Precision Garage Door Tops Customer Lead Handling Effectiveness Study
Neighborly Brands’ Precision Garage Door Service has earned the top position in the 2026 Pied Piper Lead Handling Effectiveness™ (LHE™) Home Services Industry Study, highlighting its strong performance in responding to and engaging with new customer inquiries. The study evaluated how effectively major home services brands interact with potential customers across multiple communication channels, including phone calls, live chat, and web forms, as well as follow-up via phone, text, and email.
Following Precision Garage Door Service in the rankings were Mister Sparky, Mr. Electric, and Roto-Rooter, each achieving scores above 50 on a 100-point scale. These results place them among the stronger performers in an industry where customer engagement and responsiveness can significantly influence business outcomes.
The 2026 study, conducted by Pied Piper, assessed 31 of the largest home services brands in the United States. Researchers completed a total of 3,211 evaluations nationwide between October 2025 and January 2026. Each interaction simulated a real customer inquiry, allowing the study to measure how effectively companies respond to initial contact attempts and whether they successfully guide customers toward taking the next step.
According to Cameron O’Hagan, Vice President of Metrics & Analytics at Pied Piper, the findings reveal a critical gap in how companies handle incoming leads. He noted that customers seeking home services often reach out to multiple providers before making a decision, and delays or failures in response can result in lost business opportunities.
“Customers seeking home services typically attempt to contact several companies before choosing one,” O’Hagan said. “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.”
The study also highlighted significant variability in performance across the industry. An LHE™ score of 70 or higher is considered indicative of an effective customer interaction—one where the company responds quickly, provides helpful information, and makes it easy for the customer to proceed. However, only 12% of evaluated retail locations achieved this benchmark.
Precision Garage Door Service and Safelite stood out by reaching scores above 70 more than one-third of the time, demonstrating a consistent ability to deliver high-quality customer interactions. In contrast, several other brands—including ForeverLawn, Lawn Doctor, Pinch A Penny, and ServiceMaster Restore—achieved scores above 70 in less than 1% of their interactions, indicating widespread challenges in delivering effective customer service experiences.
At the lower end of the performance spectrum, the study found that 42% of retail locations scored below 30, which is classified as an ineffective interaction. These low scores often resulted from issues such as unanswered phone calls, lack of follow-up, or insufficient assistance provided to customers. Brands like Precision Garage Door Service, Mister Sparky, and Mr. Electric performed relatively well in this regard, with fewer than 20% of their interactions falling into the ineffective category.
In contrast, companies such as The Maids, Lawn Doctor, Pinch A Penny, ForeverLawn, and Camp Bow Wow recorded ineffective interaction rates exceeding 75%, meaning that the majority of customer inquiries resulted in poor or unsuccessful engagement. These findings underscore the importance of consistent execution at the local level, as customer experience can vary significantly even within the same brand.
Another key area explored in the study was the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in customer interactions. Approximately 10% of customers encountered AI-driven systems through chat or phone channels during their inquiries. While some of these interactions were successful, the results revealed notable challenges in implementation.
About 27% of AI interactions were completed successfully without human intervention, performing at a level comparable to human staff. However, the remaining 73% required escalation to a human representative. Among these cases, one-third of the handoffs failed entirely, resulting in issues such as dropped calls, extended hold times, or being redirected to voicemail. On average, customers spent 93 seconds interacting with AI before experiencing these breakdowns.
O’Hagan emphasized that while AI has the potential to enhance efficiency, its effectiveness depends on proper integration with human support systems.
“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,” he said. “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.”
The study also examined performance trends among brands operating under large franchisor platforms, many of which are backed by private equity. These include organizations such as Neighborly, Authority Brands, ServiceMaster Brands, and HorsePower Brands. Among these groups, Neighborly emerged as a standout performer, with five of its brands ranking within the top 10.
However, the results also revealed that ownership structure alone does not guarantee success. Despite the resources and scale associated with large franchisor platforms, performance varied widely across brands. Notably, three of the 10 lowest-ranked brands in the study were also part of such platforms, highlighting the importance of execution at the operational level.
Overall, the 2026 Pied Piper LHE™ Home Services Industry Study underscores the critical role of effective lead handling in the home services sector. As competition intensifies and customer expectations continue to rise, companies that respond quickly, communicate clearly, and provide seamless experiences are more likely to win new business.
Precision Garage Door Service’s top ranking reflects its strong commitment to customer engagement and operational excellence. The findings of the study serve as a reminder that in today’s fast-paced market, the ability to capture and convert customer inquiries is just as important as the quality of the services provided.
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