InquiryCatch / Questions
What happens to website enquiries that come in after hours?
Usually they sit in an inbox until the next morning. In the meantime the customer often contacts two or three other companies, and the first one to reply has the best chance of getting the job.
Why the first reply matters
A study published in Harvard Business Review looked at 1.25 million sales leads across 42 US companies. Companies that contacted a lead within an hour were about seven times as likely to qualify it as those that waited even one hour longer, and more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited a day or more. Your customers are no different: when they need something, they want someone to answer now.
Your options
An auto-reply on your contact form. Free, but it only says “we got your message”. The customer still has no idea when you’ll call, so they keep looking.
An answering service. A person answers your phone out of hours. Good for calls, usually paid per call or per minute, and it doesn’t cover people who message through your website.
A website chat assistant. Answers website visitors immediately at any hour, asks the questions you would ask and sends you the finished enquiry. It doesn’t replace you: you still call the customer back, but you call back someone who is waiting for you.
What a good after-hours reply looks like
- It answers within seconds, not minutes
- It asks where the job is, what the problem is and how urgent it is
- It gives useful first advice where it makes sense
- It tells the customer when they can expect a call
- It sends you everything in one message so you can plan your morning