Scaling a Home Services Contact Center with Chad Peterman

Here's the fast recap from our webinar with Chad Peterman!

🧠 Webinar theme

Transform your call center into a revenue center.
This session dove into the tools, structure, culture, and KPIs needed to scale a contact center in 2025—without losing the human touch.

Speakers included:

• Tim Geisenheimer – CRO at Hatch, AI CSR platform for home service businesses
• Alec Stevanovski  – Founder & editor of Homepros, HVAC industry newsletter
• Chad Peterman – CEO of Peterman Brothers, multi-location home services business

Watch the webinar recording here.

✔️ Top 5 takeaways

1. Track and optimize your true booking rate, not raw.
2. Tell your CSRs how much a lead costs.
3. Follow up on unsold estimates.
4. Tier your CSRs based on performance and route calls accordingly
5. Use AI to filter out junk so your CSRs can focus on high-value calls

 🧱 The Peterman structure

• Fully centralized model: All calls across 11 locations (IN, OH, KY) go through one central call center.
• Team setup:
  • ~20 CSRs + AI answering system
  • Separate dispatch and call center teams
  • Dispatch roles are managed under “Sales Ops”
  • Dispatchers and CSRs coordinate via a capacity board

“If someone’s both dispatching and taking calls, they’re going to book based on what makes their day easier—not what drives revenue.” – Chad

📊 Metrics to scale by

1. True booking rate

• Definition: Leads booked ÷ Qualified leads (not raw calls)
  • 70% of the calls that come into your call center are not qualified.
• Target: 90%+
• Daily report tracks:
  • Booking rate (yesterday + MTD)
  • Missed bookings + reasons (used for coaching and staffing insight)

2. Unbooked call analysis

• Used for coaching CSRs and identifying labor gaps (e.g., a surge in drain calls = need for more drain techs)

3. Right tech, right call (dispatch)

• Dispatchers use batting orders and conversion data to route high-converting techs to the most valuable jobs
• “Our dispatchers used to operate off batting orders—who’s got the best close rate or highest average ticket.”

⚙️ Hatch AI in the contact center

• AI CSRs across SMS, email, and live call

• Speed to lead, estimate follow-up , and aged lead nurture

• SMS + email campaigns respond instantly
• Hatch’s AI books jobs or transitions to human CSRs seamlessly

• After-hours and overflow 

• Replaces expensive human-staffed services
• Syncs with ServiceTitan, books jobs directly on tech schedules
• Reduces revenue leaks due to missed emergency calls
• Internal buy-in for AI adoption
  
  
  • CSRs focus on high-value conversations
  • AI offloads spam, junk, and low-complexity bookings
  • Outcome: No layoffs—just better capacity control
  • “You can’t staff a call center for 95° weather days without AI. But you still need great humans.” – Chad

🔁 Peterman's Hatch campaigns

Speed to lead

• Hatch integration with lead sources allows Peterman to follow up on inquiries within seconds
• Cadence spans 5 days
• 78% of homeowners go with the business that reached out to them first

Estimate Follow-Up

• With Hatch, Peterman sends SMS within 1–24 hours of unsold estimates
• Campaigns span 7–10 days
• Google data cited:
  • 25–29% of home service purchases happen same-day
  • Another 22% happen within 2–7 days
    
    

Maintenance booking

• Segmented by system age (over/under 10 years)
• Over 10 = sales opps → routed to experienced techs
• Under 10 = geographic efficiency for junior techs
• “One day we texted 1,000 maintenance customers and booked 50% of them.”

📈 How Peterman boosts CSR performance:

• Tiered CSR levels (1–3)
  Based on performance: booking rate, membership sales, etc.

• Higher tier = higher comp + more responsibilities

• Gamification

• Estimated lead cost shown to CSRs in real time (e.g., “That was a $200 lead”)
• Increases buy-in and urgency
• “Their eyes go wide when they see how much we paid for that lead.”

• Training
  • Focused sessions based on real call reviews
  • Call center viewed as a sales center, not just an “answering service”
  • “They’re selling that appointment. They’re selling us.” – Chad

🎬 Actionable advice:

1. Track your true booking rate—daily. Don’t lump in spam calls or bad leads.
2. Show CSRs the real cost of each lead. You’ll see effort spike instantly.
3. Train your CSRs like salespeople. Give them scripts, tools, and confidence to fight for the booking.
4. Segment and automate your follow-ups. Don’t rely on callbacks alone—text + email win.
5. Use AI to scale smart, not replace. Match overflow with AI. Let humans handle the nuance.
   
   

📥 Resources mentioned

• Hatch speed to lead response rate benchmarks and best practices
• Hatch estimate follow-up response rate benchmarks and best practices
• Homepros subscribe link

Want to learn more?

• Hatch customers, reach out to your Account Manager here.
• Non-Hatch customers, you can book a demo with us here.
  
• Subscribe to the Homepros newsletter here.

For past and upcoming Hatch webinars, check out our webinar page!