How to Stop Losing Leads

Where do service businesses actually lose leads?

Across the Plannit accounts I support, the leaks show up in the same four places:

1. Calls that come in while the crew is working. Nobody picks up, and the customer calls the next company.
2. Replies that go out hours later. By then, the customer has already booked someone else.
3. Leads spread across calls, texts, Facebook and email. Some of them never get logged at all.
4. Quotes that go out with no follow-up. Silence gets treated as a no.

Plannit data In September 2026, 41% of inquiries across Plannit accounts arrived outside business hours.

How fast do you need to respond?

Within an hour at the latest, and within five minutes if you can. The research is clear on this. In a 2011 audit of 2,241 U.S. companies published in the Harvard Business Review, firms that contacted a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited longer. Only 37% of the companies responded within the hour, and 23% never responded at all. That study looked at web leads in general, not the trades specifically, but a customer with no heat doesn't wait longer than anyone else.

What does this look like for a Canadian contractor?

Two things make it harder here:

• Demand arrives all at once. The first cold snap brings a wave of furnace calls, and a snowstorm floods snow removal crews overnight. Those are the days you're too busy to answer the phone, and they're also the days you get the most inquiries.
• Customers write in French or English. In Quebec, a customer who gets a reply in the wrong language, or a quote they can't read easily, often moves on. Your auto-replies, quotes and follow-ups need to work in both languages.

Client story: CJ Plumbing

• Before: The owner returned calls from his truck at night and tracked quotes in a notebook. Requests that came in during a job often waited until the next day.
• The leak: About 8 to 10 estimate requests a month went cold during spring peak season.
• What changed: With Plannit, every request is logged automatically, and quotes with no reply trigger a follow-up reminder after 48 hours.
• Result: Quote-to-job rate went from 31% to 44% in four months.

How do you keep every lead in one place?

Log every inquiry the moment it comes in, from any channel. Give each one a status (New, Contacted, Quote Sent, Won or Lost) and name one person responsible for the next step. That way you can see at a glance which leads are going stale.

What follow-up schedule works?

Plannit data "Quotes with at least one follow-up are accepted 38% more often than quotes with none."

How do you win more of the quotes you send?

• Send them the same day, from the truck, using saved line items.
• Let customers approve online instead of printing and signing.
• Offer two or three options so the customer compares versions of your job instead of comparing you to other companies.
• Watch for opens. A quote that's been opened but not accepted is a good reason to call.

How Plannit handles this

Plannit answers every call, logs leads from every channel in one place, sends bilingual quotes from your phone, and reminds you when a quote needs a follow-up. When a customer accepts a quote, it becomes a scheduled job and then an invoice without anyone re-entering the details.

Sources: Oldroyd, McElheran & Elkington, "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads," Harvard Business Review, March 2011.