How Shutter City Automated Lead Capture and Cut Quoting Time by 65%

The Company

Shutter City is a Perth-based specialist in plantation shutters, roller shutters, blinds, and window furnishing solutions. They supply and install custom-made window treatments across the entire Perth metropolitan area, from Joondalup in the north to Rockingham in the south. Their product range includes PVC and basswood plantation shutters, aluminium roller shutters, outdoor blinds, and a variety of interior blind styles.

Operating in Perth's competitive home improvement market, Shutter City differentiates itself through personalised service, competitive pricing, and a commitment to quality installation. Every project is custom-measured, custom-manufactured, and professionally installed by their own team rather than subcontracted labour. This approach has earned them a loyal customer base, but the manual nature of their sales and scheduling processes was capping their growth.

The Challenge

The shutter and blinds industry in Perth is fiercely competitive. When a homeowner starts researching window furnishings, they typically request quotes from three to five companies simultaneously. The first company to respond with a professional, detailed quote has a significant advantage. Shutter City was losing potential customers simply because they could not respond fast enough.

Every product they sell is custom-made. A quote for plantation shutters requires knowing the exact window dimensions, the material preference, louvre size, frame type, colour, and installation requirements. Historically, this meant a sales representative had to visit the property, measure every window, discuss options with the homeowner, and then go back to the office to prepare a formal quote. The entire process from initial inquiry to delivered quote could take five to seven days.

Meanwhile, leads were slipping through the cracks. Website inquiries sat in a shared inbox. Phone calls during busy installation days went to voicemail. Follow-ups with prospects who had received quotes were inconsistent because the team was always chasing the next job. The business owner estimated they were losing 30 to 40 percent of incoming leads to slow response times alone.

Installation scheduling added another layer of complexity. With multiple installation teams serving different parts of Perth, coordinating who goes where and when was managed through a combination of spreadsheets, phone calls, and memory. Double bookings happened, travel time between jobs was rarely optimised, and customers occasionally received vague installation windows rather than confirmed times.

What We Built

Valenor designed a four-part AI system that addressed every bottleneck in Shutter City's customer journey, from initial inquiry through to post-installation follow-up.

Intelligent Lead Capture

We rebuilt Shutter City's website inquiry system with an AI assistant that engages visitors in real time. When a homeowner lands on the site looking for shutters, the AI guides them through a series of natural, conversational questions: what room are the shutters for, what style do they prefer, what is their approximate budget range, and when are they looking to have them installed.

The system collects enough information to generate a preliminary estimate before a human ever gets involved. It captures the prospect's contact details, qualifies them based on budget and timeline, and routes hot leads directly to the sales team with a priority notification. Cold leads enter an automated nurture sequence. Nothing falls through the cracks.

Automated Quoting Engine

The quoting engine was the centrepiece of the build. Using Shutter City's product catalogue and pricing structure, we built a system that generates detailed quotes based on the information gathered during the lead capture phase. For standard window sizes and popular product configurations, the AI produces a near-final quote within minutes of the initial inquiry.

The quotes include product specifications, material options with pricing for each, estimated installation timeframes, and a professional branded PDF that the prospect receives via email automatically. For non-standard sizes or complex installations, the system flags the quote for manual review and pre-populates as much information as possible so the sales team only needs to verify measurements and adjust pricing for custom work.

Installation Scheduling

Once a quote is accepted, the AI scheduling system takes over. It considers installation team availability, geographic location of the job (grouping nearby installations together to minimise travel time across Perth's sprawling suburbs), the complexity of the installation, and any customer time preferences. The system generates an optimised weekly schedule and sends confirmed appointment times to both the installation team and the customer.

Follow-Up Automation

After installation, the system automatically sends a satisfaction survey, requests a Google review from happy customers, and schedules a follow-up check at 30 days. For prospects who received a quote but did not proceed, the AI runs a timed follow-up sequence that re-engages them with updated pricing or seasonal promotions without the sales team needing to remember who to call.

The Results

The impact was immediate and measurable. Within the first month, Shutter City saw a threefold increase in the number of leads captured from their website. The AI assistant was engaging visitors who would have previously bounced without leaving their details. More importantly, the quality of leads improved because the AI was pre-qualifying prospects and collecting detailed project information upfront.

Quoting time dropped by 65%. Standard product configurations now receive a quote within minutes rather than days. Even complex custom jobs see their quotes delivered within 24 hours because the AI pre-fills most of the information and the sales team only needs to verify and adjust. The faster turnaround has directly translated to a higher win rate on quotes because Shutter City is consistently first to respond.

The installation scheduling improvements reduced travel time between jobs and virtually eliminated double bookings. Customers receive confirmed appointment times rather than vague windows, which has improved satisfaction scores and reduced no-access issues where the homeowner was not present for the installation.

Overall revenue increased by 40% in the first six months following deployment, driven by higher lead capture, faster quoting, and the follow-up automation that recovered prospects who would have otherwise gone cold.

Why This Matters for Perth Home Improvement Businesses

Perth homeowners are renovating and upgrading at record rates. With the city's Mediterranean climate, window furnishings are not just an aesthetic choice but a practical necessity for managing heat, light, and privacy. The demand is there, but businesses that cannot respond quickly and professionally to inquiries are leaving money on the table.

For custom product businesses like shutters, blinds, and window furnishings, the quoting process is inherently complex. AI does not eliminate that complexity, but it compresses the timeline dramatically. The business that gets a professional quote in front of a homeowner first has a major competitive advantage, and in Perth's crowded home improvement market, that advantage translates directly to revenue.