What is speed to lead?

Why it matters

People rarely ask just one business. They fill out a form, then ask two more places while they're still on their phone. The business that answers first gets the conversation. Waiting even a little while costs you, and the research backs that up.

• Within an hour beats later. An audit of 2,241 US firms found that firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited even one hour longer. Source: Harvard Business Review, "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads" (2011).
• Many businesses never reply at all. In a July 2024 secret-shopper test of 45 North American fitness brands, 58% of email inquiries got no reply, and Instagram replies took 37 hours on average. Source: Keepme's 2024 fitness industry study (Keepme sells gym software).

How to measure yours

Fill out your own form, or send your own business a message, and time how long the first reply takes. Do it on a weeknight and on a weekend. Then do it again every week, because a setting that changes or a staff member who's out can quietly break it.

How to fix a slow reply

1. Reply within a minute. Set up an automatic first reply the moment a lead comes in, so it doesn't depend on someone seeing it.
2. Put a booking link in the first reply. Let people pick a time right away, without a phone call.
3. Ask one easy question. "Do mornings or evenings work better?" is easier to answer than "How can we help?"
4. Send reminders. A text or email before the appointment means fewer people forget.
5. Follow up for two weeks. Not everyone books on the first message. A few friendly check-ins over two weeks catch the ones who got busy.
6. Text back missed calls. If nobody picks up, send a text right away so the caller doesn't move on.

The rules for texting leads

• Only text people who opted in, for example by checking a consent box on your form, or who contacted you first about their request.
• Name your business in the first text.
• Make STOP and HELP work, and honor STOP right away.
• Text only from 9am to 8pm in the lead's time zone, and not before noon on Sundays. Outside those hours, send an email and hold the text.
• Register your business number with the carriers (A2P 10DLC) before you text from it.
• Use AI or prerecorded voice calls only with people who gave written consent that covers them.

How we do it

Every new lead gets a reply in under 60 seconds: a text from your business name from 9am to 8pm, and an instant email the rest of the time, both with a link to book. Then come reminders, missed-call text-back and two weeks of follow-up, all in one CRM. Every Monday we send a test lead and time the reply, and it goes in your weekly report. If our setup makes a lead wait longer than 60 seconds in a month, you get 25% off the next month. Conditions apply; see our guarantees. More on lead follow-up.