What happens after a supplier refers an enquiry

For a supplier, the handoff is where visibility often ends. The enquiry goes to an installer, and from then on the supplier may not know what happened. This article is written for supplier commercial and installer network leads. It sets out what you should be able to see after a referral, and what a sensible fallback looks like.

Four questions to answer after every handoff

1. Who received it? The named installer business, and the time the enquiry was sent.
2. Did they respond? Whether the installer acknowledged the enquiry, called the customer, booked a survey or declined. Also how long that took.
3. What did the customer hear? Whether the customer has been contacted, and what they were told about next steps.
4. What happens if the installer cannot take it? Who it goes to next, and how quickly.

When an installer cannot take an enquiry

An installer may be fully booked, outside their usual area or unable to take that type of job. They may also simply not reply. A sensible process treats all of these as outcomes to record, not gaps.

• Agree a response window with each installer, for example a set number of working hours.
• If the installer declines, record the reason in a short, standard list, such as capacity, area or job type.
• If the window passes with no reply, treat it as a no response and move on.
• Offer the enquiry to the next suitable installer, and show the supplier each step.
• Make sure the customer is not asked to repeat their details.
• If no installer can take it, tell the supplier so they can contact the customer directly.

The window and the order in which installers are offered an enquiry are decisions for each supplier and their network. They are not fixed rules.

What a network lead should be able to see

• A single record for each enquiry, from referral to outcome.
• Response times by installer, so slow replies show up early.
• Declined enquiries, where the installer has recorded a reason.
• Unanswered enquiries, where the reason is unknown and the supplier may need to follow up.
• Enquiries that moved to a second or third installer.
• Enquiries that ended without a survey, and why.

With that record, a supplier can talk to installers about specific cases, not general impressions, and can see where customers are being lost between referral and survey.

This article describes what to look for. It does not report results from any live network.