A report from Moneypenny shows construction and home services businesses believe they are delivering a better customer experience than their customers perceive. The survey was conducted among 500 construction and building trade companies and 2,000 consumers to understand the gap between business and customer perceptions. Across every single contact method tested, construction and building companies scored themselves significantly higher than customers.
- 91% of the building trades surveyed said the phone drives conversion, but only 69% of consumers felt it meets expectations.
- Email shows a similar perception gap, with 83% of the businesses believing they drive conversion and only 57% of consumers seeing it meet expectations.
- SMS was seen as third highest for conversion by 82% of builders, but only 42% of consumers agreed. The pattern was repeated for Live Chat: 69% (business belief) versus 56% (consumer perception), web forms: 61% (business belief) versus 32% (consumer perception), messaging apps: 69% (business belief) versus 45% (consumer perception), AI receptionists: 50% (business belief) versus 26% (consumer perception), and chatbots: 45% (business belief) versus 26% (consumer perception).
Editor's Note: The survey was conducted online by Censuswide, on behalf of Moneypenny, among 500 U.S. Home Services sector business decision-makers and 2,000 U.S. consumers between March 17 and April 3, 2026.
Speed of response to a business inquiry is decisive, with the survey showing that 83 percent of U.S. consumers choose the business that responds first, meaning slow response could become lost revenue. This is key in a world where consumers book appointments online and expect instant answers – they don’t wait around for a callback and will simply choose the business that responds fastest.
The need for calls to be answered as quickly as possible was shown in the fact that just over a third (34%) of construction and building trades think a response should be within seconds and a third said within minutes, while 17 percent of consumers think a response should be within seconds and 41 percent think within minutes.
When considering factors that determine loyalty to a company, speed of response (36%) and “quality I can rely on” (32%) rank more highly with consumers than trusting the brand (30%).
The findings also highlight how little feedback businesses receive when things go wrong, with customers far more likely to abandon an inquiry entirely than file a complaint, reinforcing how easily missed interactions can translate into lost revenue.
When asked what matters most on first contact, both the businesses and consumers rated clarity, professionalism and courtesy as most important, but there was a significant perception gap in the importance of personalization, with 90 percent of the companies rating it as important, compared with only 65 percent of consumers.
The survey showed that 39 percent of consumers say call support between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. would best meet their needs, while 24 percent would prefer early evening support between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. This suggests many businesses may be missing a key window of customer intent outside traditional working hours, particularly in the early evening when demand remains high. According to the research, this after-hours availability makes customers more likely to feel reassured (37%), choose or stick with a business (32%), make the company stand out compared to others (31%) and complete an inquiry or purchase (31%). Most construction and building trades cite staffing and cost as the reason they don't provide after-hours support.
Jesper With-Fogstrup, Group CEO of Moneypenny:
We spoke to a broad cross-section of residential and commercial construction companies, as well as supporting building trades such as plumbers, electricians and contractors and what’s striking is how consistent these perception gaps are across the board. These aren’t isolated issues; they span the full spectrum of construction and home services companies, regardless of size or specialty. Many businesses believe they’re delivering a high standard of service, yet clients are telling a different story. In today’s on-demand world, where clients are driven by speed and convenience, responsiveness and real-time communication are no longer a nice-to-have - they are fundamental to winning trust, securing business and driving growth. Those that fail to respond quickly risk losing clients before the conversation has even begun.
