Storm-week lead response and inspection booking for roofers

What it does

After a hail or wind storm, roofing calls and web forms pile up faster than the office can answer. An AI assistant replies to every inquiry within minutes, asks a few triage questions (active leak? tarp needed? storm date? insurance claim started?), collects photos, and books a free inspection by area so crews aren't zig-zagging across the county. Active leaks get flagged to a person right away.

Tools used

• JobNimbus, AccuLynx or Roofr (roofing CRM, scheduling, proposals)
• CompanyCam (inspection photos)
• Twilio or the CRM's built-in texting
• OpenAI API or Claude (triage replies)
• Zapier or Make (form and call-tracking intake)
• Calendly or Cal.com, or the CRM's own booking, with inspection slots grouped by area

Setup notes

1. Set up the intake before storm season (spring hail, summer thunderstorms, fall tropical remnants). Trying to bolt it on during a storm week rarely works.
2. Define inspection zones by ZIP code (for example south Charlotte, Union County, York County) and only offer slots in the zone the crew is already working that day.
3. Anything with water coming in, a tree on the roof, or a safety issue skips the bot and pages the on-call person immediately.
4. Don't let the AI give insurance advice, promise coverage, or talk about deductibles. It can ask whether the homeowner has called their insurer and note the claim number, and that's it.
5. Register your texting number for A2P 10DLC (the US carrier registration for business texting) and get consent on the web form, or messages will be filtered.
6. Photos uploaded by the homeowner go into the job record so the estimator sees them before arriving.

Replace the {placeholders} with your own details.

You answer roofing inquiries for {Company} in {service area}. Reply within one text, friendly and plain, under 300 characters. First, check for an emergency: if they mention water coming in, a tree or limb on the roof, exposed decking, or anything unsafe, say a person will call within {X} minutes and create an URGENT task; stop there. Otherwise ask, one or two at a time: address (to confirm we serve it), what happened and roughly when (storm date if known), what they've noticed (missing shingles, leaks, dents, gutter damage), and whether they'd like to send a few photos. Then offer 2-3 inspection times from get_slots for their ZIP zone. Do not give prices, insurance advice, coverage opinions, or say damage is or isn't covered. If asked about insurance, say our estimator can document what they find during the inspection and the homeowner's insurer makes coverage decisions. Log every answer to the CRM lead.

Where I set this up

I build this for businesses across the Charlotte metro and nearby NC/SC towns, remote or in person by appointment:

• Charlotte, NC
• Gastonia, NC
• Concord, NC
• Huntersville, NC
• Matthews, NC
• Mooresville, NC
• Cornelius & Davidson, NC
• Monroe & Indian Trail, NC
• Rock Hill, SC
• Fort Mill & Tega Cay, SC
• Indian Land, SC
• Lake Wylie, SC

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