Quote request auto reply: 3 scripts you can copy today
Below are three copy-ready scripts in owner voice, one for each moment, plus the rule for when to stop. Paste them into a saved reply and fill in the brackets.
When a request lands while you're on a ladder or in the truck, the first reply is the one that slips. Wording that's already written fixes that, so paste it in once and it's done.
What should a quote request auto reply say?
A quote request auto reply has one job. It's a receipt with a promise attached: your request landed, and here's when the price arrives.
Four parts cover it:
- Thank them and name the job, so they know it wasn't a blank form that went nowhere.
- Give a time the price will arrive, like by the end of the day.
- Ask one question that helps you price or screen the job.
- Sign with your name and your business name.
Make that one question do double duty. Ask for the address or the size of the area, and you learn whether the job is on your route and above your minimum before you spend time on a quote. That's screening a bad job out before quoting, and it costs the customer one line to answer.
Leave out a sales pitch and a list of services. The customer already picked you to ask. Also leave out a price range, because a range invites haggling before you've seen the job. Quote one number from your own rules, or say when the number is coming.
Speed matters more than polish. Harvard Business Review reported in 2011 that companies that replied to a web lead took 42 hours on average. It also found that reaching out within the hour made a company about 7x more likely to qualify the lead than waiting even one hour more. We go deeper on timing in how quickly you should respond to a lead.
Three scripts to copy, one for each moment
Each quote request auto reply below is written in owner voice, with brackets for the parts you fill in. Keep them short. Your customer reads them on a phone.
Fill [job] in with the words the customer used: driveway wash, weekly mow, gutter clean, move-out clean. Their words land better than yours.
Swap the one question to fit the trade. Lawn care needs the lot size, and gutters need the number of stories. Pressure washing needs to know whether it's a driveway, a house or a deck, and house cleaning needs bedrooms and bathrooms.
First reply, sent inside the first minute:
Hi [First name],
Thanks for reaching out. Your request for [job] came in, and your price is on its way by [time].
One quick question so the price is right: what's the address, and about how big is the area?
Reply here any time.
[Your name], [Business name]
It names the job, sets a time and asks one thing. That's all a first reply needs. Fill the time bracket with a time you can keep, because a missed promise in the first message undoes the point of sending it.
Next-day nudge, sent the morning after the price went out:
Hi [First name],
Checking in on your [job] price.
Here's the link to pick a time: [booking link]. Openings this week: [days].
If something changed or the price needs a tweak, just reply and say so.
[Your name], [Business name]
It gives the link again and makes a price change easy to ask for. A tweak is a better outcome than silence.
Last nudge, sent three days after the first reply:
Hi [First name],
Last note on your [job] price, so this doesn't clutter your inbox.
The price and booking link are here if you're still thinking it over: [booking link].
If the timing's off or you went another way, no worries. Just reply and the request gets closed out.
[Your name], [Business name]
This one makes saying no easy, which is the point. A clear no is worth more than a lead that sits open for weeks.
Sample schedule for a lawn mowing quote request that lands on a Monday morning:
| Moment | When | Goal | Include | Stop if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First reply | Monday, inside the first minute | Show it landed | Job name, price time, one question | They reply with a question |
| Next-day nudge | Tuesday morning | Get the price opened | Booking link, open days | They book or say no |
| Last nudge | Thursday morning | Close it out | Last link, easy way to say no | No reply after this note |
Keep the schedule on a sticky note in the truck. If a message goes out late, send it anyway, but never send two in one day.
When should you stop following up on a quote?
The rule is three messages, then stop. The first reply, the next-day nudge and the last nudge are the whole sequence. Here's the decision order to run each time a message is due:
- Customer books: stop the schedule and move to the job.
- Customer says no, or says they hired someone else: stop at once and send a short thank-you.
- Customer asks a question: pause the schedule and answer by hand the same day.
- Third message sent and no answer: stop, close the lead, and don't write again unless they write first.
Step three is the one to guard. A question means the customer is still interested, and a canned reply to a real question can cost you the job.
Picking the number matters less than keeping to it. Write the rule down once, and it stops being a decision you make on a tired Thursday.
If the job is urgent, like a clogged gutter before a storm, tighten the gaps between messages but keep the count at three.
A fourth message starts to read like pressure. If you want to keep a spring cleanup or fall gutter customer for next season, put them on your own list for then. That's your call, and it's a separate list from active quotes.
What does a slow reply cost you?
The request that comes in after dinner is the hard one, because you're off the clock and the customer is still deciding.
Say a request for driveway pressure washing lands at 7:40 on a Friday evening, and your average job is $220. Suppose you book three of every eight requests when the first reply waits until Saturday noon, and four of eight when it goes out inside the first minute. That's one extra job per eight requests. At sixteen requests a month, that's two extra jobs, so 2 times $220 comes to $440 a month, and $440 times twelve comes to $5,280 a year.
The numbers are made up to show the arithmetic. Put your own average job and request count in, and the answer changes fast.
To see what a slow reply costs your business, use the missed call cost calculator.
How do you send these without retyping them?
For a quote request auto reply email, a saved reply in your mail program is usually enough for the first message. Paste script one, fill in the brackets, and send. An automatic reply in Outlook or any other mailbox sends one fixed message to every sender, so it can say you got the request but can't name a price.
If you do it by hand, set one rule: reply before you start the next job, not after. Two minutes on the tailgate beats an evening of catching up.
The next-day and last-nudge messages are the ones that slip when you're on a ladder at two in the afternoon.
Workely handles the first reply and the follow-ups. It prices each lead from your own rules and gets the quote ready with a link to book. You approve it, or turn on auto-send and it goes out on its own. Follow-ups go out automatically until the lead books. Leads that don't fit your rules wait for your OK, so the decision on an odd job stays with you.
The lead capture and qualification workflow in Workely is where the first reply and the quote happen. The follow-up and records workflow keeps every lead, quote and booking in one list.
What stays with you: your prices, which jobs you'll take, and any lead that waits for your OK.
Your next step
Your one next step: copy the first script into a saved reply in your mail program before your next request lands. That alone gets the first minute covered.
If you'd rather have the first reply, the quote and the follow-ups run for you, see Workely pricing. Plans start at $149 a month, billed monthly with no contract.