Gerrit Huizinga

Building AI for home-improvement and outdoor-living companies. Playbooks, workflows, and what breaks. Indianapolis.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

I run AI inside a home-improvement and outdoor-living company (indoor window coverings, awnings, motorized screens, pergolas).

Most AI advice ignores businesses with crews, installs, and trucks.

So I'm documenting the workflows I'm building for one:

- estimating from photos
- lead follow-up
- install scheduling
- fleet checks
- review requests
- owner dashboards

One breakdown a week. Follow if you run a home-improvement business.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

Fast AI on leads is easy. Safe is the work.

Four rules:
1. No permission, no text
2. "Stop" ends it
3. No texts 9 PM-8 AM
4. Complaints or doubt go to a person

With AI sorting, in testing: 0 dangerous misroutes on 32 new messages. Dollars: not measured. Monday: write them down.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

@iguptapankaj Good add. Ask it your business name and your main service plus your town. Whatever it gets wrong is your Contest list. Ten minutes, no tools needed.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

Sort what Google or an AI tool could cite about you into four buckets:

Own: your website
Claim: your Google Business Profile, directories
Earn: local news, forum threads
Contest: wrong info

Dollars: not measured. Start Monday: claim your profile, fix wrong info.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

@MattAgneseMBA That's the one. Booking it while you're both still on the line beats any reminder. The follow-up tool is only for the ones who say "let me think about it."

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

Most "dead" quotes aren't dead. They're unpaid follow-up.

In testing, 150 CRM rows, nothing sent:

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

Which job would you never let AI do alone?

Mine: texting a customer without a permission check, and changing ad spend. Both wait for a person's yes.

Dollars: not measured.
Start Monday: write down your two, and name the person who says yes to each.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

@MattAgneseCFC 100%. A follow-up with no date on it is just a wish. What did you see work best for getting the second call actually made?

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

Customers call when a promised update never came.

7 touchpoints: welcome, measure, order + ETA, install confirmed, day-before, demo walkthrough, 7-day check-in.

In testing, 40 jobs: 10 overdue. Worth: count "where's my order?" calls. Start Monday: send the order and ETA (#3).

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

Square-foot pricing hides jobs that lose money.

In testing, a flat $/sq ft left a 2nd-story awning thin.

Start Monday: cost the next $5K+ quote (materials, crew hours, drive, truck), then add a reserve. BLS median, construction laborers: $22.66/hr (May 2025, public estimate).

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

Discounts come last. Close-out is a real goodbye, then stop.

Score it: old quotes that reopen × close rate × gross profit, minus the cost of the hours and the tool. Start with last quarter's open quotes.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

Sorting replies by keyword failed on fresh wording (6/15).

So for now, any unclear reply pauses the follow-up and goes to a person.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

One landing page for every ad is a leak I check on a phone:

1. Headline matches the ad
2. Stars in the first screen
3. Booking up top
4. Promised counts match the screens
5. Tap-to-call
6. One page per service

Dollars: not measured. Start with your biggest ad's page.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

If someone runs your website, ask them for this.

Link each blog post to your service pages just below Google's top spots. Max 4 links a post; a person signs off.

In testing, a script did all 6 posts in about 5 minutes: 12 links, 7 to those pages. Worth: track calls from them.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

@SolomonHanes Thanks man!

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

I run AI inside a home-improvement and outdoor-living company (indoor window coverings, awnings, motorized screens, pergolas).

Most AI advice ignores businesses with crews, installs, and trucks.

So I'm documenting the workflows I'm building for one:

- estimating from photos
- lead follow-up
- install scheduling
- fleet checks
- review requests
- owner dashboards

One breakdown a week. Follow if you run a home-improvement business.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

@thearmandohila Agreed. The range only earns trust if people can see what moves it. Listing the assumptions right under it (standard install, easy access) is the next piece I'm adding, so nobody's surprised at the measure.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

An "instant price" that only asks product and size will surprise people later.

Sandbox test, 200 fake final quotes against a fake price book:

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

Cost per lead is a vanity number for home-service ads.

A cheap click that never books a measure still spends your money.

I watch cost per booked appointment instead.

What do you kill ads on?

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

No site questions: 65% of finals landed inside the range.

Add three:
- fabric tier
- second story?
- outlet nearby?

Now 78.5% land inside. Sticker shock fell from 25% to 9.5%.

Three questions beat a prettier page.

[Gerrit Huizinga @gerrith777]

@pretrainwes Absolutely!