Guide

How to capture leads door to door (without losing them)

A canvasser knocks 200 doors in a day. Twelve homeowners say 'yes, send me a quote.' The canvasser writes their names and phone numbers on a notepad. The notepad goes in the truck. The canvasser goes home. The next morning, the notepad is on the kitchen counter at the canvasser's house — not in your CRM. Three of the twelve homeowners call a competitor before you even follow up. This is how door-to-door leads die. This guide shows you how to capture leads at the door so they never get lost.

The lead loss problem

Door-to-door leads are time-sensitive. A homeowner who says 'yes, send me a quote' on Tuesday is ready to buy on Tuesday. By Thursday, they've forgotten the conversation, or a competitor has knocked their door, or they've googled the service and found someone else. The window is 24-48 hours. If your lead capture process involves paper, manual data entry, and a delay between the door and the CRM, you're losing leads in that window.

  • Paper leads get lost between the truck and the office — especially in a metro as spread out as Raleigh-Cary or Charlotte
  • Manual data entry introduces typos: a wrong phone number means you can't reach the lead at all
  • The delay between the door knock and CRM entry means the first follow-up call happens 24-48 hours late — if it happens at all
  • When a canvasser quits, their paper leads walk with them — you lose the pipeline they built
  • No way to tie a lead back to the specific door and canvasser who generated it — so you can't measure canvasser effectiveness

The right way: capture at the door, sync instantly

The solution is to capture the lead digitally at the door — on the same app the canvasser uses to track the door knock — and sync it to your dashboard immediately. The lead is tied to the GPS address of the door, the canvasser who captured it, and the timestamp. By the time the canvasser gets back to the office, the lead is already in the system and ready for follow-up.

Capture the lead at the door

When a homeowner says 'yes, send me a quote,' the canvasser enters their name, phone number, and interest level right in the app. It takes 15 seconds. The lead is tied to the GPS address of the door — so even if the canvasser mistypes the name, you know which door it was.

Sync to your dashboard immediately

The lead syncs to your dashboard as soon as the canvasser has a data connection. If they're offline, the lead is stored on the phone and syncs when they reconnect. You see the lead appear in real time — not at the end of the day, not the next morning.

Follow up within hours, not days

Because the lead is in your dashboard immediately, you can follow up the same day. The office can call the homeowner while the canvasser is still in the neighborhood — or schedule the quote appointment before the canvasser leaves the street.

Export to your CRM

Export leads as a CSV with name, phone, address, GPS coordinates, interest level, canvasser name, and timestamp. Import into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, HubSpot, or any CRM that accepts CSV. No manual data entry, no typos, no lost leads.

What to capture at the door

The lead capture form should be fast — 15 seconds or less. Capture only what you need to follow up:

  • Name — first name is enough if the homeowner is in a hurry
  • Phone number — the most important field; without it, you can't follow up
  • Interest level — hot (wants a quote now), warm (wants info), cool (call me in a month)
  • Notes — one line: 'AC unit is 20 years old' or 'lawn is a mess, needs full renovation'
  • GPS address — captured automatically from the door knock, no manual entry

How FlyerBuddy handles lead capture

FlyerBuddy's lead capture is built into the canvassing workflow. When the canvasser marks a door as 'interested,' the lead capture form opens automatically. They enter name, phone, and interest level. The lead is tied to the GPS address and synced to the dashboard. The manager sees the lead appear in real time and can follow up the same day. Export the leads as CSV and import them into any CRM. No paper, no lost leads, no 48-hour delay.

Questions

FAQ

Can I export leads to ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro?
Yes. FlyerBuddy exports leads as a CSV with name, phone, address, GPS coordinates, interest level, canvasser, and timestamp. Import the CSV into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, HubSpot, or any CRM that accepts CSV imports.
What if the canvasser is offline when they capture the lead?
The lead is stored on the phone's local storage and syncs to the dashboard when the canvasser reconnects. No lead is lost — even in rural areas or dead zones.
Can I see which canvasser generated each lead?
Yes. Every lead is tied to the canvasser who captured it and the GPS address of the door. You can filter leads by canvasser to measure individual effectiveness.

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