Storm Lead Intake Qualification: Questions That Separate Real Claims From Tire Kickers

What Intake Is Really For

Intake has one job: to decide whether an inspection slot should go to this house. That slot is expensive, a rep’s half day or more, and scarcer than it looks. Loveland Innovations, summarizing Verisk data, reported hail claim activity down 23.6% year over year in the first quarter of 2026. When real claims are harder to find, an inspection spent on a house with no loss costs you more. Our intake scripts guide covers the general four-point intake across segments; this guide goes deeper on storm work.

Keep two rules in your head the whole call. Ask open questions and write down what the homeowner says in their own words; never suggest what they ought to have seen or what they should tell the carrier. And never promise an outcome on the claim, because you do not make that decision. Those two habits protect the homeowner, your company, and the quality of everything that comes after the booking.

Open With Who, When, and What They Saw

Start with authority. “Are you the owner on the deed? Is anyone else on the title or the policy who would be part of this decision?” A tenant, a relative handling a parent’s house, or an owner who needs a spouse to agree changes who must be at the inspection. Then the event: “Tell me what you saw or heard during the storm, and about when it was.” Let them talk. A date of loss in their words is worth more than the one you assume from the news.

Next, evidence, still open: “Have you noticed anything since, inside or outside?” If they have not looked, that is fine. Ask whether anyone has been on the roof, and offer an inspection to find out. Do not feed them a list of symptoms to agree with; a list that hands the homeowner their answer produces a claim story that may not survive the first adjuster visit. If they report nothing, that is useful, not a failure, and it is better discovered on the phone than from the driveway.

Place the Claim on the Ladder

Claim stage is the most useful fact on the call, so ask for it directly: “Have you filed a claim? Do you have a claim number? Has an adjuster been out yet? What have you been told so far, and do you have the letter or the email in front of you?” Then place the answer on the ladder. No claim yet. Claim filed, inspection pending. Inspected, estimate pending. Estimate in hand, whether approved, partial, or denied. Paid in whole or in part, work not started. Work already started or finished by someone else.

Each rung is a different appointment. No claim means a roof inspection first, with no promises. Claim filed means preparing the homeowner for the adjuster. An estimate in hand means a document review and perhaps a supplement. A denial or partial approval means a longer conversation and your honest read on whether it is worth it. Paid but not started is largely a scheduling conversation, with one wrinkle worth asking about: whether a mortgage company is named on the check, since that can add steps. Have them read you the carrier’s own words rather than summarize, because carriers vary in what they send and how they phrase it. For how long each stage can run, see the storm claim timelines guide.

Ask About History and Competition

Ask about the roof’s past. “Has there been a claim on this roof before? Were the repairs finished?” Prior payments for damage that was never repaired can complicate a new claim, and carriers differ in how they treat that, so you want to know before you promise a rep’s time. State Farm alone paid more than $5.6 billion in hail claims in 2025, with about $1.4 billion of it in Texas, according to its newsroom, so prior claim history on a storm-market roof is worth asking about.

Then ask about competition. “Has anyone else inspected the roof? Have you signed anything with anyone, such as a contract, an authorization, or an agreement about the claim?” If they have signed with another contractor, record it, do not advise them on getting out of it, and step back under your company policy. Agreements and cancellation rights differ by state, and telling a homeowner what they can walk away from can amount to legal advice you are not licensed to give. A lead already under contract is not a lead.

Check the Address, Then Handle the Deductible Question

Before booking, check the address against your verified swath. If the home sits outside it, say so honestly: “Your area may not have taken damage from this storm, but I am happy to take a look.” Let the homeowner decide, and follow your own policy on whether an out-of-swath inspection is worth a rep’s time. An honest “it might find nothing” costs you a few bookings and saves you the angry no-show and the bad review that follows.

Expect the deductible question. Homeowners ask it early, and a rep who answers wrongly creates a legal problem. Learn the carrier and, if the homeowner volunteers it, the general shape of their coverage, but the deductible is theirs to pay and a rep should say so: “That is between you and your carrier, and I cannot discuss ways around it.” Covering, absorbing, rebating, or waiving a deductible is illegal in many states; see our deductible waiving entry. Put that line in the script as policy so it never depends on a rep’s mood or a hungry month.

Score It, Route It, and Hand It Off

Sort every lead into three bins. A leads have a confirmed owner or decision-maker, an address in the swath, damage the homeowner has actually seen, and a known claim stage. B leads miss one of those but are fixable, such as a spouse who must attend or a claim number still to come. C leads are outside the swath, under contract, not the owner, or just collecting a number on a roof they will not replace this year. Route A leads to your best inspectors at the first open time, B leads to a call-back with one specific question, and C leads to a polite close and a note.

Book A and B leads only for a specific day and time, and hand the booking to a confirmation process that checks the homeowner again before the truck rolls; the appointment confirmation workflows guide lays out that second checkpoint. Teams that would rather not run intake in the middle of a surge hand it to VA Horizon, which qualifies to criteria you set and books exclusive, double-confirmed roofing appointments. No-shows are replaced, never billed.

Sources

The external data in this guide draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.

• Loveland Innovations, "What Q1 2026 Data Tells Us About Roof Damage and Insurance Claims" (Verisk data)
• State Farm Newsroom, 2025 hail claims

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