How to follow up on a quote: templates and an example
How to follow up on a quote without being pushy
Pushy means asking if they're ready to pay. Helpful means asking if the job is covered. Your follow-up should always be the second one, because the homeowner reached out to you first and still has the problem.
A fixed schedule takes the guesswork out, so you never have to decide whether it's too soon. Run these four steps on every quote you send:
- Send the price and a booking link within the hour of the request coming in.
- Check in one day later with a question about the scope of work.
- Check in three days after the price, with an easy way to say no.
- Close the file after five days and move on to fresh requests.
After step four, stop. A homeowner who hasn't answered in five days has told you something, and a closed file beats a nagging one. You can always reopen it if they write back.
Your follow-ups also feel less pushy when you only chase jobs you wanted. Screen jobs before you quote, with if-then rules: if the address is on your route and the job clears your minimum, send the price. If it doesn't, decline it or hold it for your own OK. Then every nudge goes to a job you'd gladly do.
Rule-based quoting goes one step further. Write your prices as if-then rules, like a flat price for a one-story gutter clean, so the number reaches the homeowner while they're still looking at the clogged gutter.
When should you follow up after sending a quote?
Speed starts before the quote does. Harvard Business Review's 2011 study sent a web lead to US companies, and 37% replied within an hour. Another 23% never replied, and the companies that did reply took 42 hours on average.
The same Harvard Business Review research, from 2011, covered 1.25 million leads and found that reaching out within the hour made a company about 7x more likely to qualify the lead than waiting even one hour more. That figure is about reaching a new lead, so treat it as a speed rule for your first price, not for the follow-ups.
Treat your first reply as the start of the follow-up. If a written request gets the price and a booking link in the first minute, the homeowner has the number and a way to say yes while the request is still fresh.
Knowing how to follow up on a quote after that comes down to spacing. One day is long enough that you're not hovering and short enough that the job is still on their mind. Three days gives them time to compare. Five days is where you stop.
One exception to the clock: if the homeowner tells you they're waiting on a spouse, a landlord or an HOA, ask for a date and put that date next to the quote. A check-in on the date they gave you isn't pushy. It's what they asked for.
A hypothetical pressure washing request arrives late on a Friday evening. You send the price and booking link within the hour. The one-day check-in goes out Saturday evening and the three-day check-in goes out Monday evening. If nothing comes back, you close the file on Wednesday.
Use this table as your decision order once a homeowner answers, or doesn't:
| What the homeowner does | What you send next |
|---|---|
| Goes quiet for one day | The first template below |
| Still quiet at three days | The second template below, with an easy way to say no |
| Asks about scope | An answer to the question, plus the booking link again |
| Says the price is high | A smaller scope, like front gutters only, not a discount |
| Says no or hires someone else | A thank-you, then close the file |
When the reply is that the price is higher than they expected, change the scope, not the rate. Offer front gutters only, the driveway without the patio, or the mow without the edging. A smaller job keeps your price per hour intact and still gets you on the schedule.
What should you say when following up on a quote?
Ask about the job, not the money. A question about the work reads like help, and a question about their decision reads like pressure. Keep it to three or four lines and end on the booking link.
Skip phrases that announce you're chasing, like "just following up again" or "any update yet". Name the job and the scope instead.
Use this estimate follow-up email template for the first check-in, a day after the price goes out:
Hi [Name], I'm checking in on the price I sent for your house wash. Does the scope cover everything you need done? If it looks good, you can pick a time here: [your booking link]
This works because every line has one job. The second line names the work, so they don't have to hunt for the quote. The third asks about scope instead of money. The last line hands them a booking link built into the quote, so yes takes one tap.
Three days later, if there's still no answer, send this one:
Hi [Name], I want to make sure the price for your spring cleanup reached you. Do you have any questions about the debris removal? If it's not the right time, just tell me and I'll close the file. Otherwise you can book a date here: [your booking link]
The easy out is what keeps the second one polite. A homeowner can say no in one word, so they don't have to dodge you.
Paste either template into an email, then swap in the job name and the scope line. Make the subject line the job, like "Your gutter cleaning price". A subject line like "Following up" tells them nothing about the work.
What does a quiet quote cost you?
Say your average gutter cleaning job is $200. Suppose you send ten quotes in a week and book four, and the other six go quiet because nobody checked back in. Six quiet quotes times $200 per job comes to $1,200 sitting unanswered. If a short follow-up wins back two of them, that's two times $200, a total of $400 more in your week.
| Quiet quotes you win back | Price per job | Added to your week |
|---|---|---|
| One | $200 | $200 |
| Two | $200 | $400 |
| Three | $200 | $600 |
Example: over a four-week month, winning back two quiet quotes a week adds four times $400, a total of $1,600. You already did the hard part by writing the price. The follow-up is the cheapest part of the job.
Swap in your own average job price and your own count of quiet quotes. The arithmetic behind how to follow up on a quote doesn't change by trade: quiet quotes times average price, whether it's a house cleaning, a window job or a roof wash.
How do you keep track of every open quote?
A notebook in the cup holder is fine until the schedule gets busy. Keep one list instead, with five columns: customer, job, price sent, date sent and next follow-up date. Check it twice a day, once before you leave the yard and once at lunch.
The follow-up date is the column that matters. It turns the question of who needs a nudge into a lookup instead of a memory test. A list also keeps you honest about the five-day rule, because a quote with no answer past day five goes to closed.
Workely keeps every lead, quote and booking in one list. Follow-ups go out automatically until the lead books. The follow-up and records workflow page shows how that works.
Can quote follow-ups run automatically?
Yes. The messages take a minute to write, but sending them on the right day between jobs is what slips when the schedule fills up.
Workely catches an inbound lead and scores it against your rules through its lead capture and qualification workflow. A lead that fits gets a quote from your own prices in about 60 seconds, sent with a booking link. A lead that doesn't fit waits for your OK, and follow-ups go out automatically until the lead books.
Your next step is small: pick your schedule and run it by hand this week. If you'd rather not run it yourself, compare plans on the Workely pricing page.