A potential customer fills in your contact form on a Tuesday night. You see it Thursday, between jobs. By then they have booked someone else. Most owners can name a lead they lost this way, and most never find out about the ones they didn’t notice.
A CFIB survey found that 73% of small business owners were working extra hours themselves to cover staff shortages. When the owner is the one serving customers, enquiries wait. The fix is not working harder. It is a simple system that does not depend on the owner remembering.
Step 1: Put every enquiry in one place
Enquiries arrive by email, phone, Facebook, Instagram, Google and word of mouth. List every channel, then route them to one list: a shared inbox, a spreadsheet or a simple CRM. If it is not on the list, it does not exist.
Step 2: Reply in minutes, not days
An automatic first reply buys you time and sets expectations. Keep it short and human:
Then make sure the promise is kept. Block 15 minutes at the start and end of each day just for new enquiries.
Step 3: Follow up three times
Many people who don’t reply are busy, not uninterested. A simple rhythm:
- Day 1: answer their question and suggest a next step.
- Day 3: a short check-in with something useful, such as a photo of a similar job.
- Day 7: a friendly last note that leaves the door open.
Step 4: Count what happens
Track three numbers each month: enquiries received, enquiries answered within a day, and jobs won. Watching just these three for a few months shows you where leads leak and whether your fixes work.
How WIZAD can help: we map where your enquiries arrive, set up one list, an automatic first reply and a follow-up rhythm, and show you the numbers each month.
Source: CFIB, The 8-day workweek (April 2023, survey data from September 2022).
