How Quickly Should You Respond to a Lead?
I run a pressure washing company in Madison, Wisconsin, so I know your day. You're on a ladder or in a truck, and new requests land while your hands are full. Below: how fast to answer, what a slow answer costs, and how to reply to every lead in about 60 seconds.
How quickly should you respond to a lead?
Under one minute is the target. Someone who just sent a request is shopping right now, and the first useful answer gets their attention. An answer that shows up the next morning has to win that attention back.
In 2011, Harvard Business Review published an audit that timed how over two thousand US companies answered a web lead. Only 37% replied within an hour. 23% never replied at all, and the ones that did took 42 hours on average. A reply inside one minute puts you well ahead of that field.
Speed changed the odds too. The same researchers looked at 1.25 million leads and found that companies who reached out within the hour were about 7x more likely to qualify the lead than companies who waited even one hour longer.
You'll hear this called lead response time or speed to lead. Either way, the job is to respond to leads faster than the next company on the customer's list.
Here's the rule of thumb. Inside a minute, you're first. Inside the hour, you're still in the race. After a day, you're chasing.
That holds when you're halfway up a ladder too. You won't type a reply up there, so the first reply has to be written before the request lands.
What does a slow answer cost a service business?
It costs the job, and it costs it quietly. You never see the lead that booked someone else. There's no angry message and no refund, just a request that goes dead.
A homeowner who wants a driveway washed wants a number and a date. The first company to give both usually gets the job.
Say your average ticket is $320, you get ten requests a week, and three of them book with whoever answered first. That's three times $320, or $960 a week. Over four weeks, it's $3,840 of work you never knew you lost.
Friday evening requests get the same minute, and they're the easiest to lose: nobody's at the keyboard, so a driveway request sent at 7:40 sits until Saturday morning.
Slow answers cost you at the other end too. A quote that goes out two days late meets a customer who may have already booked. And a lead who goes quiet after the quote needs a nudge, which is easy to forget when you're booked solid.
Your numbers will differ. Put your ticket size and weekly requests into this calculator that shows what missed leads cost you and see your own figure.
What counts as responding to a lead?
An auto-reply doesn't count. A message that only says we got your request tells the lead nothing. They're still waiting on a price and a day.
A real response has three parts: a price, a date and a way to book. If one is missing, the lead has to write back, and that's another gap where a competitor can get in. The price can be a range if the job varies. A range with a booking link beats silence.
Here's a template you can copy into your own first reply. Swap the capital letters for your details.
Hi NAME, it's YOUR NAME from YOUR COMPANY. Your JOB comes to PRICE, and our next open day is DAY. You can pick your time here: BOOKING LINK Questions? Reply here and I'll answer between jobs.
Write it the way you talk. A homeowner doesn't need your company history. They need the price, the day and the link.
Keep it to one price, one date, one link. If a job needs a look first, don't guess a price. Tell them the day you'll look and send the booking link for the visit.
How do you reply to every lead in about 60 seconds?
You won't type a good reply between jobs. You can write it once and let it go out every time. Here's the order I'd set it up in.
- Pick the three jobs you sell most. For a pressure washing company that might be driveways, house washes and patios. For a lawn crew it's weekly mows, cleanups and mulch.
- Write a price rule for each one. A price by the size of the surface with a minimum charge works, and so does a price by lot size. If you can't price it without seeing it, it's not a rule yet.
- Mark the jobs you want to look at first. Three-story homes and commercial lots are common ones. Those wait for you.
- Put one booking link on every first reply. The lead picks a day without waiting on you.
- Set follow-ups for leads who go quiet: a nudge the next morning, another on day three, then stop.
- Check the unanswered list twice a day, at lunch and when you park the truck.
You already know these prices. The work is writing them down once.
Sample rule sheet for a crew that washes, cleans gutters and mows. Change the jobs and limits to match yours.
| Job | Goes out on its own? | Rule you set once |
|---|---|---|
| Driveway wash, standard size | Yes | Price by surface size, with a minimum charge |
| Weekly mow, lot inside your size limit | Yes | Price per visit by lot size |
| One-story gutter clean | Yes | Price by linear foot |
| Three-story house wash | No, waits for your OK | You look at it first |
| Commercial lot, odd access | No, waits for your OK | You look at it first |
Once the rules exist, the first three rows are ready to go out the moment a request lands. The last two wait for you, and that's fine. A lead that waits for your OK is better than a wrong price you have to walk back.
Be strict with the Yes rows. If a job has ever surprised you on arrival, move it to the waits-for-you side.
If you run a lawn crew, the lawn and landscaping page covers how spring and fall bury a crew in quote requests.
This is the job Workely does. It's a team of workflows that runs an inbound lead from the first reply to the booking. Leads that fit your rules get a quote from your own prices in about 60 seconds, sent with a booking link. Leads that don't fit wait for your OK. Follow-ups go out automatically until the lead books.
You can read how lead capture and qualification works before you decide anything.
Workely was built by two brothers who run a pressure washing company and a lawn care company. I'm one of them.
What if you can't answer in a minute?
Some days you won't hit a minute. A roof wash runs long, the mow route falls an hour behind, or the request lands while you're driving. Here's the order I'd work in when requests stack up.
First, answer the ones that fit your rules, because those are quick wins. Second, answer the ones that need a look, and offer a day for the visit. Third, nudge the leads who've gone quiet. Within each step, take the newest request first, because that lead is still comparing.
Say you park the truck at 4:30 with four leads waiting. Two new requests fit your rules, one needs a look, and one lead from Tuesday has gone quiet. Send the two quick ones first, offer a visit day on the one that needs a look, then nudge Tuesday's lead. That's four replies in one sitting, and the two most likely to book went out first.
A lawn crew in spring and a gutter crew after a storm face the same pile. The fix is the same: set the rules before the pile shows up.
What's the first step to respond to leads faster?
How quickly should you respond to a lead? About a minute, every time, Friday evenings included. If you can't hit a minute yet, stay inside the hour.
If you'd rather have that first reply written once and sent for you, Workely's Speed to Lead plan is $149 a month. You can compare every plan and monthly price on one page.