Guide
How many times should you follow up on a quote?
Three, spread over about three weeks, is the right default for most service work. When to move it.
Last updated
The short answer: three follow-ups, spread over about three weeks, then stop.
That is a default rather than a rule, and it fits most service work. The rest of this is where it comes from and when to move it.
Why one is not enough
Almost everybody sends one. It goes out a few days after the quote, gets no reply, and that is the end of it.
A single message only reaches the customer who happens to be in their inbox that morning and happens to have an answer ready. Everybody else is somewhere in a process you cannot see: waiting on a partner, waiting on two other quotes, or simply having a week.
The second and third messages are not repetition. They are the ones that reach the people the first could never have reached.
The default rhythm
Counting from the day the quote goes out:
- Day 2 or 3. Early enough that the quote is still fresh, late enough not to look automated. This one is mostly a delivery check: it catches the quote that went to spam, or the one read on a phone and forgotten by lunchtime.
- Day 8 to 10. The one that does the work. They have had a weekend, and any other quotes they were waiting on have usually landed.
- Day 18 to 21. The close-off, where you say you will leave it there unless you hear otherwise.
Why the last one gets the most replies
This surprises people. The message announcing that you are going to stop asking often outperforms the two before it.
By week three the customer has either gone elsewhere and feels vaguely bad about not saying so, or genuinely lost the thread. Both are unlocked by a message that removes the pressure. You are no longer asking them to decide, only to confirm, and confirming is a far smaller thing to do.
Adjust for the size of the job
Three over three weeks fits a job somewhere in the hundreds to low thousands. Outside that range, move it.
- Small, urgent work, a repair or a callout: compress it. Two follow-ups over a week. Decisions this size do not take three weeks, and a quote still open after a fortnight has usually been solved another way.
- Large or planned work, a renovation or anything with a budget cycle behind it: stretch it. Four or five touches over two to three months, with long gaps expected. Nobody signs off a major job because of a nudge on day nine.
- Seasonal work: follow the season, not the calendar. A quote for gutter clearing in July is not dead, it is early.
Adjust for what they actually told you
The rhythm above is for a customer who has said nothing at all. The moment one gives you information, that information beats the schedule.
If they said they are deciding after payday, follow up after payday. If their partner is away until the 20th, the 21st is the right day and everything before it is noise. Running a fixed schedule at somebody who has already told you their timeline is the clearest possible signal that nobody is reading their replies.
When to stop
After the close-off, stop. Do not add a fourth because the third felt like it was going somewhere.
The value of a follow-up falls steeply after the third and the cost does not. Each extra message is a slightly worse impression left with somebody who may well need you in six months.
What to do after you stop
Ending the sequence is not the same as forgetting the customer.
A quote that went quiet is a warm contact who has already told you what they need and roughly what they will spend. Somewhere between three and twelve months later, one message that is not a chase can be worth more than all three follow-ups were: a note that you are working nearby, that prices have settled, or that the season has come round again.
Once, though. That is a different message with a different purpose, and it does not restart the sequence.
The rule that overrides the schedule
Stop when they reply. Any reply, including one that is not an answer.
"Not yet, still thinking" ends the sequence. What follows is a conversation, and a conversation runs on what they said rather than on a day count.
Where we come into it
QuoteGlide runs the schedule so you do not have to hold it in your head. You set the rhythm once, it follows up in your name, and it stops the moment a customer replies.
The numbers above are a starting point, not a setting you are stuck with. The right schedule is the one that matches the work you actually do.