rate moved from around 20% to above 60%. They didn't increase the budget or change the campaigns. They stopped making homeowners wait until the next morning.
How Lilly Scores
Taylor also tracks script adherence. Over the past 30 days, Lilly scored 90% on playbook adherence... The team benchmark is 85%.
This means that not only is Lilly consistent, but she is also following the rules that Pond Roofing is laying out regarding new requests and existing customers.
What the Team Thinks
Taylor expected some resistance from the call center staff. It did not come.
"There are plenty of days when it is super busy, and I have three full-time people on the phones, but that is not enough, and the phone is still ringing," she said. "It is a little bit of peace of mind for them to have that backup."
The framing that landed internally, Lilly is not a replacement. She is relief.
Taylor's Verdict
"If you have a really solid process in your call center with solid SOPs and good scripting, adding in an AI agent is a no-brainer."
