The Validation
Last month I outlined the Call-in at the homeowner’s front door to verify the information and appointment with the home office.
I realized after doing so there might be some confusion regarding the differentiation between the Call-in, The Validation and The Confiramtion. This month I hope to give that clarity and focus on The Validation.
First, let’s define the three:
The Call-In:
This is conducted at the homeowner’s front door immediately following setting the appointment. Your canvasser would call-in to the home office to verify the homeowner’s contact information and appointment time scheduled. This is initiated by the canvasser.
The Validation:
This is similar to the call-in though it is conducted after the canvasser leaves the homeowner’s front door and is initiated by the home office rather than the canvasser. Doing so allows you time to validate the contact information against publicly published documents (such as the White Pages or county auditor). There are benefits of this over the The Call-In, which I’ll cover later in this article.
The Confirmation:
This is a full confirmation of the appointment and is done prior to the demo. It is not to be confused with the Call-In or Validation as its purpose is to perform a complete appointment confirmation and issue the lead for a formal demonstration. The Call-in and Validation are designed to smoke out the leads that don’t qualify.
Understanding The Validation
There’s a number of reason you’ll want to validate your leads:
- To make sure the canvasser documented the contact information accurately
- That the homeowner didn’t give false information
- The lead meets your company’s minimum criteria
The validation is an opportunity to scrub the lead prior to the confirmation and issuing the lead for a demo.
If the appointment is for the day after the lead is captured you’d want to do a full confirmation, but if the scheduled appointment is beyond the next day, then it’s worth validating the lead.
Pros to Validating:
- It gives credibility to the canvasser and the value of the appointment
- Your office has time to cross reference the contact information
- Verify the scheduled demo appointment date and time is available
Drawbacks to Validating:
- Validating after canvasser is out of the field there’s no way to go back to get corrected contact information
- Homeowners don’t or won’t answer the phone in order to validate the lead
The Validation Script
“Hello may I speak to ____[homeowner’s name]____? Hi this is ___[your name]___ from ___[company name]___, I’m looking at my paperwork and it looks like one of our representatives was out to your home today and it looks like you scheduled an appointment for a free estimate on ___[product]___ and scheduled the appointment for ___[day and time]___. Will that be good for you and your ___[spouse]___?”
This may seem like a simple process though it’s invaluable in validating the lead and adding credibility to the appointment and demo. The validation leads to the confirmation, which leads to an issued demo.
Keep in mind that before you contact the homeowner, you will have already cross referenced the homeowner’s information (address, phone number, actual owners and spouse) using a public source such as the white pages or county auditor.
The validation surveys 4 purposes:
- It allows you the time to cross reference the homeowner’s information is accurate
- Verifying the scheduled appointment is good for them
- That both homeowners will be present for the demo
- Reaffirming the product the estimate will be presented on, and that it meets with your minimum requirements.
That leads me to using cross reference sources to validate the information the homeowner gives your canvasser to insure the integrity of the lead. That will be the subject of next month’s article.
If you’d like to learn more about the numbers and call-in procedure you can call me for a brief, free phone consult. You can contact me directly at (216) 588-1337.