How fast should you call a new lead back?
A homeowner with water in the crawl space doesn't fill out one form. They fill out three. Then they wait to see who calls first.
The first company to respond usually gets the visit. That makes speed the cheapest edge in home services.
How slow the industry really is
Jobber's 2026 Home Service Trends Report surveyed 1,050 home service pros. Only 20% get back to a new lead within the hour. About 60% take until the end of the day.
The same owners said more than 70% of their customers expect a same day reply. So most of the industry knows what customers want and still doesn't do it.
Phones are no better. In Invoca's 2026 call data, only 52% of callers to home service businesses spoke with a person. In 2024, Invoca found 27% of inbound calls went unanswered, and fewer than 3% of people sent to voicemail left a message.
That last one matters most. A missed call isn't a message waiting for you. It's a customer calling the next company on the list.
Our targets
- Calls: a real person answers at least 8 of every 10 calls, even when you're on a job. 95% is top performer territory.
- Web leads: a reply within an hour, always. Within five minutes is the goal.
Those are our targets, not industry figures. They're the ones we hold our own clients to.
How to get there without living on your phone
You can't answer every call from under a house. You don't have to.
- Someone answers. A person or an answering system that books the visit, not one that takes a message.
- Missed calls get a text back within a minute, automatically.
- Web forms get an instant reply with a link to book, then a call from a person.
- One owner for new leads. Somebody is responsible for the first call back every day, by name.
Measure it
You can't fix what you don't see. Track two numbers every month: the share of calls answered by a person, and the average time to first reply on web leads. Worksheet 3 in our free playbook has a column for reply time by how the lead reached you.
When those two numbers move, your close rate usually moves with them. The fastest company doesn't always win, but the slowest one rarely does.
More on what happens after the beep: nobody leaves a voicemail anymore.
Not sure where your business stands yet? Our free Growth Ladder assessment takes about four minutes.
- Missed call statistics, citing Invoca and Jobber (Hicira)
- Run It Like They Would, The Next Right Move (2026)
Straight talk on booking more jobs for your home service business. One article every Tuesday morning, and one tap stops it anytime.
We email you a link to confirm first. Nothing comes until you tap it.
