Qualifying EV charger leads before the site visit

Why charger leads waste more time than other leads

Charger buyers are often first-time electrical customers. They've just bought or ordered a car, the dealership told them to "get an electrician", and they don't know what information matters. So they call three shops, ask "how much for a charger?", and accept whichever site visit comes first.

That creates three kinds of waste:

• Visits to jobs that need other work first. The electrician arrives, finds the panel can't take the circuit, and leaves with a different conversation.
• Visits to price shoppers. The customer has a cheaper quote from a cousin and wants a second number.
• Visits that could have been quotes. A straightforward attached-garage install that an estimator could have priced from photos.

If your electrician spends an hour on each visit including travel, and a third of visits produce nothing, a shop booking 30 charger visits a month is giving away about ten hours of licensed time.

The five intake questions

Ask these on the first call or in the first text reply. Keep the wording plain:

1. Where will you park the car when it charges? Attached garage, detached garage, driveway, carport, street, condo parkade.
2. Where is your electrical panel? Basement, garage, utility room, outside.
3. Roughly how far is it from the panel to the parking spot? "Same wall", "across the basement", "other end of the house" is enough.
4. Do you own the home, or is it a condo, strata or rental? Multi-unit buildings involve the board or manager.
5. Have you got the charger yet, or do you want us to supply one? This changes the quote and tells you how ready they are.

Then ask one timing question: when is the car arriving? A customer taking delivery in two weeks is a hot lead. One "thinking about an EV next year" belongs in a slower follow-up.

The three photos

Ask for three photos by text, with a sample image of each so the customer knows what you mean:

• The panel, door open, with the label visible. Your electrician will want to see the breakers and the panel information.
• The parking spot, showing where the charger would go.
• The route between them, or a photo from the panel area toward the garage.

Make it easy. A single text with a link or clear instructions works better than an email with an attachment request. Reply as soon as the photos arrive, even with "Got them, our estimator will look today."

Sorting leads into three lanes

Once photos arrive, your estimator sorts each lead into one of three lanes:

The "upgrade first" lane is where many shops lose money twice: once on the wasted visit and again by never following up. These customers still want a charger and now need a bigger job. Give them a clear explanation and a separate upgrade quote. Our panel upgrade campaigns are built for exactly this hand-off.

What to put on your charger page

The intake works best when your website sets expectations before the customer calls. A good charger page:

• Explains the steps: photos, quote or visit, scheduling, install, any inspection your province requires.
• Shows a "from" price, if you use one, with a short list of what changes it: distance, panel capacity, detached garage, trenching, condo requirements. Any advertised price should include the fixed fees a customer must pay.
• Asks for the photos up front, with an example.
• Shows your contractor licence and names the regulator customers can check, such as ESA in Ontario or Technical Safety BC in British Columbia.
• Has photos of your own finished installs, not stock images.

Measuring whether charger ads pay

Track four numbers each month, by source (ads, Google profile, dealer referrals, word of mouth):

1. Leads received.
2. Leads with photos. If this number is low, your request isn't clear or isn't fast enough.
3. Quotes sent.
4. Installs booked.

Then divide total marketing cost by installs booked.

A worked example. In one month a shop spends $1,800 on charger ads and pays $1,200 in management, so $3,000 total. It receives 48 leads, gets photos from 34, sends 26 quotes, and books 13 installs. That's about $231 per install. If the average charger job is $1,600 and gross margin is 40%, each install contributes about $640. The ads are working, and the next step is improving the photo rate, since the 14 leads without photos are the cheapest place to find more installs.

Now run the same month without intake. Suppose all 48 leads got site visits at an hour each, and 13 still booked. The 35 visits that didn't book cost 35 hours of licensed time. At whatever an hour of your electrician's time is worth to you, that's a hidden cost that never appeared in the ad report.

Dealer and referral sources

Car dealerships, EV owner groups and condo property managers all get asked "who installs chargers?". Give them a reason to name you:

• A one-page referral card with your phone number, text line and the photo instructions.
• A short page on your site they can send customers to.
• A quick thank-you when a referral books.

These sources take months to build, but the leads tend to arrive better informed and ready to send photos.

Common mistakes

• Booking visits before photos arrive. Make photos the default; offer a visit when they genuinely aren't possible.
• Slow replies to photos. A customer who sent photos and heard nothing for three days calls the next shop.
• One price for everything. It attracts the jobs that cost you most.
• No follow-up on "upgrade first" leads. These are some of your most valuable leads.
• Letting dealers send customers to a generic homepage. Give them the charger page link.

Putting it into practice this week

Write the five questions on a card by the office phone. Save a text template with the three photo requests and example images. Add a column to your lead sheet for the lane. In a month you'll know your photo rate, your quote rate and your cost per install, which is more than most charger advertisers know.

If you'd like help building the page and campaign around this routine, see our EV charger marketing service, the other guides, or contact us.