Key takeaways
- Keep what the resident says separate from what has been assessed.
- Do not fill the gap with the canvasser's earlier impression.
In this article
Insulation enquiries and surveys: what should your team record?
An insulation enquiry records a resident's interest or request for contact. A survey booking records an agreed appointment. A survey finding records what the person assessing the property concluded. Keep those separate so the office can see what has actually happened and what still needs checking. For a UK insulation canvassing team, this starts with the words used at the door. "Please call me about loft insulation" gives the next person a clear task. It does not establish that the property is suitable, that a survey has been booked or that funding has been approved.
Agree what each stage means
Use these as working definitions for your team, then adapt them to your own booking process:
Enquiry: the resident has asked about a service or agreed a specific next conversation. Record which one.
Survey requested: someone needs to arrange an assessment, but the appointment is not yet confirmed.
Survey booked: the resident and the person arranging the visit have confirmed its purpose and timing. Record who is expected to attend.
Survey completed: the visit took place. The findings may still be awaiting a report or clarification.
Assessment outcome recorded: the relevant finding has been supplied by the person responsible for assessing the property, with a source and date.
These are suggested record labels, not a claim about preset stages in Knocklogix. Keep a cancelled appointment and an unanswered booking call visible too. Neither should quietly become a completed survey.
Keep what the resident says separate from what has been assessed
A resident may say the loft has never been insulated or that a neighbour recently had cavity wall insulation installed. Record that as information from the resident, rather than a confirmed property finding.
Energy Saving Trust says an installer needs to survey a home to check whether it is suitable for cavity wall insulation. Its loft guidance also identifies situations needing professional advice, including concerns about damp or structural issues. [1] [2]
That gives the canvassing manager a useful boundary: pass relevant questions to the person carrying out the assessment. Do not ask reps to turn a doorstep conversation into a technical verdict.
For example, "Resident asked whether the loft needs more insulation; assessment not yet arranged" preserves the question. "Loft suitable for top-up" records a conclusion the conversation has not established.
Keep funding questions separate as well. If the resident asks whether help is available, record the question and who will follow it up. An enquiry, appointment or property observation does not by itself confirm eligibility.
A handover record the office can use
For each enquiry, give the next person enough context to act without having to reconstruct the conversation:
Property and enquiry reference: identify the address and the particular request.
Service discussed: loft insulation, cavity wall insulation or another named service. Keep different services distinguishable.
Resident's request: what they asked for, in their own terms where useful.
Source of property information: resident report, existing record or assessor finding. Add the date and leave unknowns marked as unknown.
Agreed next contact: purpose, method and timing, including any limits the resident gave the team.
Appointment state: requested, confirmed, cancelled or completed, with the supporting details.
Responsible person: who needs to act next and when the manager will check the handover.
This is an operating checklist, not an invitation to collect extra personal information. Keep the record limited to what the team needs for the agreed follow-up.
If your team uses paper in the field, the paper knocksheet handover guide explains how to carry that context into the next person's work. [3]
A fictional loft and cavity wall enquiry
Imagine a resident asks a canvasser about topping up loft insulation. They also ask whether the company can advise on cavity wall insulation. They want the office to phone on Tuesday afternoon to discuss both questions.
At this point, the record has one household with two service questions and an agreed call. There is no confirmed survey and no assessment outcome for either service.
The office makes the call and confirms a Friday appointment for a loft assessment. The person arranging it records the purpose, time and expected assessor. The cavity wall question stays open with a named follow-up owner; it is not automatically covered by the loft appointment.
On Friday, the loft visit takes place, but the written finding has not reached the office. Mark the visit as completed and the finding as awaiting confirmation. Do not fill the gap with the canvasser's earlier impression.
When the finding arrives, record its source and date. Update the loft enquiry from that evidence and check what the resident has agreed to do next. The cavity wall question still needs its own answer.
This is a fictional manual workflow. It does not describe automatic booking, record transfer, suitability checks or funding checks in Knocklogix.
Check the handover before counting the result
Before calling an enquiry a booked survey, ask the record owner to point to the confirmed arrangement. Before reporting an assessment outcome, ask where the finding came from. If either answer is missing, keep the uncertainty visible and assign the next check.
At the team review, keep enquiries, booked visits and completed assessments separate. The home-improvement outcome review guide covers the later question of what happened after those bookings, including quotes and completed jobs. [4]
Knocklogix's home-improvement page explains its role in recording doorstep outcomes and keeping context available for follow-up. Those records support the field workflow; the assessment remains with the person responsible for evaluating the property. [5]
Keep reading
- Field sales app vs CRM: what should your team use?Decide whether your canvassing team needs a field sales app, a CRM or both, with a record-ownership worksheet and a fictional solar enquiry example.
- Your first canvasser: rehearse the field workflow before day onePrepare your first canvasser with a clear patch, agreed result labels and callback ownership. Rehearse four fictional visits before the first shift.
- Paper knocksheets: a daily handover your next rep can useA practical way to carry today's door-level results into tomorrow's patch.