Lead Quality Standard for Garage Door Inquiries

Where this stands today. Matching with garage door companies is still being built, so this standard covers a small number of inquiries, not a running marketplace. We publish it now because the standard should exist before the volume does.

What makes an inquiry valid?

All seven tests must pass. If any one fails, the inquiry is rejected.

Reachable. A working email, or a phone number where the homeowner agreed to be called. At least one must be real.
In the service area. A zip code a participating company told us it covers. Not a nearby one we hope they will drive to.
A job we cover. One of the seven garage door services. A request for something else is not a garage door lead.
Sent by the homeowner. The homeowner filled in the form themselves, after finding us on their own. No bought lists, no shared sign-ups, no resale.
Consented. Clear agreement that details may be passed on. Agreeing to calls is separate, optional and recorded separately.
Recent. Sent on promptly. An inquiry that sits for days stops being a lead and becomes an apology.
Unique. Not a copy of an inquiry already delivered for the same homeowner and the same job.

How are inquiries graded?

By how complete and ready they are, never by how much the homeowner might spend. A large job from someone still deciding is a C. A broken spring that needs fixing on Monday is an A. The grade describes the inquiry, not the person.

A Complete and ready A homeowner we can reach, an address we can serve, a garage door job we cover, a timeframe, and enough detail for a company to prepare before calling. Consent given clearly.
B Ready, with a gap Reachable and in the area, but one useful field is thin, such as no description or a timeframe of "researching". Still a real person with a real door. The call just starts further back.
C Still researching A real homeowner who is some way from hiring. Useful to a company that works a longer pipeline, and a poor fit for one that wants work this week. Graded so it goes to the right place.
R Rejected, never sent Fails one of the tests below. Never passed to a company and never counted as delivered.

What is never sent to a company?

Fake, test or nonsense contact details.
A copy of an inquiry already delivered for the same job.
Outside every service area we can send to.
A job type no participating company offers.
A homeowner who did not consent, or who withdrew consent first.
A sales pitch: someone selling to us, not asking for help.
Anything we have reason to believe is not a real homeowner.

Rejected inquiries are not delivered and not counted as delivered. If a homeowner sent something real that we cannot place, usually because no company covers their area yet, we tell them plainly. We do not leave them waiting for a call that is not coming.

What does a delivered inquiry contain?

Zip code and property type.
The service requested, and the urgency the homeowner chose.
Their own description of what the door is doing.
Name, email, and a phone number only where they agreed to calls.
The page the inquiry came from, and how they said they found us.
The grade we gave it. A company should never have to guess what it got.

Still to be decided. What earns a credit, how a company raises a dispute, and the time limit for doing so are business terms that are not set yet.

They are listed as open on the page for garage door companies rather than invented here. A refund policy written before there is a price is not a policy.

What do we ask of companies in return?

Grading only works if the other side holds up too. We ask partners to contact the inquiries they accept, and to do it promptly.

We ask them to tell us when an inquiry was wrong, so the standard can be fixed.

And we ask them not to treat a C-grade homeowner as a bad lead when it was labeled correctly.

How HyreGarage works covers what happens to a homeowner's details. How we vet garage door professionals covers the other direction, and the privacy policy explains what is stored and for how long. Companies can read how garage door leads work.