Guide
Quote follow-up email templates
Five follow-up emails you can copy, and the three rules that decide whether any of them work.
Last updated
Templates are a starting point and a trap. Sent exactly as written they read like templates, and customers can tell immediately.
Every one below needs one specific detail from the actual job before it goes out. That detail is the whole difference between a follow-up and a mailshot, and it takes about ten seconds to add.
Three rules before you copy anything
None of these are optional, and the third is not negotiable.
- Name the job in the first line. Not "your quote" but "the quote for the bathroom tiling". They may have had three quotes since yours.
- Give them a way to say no in every message. It earns more replies than anything else you can write.
- Stop the moment they reply. No template survives being sent to somebody who has already answered.
1. The first nudge, two or three days later
Short, low stakes, and mostly a delivery check.
Subject: Quote for the bathroom tiling
Hi Sarah,
Just making sure the quote I sent on Tuesday came through. They do sometimes end up in spam.
Happy to talk through any of it, or to take out anything you decide you do not need.
Thanks,
Dave
Note what it does not do: it does not ask for a decision. At three days a decision is not reasonable yet, and asking for one makes the next message harder to send.
2. The check-in, about a week later
This is the one that does the work, so give it something the customer did not have before.
Subject: Bathroom tiling, and a free week in March
Hi Sarah,
Wanted to check whether the tiling quote is still useful to you.
I have had a cancellation the week of the 14th, so if you did want it done before Easter, that week has just opened up. After that I am into April.
If anything in the quote needs explaining, or you would rather split it into two stages to spread the cost, just say.
Thanks,
Dave
The availability line is the reason this email exists. Without something like it, you are only asking again in different words.
3. The close-off, two to three weeks in
The one most people never send, and often the one that gets answered.
Subject: Closing off the tiling quote
Hi Sarah,
I have not heard back on the bathroom tiling, so I will assume the timing is not right and close it off at my end.
No problem at all if you have gone another way. If things change, the quote stands until the end of May and you can just reply to this.
All the best,
Dave
It works because it removes the pressure. She is no longer being asked to decide, only to confirm.
Mean it, though. If you say you are closing the file, close the file. A fourth message after this one undoes every bit of goodwill the third earned.
4. When the price is the problem
Use this only when they have told you the price is the issue, or when it was obvious in the conversation. Guessing at it insults the customer and discounts a job you might have won at full price.
Subject: Tiling, a cheaper way round it
Hi Sarah,
Been thinking about this one. There is a way to bring the tiling down by roughly a third.
If we keep the existing floor and do the walls only, most of the labour comes out and the finish is close to the same. Happy to send a revised quote for that if it is worth a look.
Thanks,
Dave
Change the scope, not the number. Dropping the price on identical work tells the customer the first quote was not honest, and teaches them to wait for the discount next time.
5. When they said they would get back to you
A different situation from silence, and the schedule does not apply. They gave you a date, so use theirs.
Subject: Following up as promised
Hi Sarah,
You mentioned you would know more after the end of the month, so checking back as promised.
The quote is unchanged and I still have space in the first half of April.
Thanks,
Dave
"As promised" is doing real work in that first line. It tells the customer you listened, which is a very different message from one that arrived because a timer went off.
Subject lines
The subject decides whether any of the above gets read.
- Name the job, not the paperwork. "Bathroom tiling" beats "Following up on quote 1043".
- Do not reuse the same subject three times. Threading them together makes the third message look like a fourth.
- Avoid anything that sounds like marketing. "Quick question" and "Do not miss out" both get deleted, one because it is a trick and one because it is a mailshot.
What to change every time
If you change nothing else, change these four.
- The job, in the first line.
- The name. Every time, without exception.
- One real detail: a date, a material, something they said during the visit.
- The reason this particular email exists. If you cannot name it, the email is early.
Where we come into it
QuoteGlide sends these for you. You write your own versions once, set the timing, and it follows up in your name and stops the moment the customer replies.
The templates above work whether or not you use it. Paste them into your drafts folder and you have most of the benefit already.