01
What's the space — and which rooms or areas are in scope?
A primary-suite refresh and a whole-home renovation are different engagements; the room list is the first sizing fact.
For interior designers
The “we just got
the keys” email.
Design inquiries arrive at emotional peaks — the closing, the gut-renovation decision, the empty new office — and they go to two or three studios whose portfolios made the shortlist. Published benchmarks say the median business replies in 42 hours. The studio that responds while the keys are still new gets the first meeting.
The portfolio gets you shortlisted; the reply wins the project
People choose interior designers with their eyes, which is why they inquire with several studios whose work they already love. From there, the decision runs on something much plainer: who responded, how fast, and whether the reply sounded like someone who wanted the project. A considered answer on Saturday beats a beautiful one on Wednesday.
And the inquiries carry real money — a whole-home furnishing project or a commercial fit-out starts as three sentences and a Pinterest link. Published benchmarks put the median first response at 42 hours, with 63% of companies taking longer than an hour, while sub-five-minute responders convert roughly nine times better.
LeadsApp answers the moment the inquiry lands, in your studio's voice. It scopes the way your first call does — which rooms, what state the space is in, timeline, budget comfort — and it stays out of the two things that are professional judgment: what the space should be, and what the work should cost. Every draft waits for your approval by default.
42h
Median time for a business to answer a new inquiry at all
9x
Higher lead-to-opportunity conversion when the reply lands inside five minutes
63%
Of companies take longer than an hour to reply to a new inquiry
Published industry benchmarks — not our own data
The intake questions it actually asks
Modeled on your discovery call — asked one or two at a time, in your wording, at a depth a homeowner or office manager can answer without a floor plan in hand.
02
What state is it in — newly purchased, mid-renovation, or lived-in and ready for a change?
Tells you whether you're designing alongside a contractor's schedule or starting from a blank calendar.
03
Are you working with an architect or contractor already?
Existing project teams change the studio's role — and the timeline you'd be joining.
04
Is there a budget range you're comfortable with for the project?
Asked plainly, early, and kindly — it's the question that makes the first meeting honest.
05
When do you want to be living in (or working from) the finished space?
Backwards from move-in comes procurement, trades and design time — and whether the expectation is workable.
06
Whose work led you to us — or is there a project of ours you loved?
The taste anchor for your first conversation, captured while it's front of mind.
Example — not a real client
What this looks like in your inbox
An illustration we wrote, not a customer message. Everything in [brackets] is pulled from the business profile you fill in during setup — the AI states nothing it wasn't given.
Website contact form — Sunday, 2:14pm
We closed on a 1920s house in [neighborhood] on Friday. It needs everything — kitchen, two baths, and honestly furniture for the whole main floor. We loved the [project] you did. We're hoping to be in by next summer. Is this the kind of project you take on, and how do you charge?
Draft reply — waiting for your approval
Thank you for writing — and congratulations on the house; a 1920s home with that much scope is exactly the kind of project worth doing properly. This is an automated first reply from [Studio name] so you're not waiting on a Sunday; [Designer name] will read your note personally.
Two things that will make the first conversation concrete:
1. Are you planning structural or layout changes in the kitchen and baths, or keeping the footprint and transforming the finishes?
2. Do you already have a contractor, or would you want introductions as part of the work?
On fees — that's a conversation [Designer name] has directly once the scope is clear, rather than something I'd quote here. You'll hear from us [within the timeframe you've set in your profile].
— [Studio name]
88
Hot
Why: A just-closed property, whole-main-floor scope including kitchen and baths, a named portfolio project as the taste anchor, a stated move-in target, and a direct ask about engaging.
Read the reply again: it never says what the kitchen should be, never blesses the summer deadline, never quotes a fee structure. It scopes like a designer's assistant and books the meeting where the design actually starts.
What it will never do for a design studio
Taste is the product, and the AI doesn't have yours. It collects, scopes and schedules — the design and the pricing stay with the designer. Review-before-send is the default.
- Never gives design opinions — no style suggestions, no "that would look great", no comments on what they've done so far.
- Never quotes fees, fee structures, hourly rates or product budgets — and never blesses a stated budget as enough for the scope.
- Never promises timelines for design, procurement or construction.
- Never recommends or disparages contractors, architects or other studios.
- Escalates instead of replying when a message is from an existing client about a live project — an install problem, a damaged delivery, a site issue. Those get a human the same day.
- Never claims project types, past work or press you didn't put in the studio profile, and never contacts anyone who didn't contact you first.
Someone is getting keys to a project right now.
Point your studio's contact form at LeadsApp, or forward the inbox it already emails. The next inquiry gets a warm, scoping reply within a minute — rooms, timeline and budget gathered — and you approve every word until you decide otherwise.
Free on 25 leads a month, no card · $149 for 250 · $299 for 1,000 · $499 unlimited
Every account also includes the free contact toolkit — search 136M+ US and Canada B2B contacts and verify any email, from the web or your own agents.
Start free
Your next client
is waiting. Reply.
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