Home services companies often fail to answer the phone or follow up promptly, and many of those customers commit to another provider before the first company even realizes the opportunity was missed.
For the 2026 Pied Piper Lead Handling Effectiveness Home Services Study, Pied Piper measured the performance of 31 of the largest home services brands, completing 3,211 evaluations nationwide between October 2025 and January 2026. The study evaluated major home services brands based on how effectively they interacted with new customers by phone, chat and web form, as well as follow-up by phone, text and email. Of the lawncare services included, TruGreen ranked highest, receiving an LHE score of 49.
“Customers seeking home services typically attempt to contact several companies before choosing one,” said Cameron O’Hagan, Vice President of Metrics & Analytics at Pied Piper. “Our study shows that far too often companies fail to answer the phone or follow up promptly, and customers commit to another provider before the first company even realizes the opportunity was missed.”
- An LHE score of 70 or higher represents an effective customer interaction, one in which the company responds promptly, provides helpful information, and makes it easy for the customer to move forward.
- 12% of retail locations scored 70 or higher.
- ForeverLawn, Lawn Doctor, Pinch A Penny and ServiceMaster Restore achieved scores of 70 or higher less than 1 percent of the time, indicating that typical interactions were less effective.
On the other end of performance, 42 percent of retail locations in the home services industry had LHE scores below 30, indicating an ineffective interaction, typically reflecting failures such as not answering the phone, failing to follow up, or providing little useful assistance to the customer. Precision Garage Door Service, Mister Sparky, and Mr. Electric customers encountered scores below 30 less than 20 percent of the time, meaning ineffective interactions were relatively uncommon. In contrast, The Maids, Lawn Doctor, Pinch A Penny, ForeverLawn, and Camp Bow Wow recorded scores below 30 more than 75 percent of the time, indicating a majority of inquiries resulted in a poor or unsuccessful interaction.
Piped Piper Management Co. LLC
AI Behaviors Encountered
In this year’s LHE home services study, about one in ten customers encountered AI through chat or phone interactions, and those experiences often ran into problems. While 27 percent of AI interactions were handled successfully from start to finish and performed similarly to human staff, the remaining 73 percent required human assistance. Among those requiring a handoff, one-third of transfers failed, including dropped calls, long holds, or routing to voicemail, and these failures occurred after the customer had already devoted 93 seconds on average to the AI interaction.
“AI can now perform at a human level for many sales and service interactions, but the handoff to people is where it often falls apart,” said O’Hagan. “When that happens, customers feel misled and that their time was wasted. Companies must use AI as a tool, not a crutch, and stay committed to proper staffing and smooth transitions to avoid losing customers.”
Performance by Ownership Platform
Several brands evaluated in the study are part of large franchisor platforms often backed by private equity, including Neighborly, Authority Brands, ServiceMaster Brands, and HorsePower Brands. Neighborly stood out in the results, with five of its brands ranking among the top 10 performers in the study. At the same time, three of the 10 lowest-ranked brands are also owned by franchisor platforms, highlighting that ownership alone does not ensure execution, as private-equity-backed platforms show wide variation in how effectively brands and their locations respond to new customer inquiries.
Piped Piper Management Co. LLC
Performance by Home Services Category
Performance also varied noticeably by home services category. Brands in urgent, repair-oriented industries such as garage door service, plumbing, and electrical service tended to perform more consistently, reflecting the operational focus required to respond quickly when customers need immediate help. For example, Precision Garage Door Service and Mister Sparky were among the brands that frequently delivered effective customer interactions in the study.
In contrast, several categories with less time-sensitive services showed more inconsistent performance, including complete breakdowns in customer response. In several sub-industries, a significant share of customer inquiries resulted in ineffective interactions, such as unanswered phone calls or failure to follow up with prospective customers.
Categories such as pet services and lawn care were more likely to record low LHE scores, indicating that many customers attempting to reach these businesses received little assistance or no response at all.
For companies where scheduling an appointment is a natural next step, customers were offered one only 28 percent of the time. However, customers phoning Precision Garage Door Service, Mister Sparky, Five Star Painting, Roto-Rooter, or Orkin locations were offered an appointment more than 70 percent of the time. Customers were provided reasons to select the company 21 percent of the time on average. Brands whose retail locations were most likely to provide reasons to choose them over competitors were Vivint Smart Home, Orkin, TruGreen, and Terminix, all doing so more than 50 percent of the time.
In addition to measuring live performance in phone and chat interactions, LHE also measures follow-up by phone, text and email. The most common follow-up experience was no follow-up at all, which occurred 72 percent of the time during the study. Voicemail was received 13 percent of the time, text messages 12 percent of the time, and emails 10 percent of the time. Brands whose retailers were most likely to follow-up were Mighty Dog Roofing, Safelite, TruGreen, and Orkin, all of which did so more than 50 percent of the time.
2026 Brand Performance Compared
- “Answered Question” - How often did the brand’s retail locations answer the customer’s question? (Either in initial phone/chat interaction, or later in follow-up phone call, text, and/or email within 24 hours)
- More than 75 percent of the time on average: Precision Garage Door Service, Mister Sparky, Mr. Electric, Home Depot Handyman Services
- Less than 25 percent of the time on average: The Maids, Pinch A Penny, Camp Bow Wow, ForeverLawn
- “Provided Next Steps” - How often did the brand’s retail locations provide next steps and/or offer to set an appointment? (Either in initial phone/chat interaction, or later in follow-up phone call, text, and/or email within 24 hours)
- More than 75 percent of the time on average: Precision Garage Door Service, Five Star Painting, Orkin, SERVPRO
- Less than 25 percent of the time on average: Camp Bow Wow, Leslie’s Pool Supplies, ForeverLawn
- “Followed Up” - How often did the brand’s retail locations follow-up with an email, text, and/or phone call within 24 hours?
- More than 50 percent of the time on average: Mighty Dog Roofing, Safelite, TruGreen, Orkin
- Less than 5 percent of the time on average: Mr. Electric, ADT, Overhead Door Corporation, Mister Sparky, Ace Handyman Services, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing
- “Maximized Outreach Success” - How often did the brand’s retail locations follow-up through two or more paths (email, text, or phone call) within 24 hours?
- More than 20 percent of the time on average: Safelite, Orkin, Roto-Rooter, Mighty Dog Roofing, CertaPro Painters
- <1 percent of the time on average: Overhead Door Corporation, ADT, Ace Handyman Services, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, Pinch A Penny, Camp Bow Wow
- “Failed to Respond” – How often did a brand’s retail locations fail to respond in any way (no pick-up, call-back, text, or email of any kind in 24 hours)?
- Less than 5 percent of the time on average: Roto-Rooter, Orkin, Vivint Smart Home, Precision Garage Door Service, Five Star Painting
- More than 50 percent of the time on average: The Maids, Lawn Doctor, ForeverLawn
How Was This Study Conducted?
For each of the 3,211 LHE evaluations completed for this study, Pied Piper phoned, interacted via chat, or filled out a website form for a specific retail location, as a customer looking to decide which of three potential vendors to use for a home services project. Each inquiry also included a unique customer name, email address, and telephone number if requested.
Pied Piper also measured the retail location’s follow-up response over the next 24 hours, evaluating both speed and quality across all communication channels — including email, telephone, and text message. Each LHE evaluation includes more than 20 weighted measurements tied to proven best practices mathematically linked to higher sales conversion. These individual measurements combine to generate an overall LHE score ranging from 0 to 100. Brand scores reflect the average of the individual retailer LHE scores within each brand’s sample.
About Lead Handling Effectiveness Monitoring Service
Lead Handling Effectiveness Monitoring is a subscription service that evaluates how each retail location handles inbound customer inquiries and follow-up across phone, chat, web form, text, and email. Each week, LHE submits unique customer inquiries to measure real interactions and alerts local management when performance breaks down. Built to be simple, LHE requires no reports or dashboards, instead texting Performance Alerts with 90 second audio summaries directly to local management, with access to deeper insight through Piper Answers interactive chat. Monthly Executive Briefings summarize performance, highlight strengths and weaknesses, and give corporate and franchisor leaders visibility across their network.
