How Fast Do You Have to Call a Lead Back?

A homeowner fills out the form on your website at 9:40 in the morning. Their AC quit overnight. You see the notification at lunch, but you're mid-install, so you figure you'll call after the job.

You call at 5:15. "Oh, thanks, somebody came out this afternoon."

Nobody did anything wrong. You were working. But the job went to whoever called first.

The short answer: inside the hour

Call a new lead back within the hour. Within a few minutes is better. And if you can't make a real call that fast, send a text right away and call at your next break.

That's the whole rule. The rest of this post is why it matters, and how to hit it when you're on a ladder.

Why the first hour matters so much

The best-known research on this comes from a Harvard Business Review study of 1.25 million sales leads at U.S. companies.¹ Companies that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to have a real conversation with the decision maker as companies that tried even an hour later.¹ Compared with companies that waited 24 hours or more, they were more than 60 times as likely.¹

Those were online leads across lots of industries, not just trades. But think about what a homeowner does after they reach out. They don't sit and wait for you. They keep searching. They call the next name. Every hour you wait, the odds go up that someone else is already in the driveway.

Most businesses are slower than they think

Here's the good news: the bar is low.

In the same research, the authors sent a test lead through the websites of 2,241 U.S. companies and timed the replies.¹ Only 37% responded within an hour.¹ 24% took more than a day, and 23% never responded at all.¹ Among the companies that did reply within 30 days, the average wait was 42 hours.¹

Forty-two hours. For a leaking water heater.

So you don't need a call center to stand out. You need to answer faster than the outfit that calls back "when I get a chance."

Not every lead runs on the same clock

Some leads need you in minutes. Some can wait until lunch. Here's how we'd sort them:

That missed call row is the one that hurts. In a small business call report, 69% of callers who reached voicemail didn't leave a message.² A missed call with no message isn't a slow lead. It's a lead that's already dialing someone else. We broke that down in what happens when you miss a call from a new customer.

What to do when you're on a job

You can't climb off a roof every time the phone buzzes. You shouldn't have to. The fix is two steps.

Step one: a text, right away. It tells them you're real, you got it, and when you'll call. That buys you time without losing them.

Step two: the real call, at your next break. Not at the end of the day. The next time your hands are free.

If they don't pick up, don't just leave a voicemail and hope. Send a text that gives them something to say yes to.

If the first text can go out automatically the second a call is missed, even better. We have 10 missed-call texts you can copy for exactly that.

Set callback windows, not good intentions

"I'll call them when I can" turns into 6pm almost every time. The jobs run long. The supply house takes forever. The day gets away.

So pick fixed times and stick to them:

• Before the first job. Clear anything that came in overnight.
• Lunch. Every lead from the morning gets a call.
• Between jobs. Two minutes in the truck before you pull out.
• Before you leave the last driveway. Nothing waits until tomorrow without at least a text.

And check every place a lead can land: missed calls, voicemail, texts, the website form, email, and any lead app you pay for. A lead sitting in an inbox you forgot to check is the slowest lead of all.

If you pay for leads, slow costs you twice

When you're buying leads, slow callbacks don't just lose the job. They can cost you money you already spent.

Google's Local Services Ads are a good example. Google says your average response time is part of your profile quality, which helps decide where your ad shows.³ It also says missed calls may hurt your responsiveness.³ And a missed call during your business hours can still count as a charged lead if the customer stays on the line for more than 20 seconds.⁴

Shared leads from the big lead sites work the same way: the same request goes to several businesses, and the first useful reply usually gets the visit. If that's how you get work, read are paid leads worth it before you buy more.

What to say when you call back

Speed gets you the conversation. The callback still has to book the job.

• Use their name and the job. "Hi Maria, it's Dave with Lakeside Heating, calling about your AC." They know it's not a robocall.
• Ask one or two questions. What's it doing, how old is it, is anyone without heat or water.
• Offer a time. "I can be there tomorrow between 8 and 10" books more than "so when works for you?"
• Confirm by text. Day, time window, your name. Then they have it in writing and your number saved.

The bottom line

Call new leads back inside the hour, and sooner if they're dealing with an emergency. When you can't, text right away and call at your next break.

You don't have to be the best-known business in town to win the job. A lot of the time, you just have to be the first one who called back.