For a regional homebuilder competing against national "big box" names with deeper pockets, leads don't wait. Slow follow-up doesn't just cost a sale — it hands one to a better-resourced competitor.
Caviness & Cates Communities, a locally owned builder based in Fayetteville, North Carolina, has built a 25-year reputation on high-quality construction and personal service. But competing against larger builders means its team has to respond faster and follow up more consistently. That was harder than it should have been, given that inbound interest was coming from multiple communities with no clear way to track where leads came from, respond quickly, or know which marketing channels were generating appointments.
Now one of the nation's Top 100 Builders, Caviness & Cates uses CallRail's Call Tracking and Premium Conversation IntelligenceTM to manage leads in one place, respond faster via mobile and text, and align sales and marketing around what's working.
Using CallRail, Caviness & Cates Communities has:
- Increased lead-to-appointment conversion by 33% by integrating high-volume text follow-up into a strict 30-day cadence.
- Improved speed to lead with mobile access and text messaging built into a 30-day follow-up cadence
- Centralized calls from multiple communities into one destination line, with whisper messages identifying each neighborhood
- Reduced manual call review by searching transcripts instead of listening to full recordings
Connecting online engagement to offline visits
For Caviness & Cates, one of the hardest parts of marketing is connecting digital activity to offline sales conversations and in-person visits. The team needed a way to understand which communities buyers were calling about, where those leads were coming from, and how to respond quickly enough in a competitive homebuilding market.
That challenge shows up differently across the business. For Beth Philips, Director of Marketing and Online Sales, the question is which efforts are actually driving calls? When a buyer visits the website and later calls a number from a community sign, most tools can’t connect those two moments, so the online touchpoint that started the journey goes uncredited.
For Jessica Myers, New Home Specialist, the challenge is speed and context. She's the first point of contact for every new lead across the company's communities, so she needs to know which neighborhood a buyer is asking about before she even picks up. Each development has its own call tracking number, but all calls route to one destination line — whisper messages tell her which community the caller is interested in, so she can tailor the conversation from the start.
One of the hardest things to track is whether a buyer came from the website and later followed up via signage or another offline touchpoint. CallRail helps us connect that journey better than other tools we’ve used.
Beth Philips
Director of Marketing and Online Sales, Caviness & Cates
Managing leads across every community in one workflow
Before CallRail, keeping up with leads meant being at a desk. Now Jessica runs her entire workflow from her phone — answering calls, reviewing records, and texting prospects between site visits and appointments — responding to new leads in real time and keeping conversations active while interest is highest.
Texting has become her primary way of following up. Messages come through like any other text, so they don't get lost among the 950+ notifications she receives daily. She's built SMS into a strict 30-day cadence alongside calls and emails, and uses it to share promotions and incentives without putting buyers on the spot — they can respond when they're ready, which means they usually do.
When a buyer pushes back on something from an earlier conversation, she doesn't dig through recordings. She types in a phone number, pulls the transcript, and has the answer in seconds. What used to mean sitting through a 25-minute call now takes moments.
I don't have time to listen to a 25-minute call, but I can quickly read the transcript and see exactly what piece I need. CallRail grows with us — they implement the suggestions we have because we’re the ones in the seat all day long.
Jessica Myers
New Home Specialist, Caviness & Cates Communities
Giving sales and marketing the same view of lead quality
CallRail also helps Caviness & Cates read the seasonality of their sales cycle by identifying which communities are heating up and which are closing out. With that visibility, the team can adjust spend on their top platforms, Google and Meta, in real time based on actual call volume.
That matters more as acquisition costs rise. With more builders entering the market, Caviness & Cates can't afford to waste budget on channels that aren't producing. CallRail gives Beth's marketing team cleaner data on what's driving calls, and gives Jessica and the sales team the context to respond quickly and move leads forward. Together, that visibility lets them shift spend toward communities with rising interest and pull back from channels that aren't delivering.
How texting drives more booked appointments
The clearest performance story is what happens when texting volume goes up. When Caviness & Cates prioritized high-volume text follow-up within their 30-day cadence, appointment conversion surged by 33%. When texting activity dropped, so did conversions.
That lift reinforces what the team sees every day. Modern homebuyers, especially younger ones, are far more likely to engage with a text than answer a call from an unfamiliar number. In a competitive market where buyers are often evaluating several builders at once, meeting them in their preferred channel is what turns initial interest into an on-site visit.
Turning speed and context into a competitive advantage
Companies that aren’t using tools like CallRail are putting themselves at a disadvantage.
Jessica Myers
New Home Specialist, Caviness & Cates Communities
For Caviness & Cates, CallRail connects attribution with execution — giving Marketing and Sales a shared view of what’s driving real buyer conversations. As Jessica puts it: “Companies that aren’t using tools like CallRail are putting themselves at a disadvantage.” The platform has evolved alongside their needs, with features like SMS and transcripts now central to how they engage and convert leads.
