If you're not responding to leads within minutes, you're burning your marketing budget.
In the home services space, where urgency drives buying behavior, speed isn’t just a competitive advantage. It’s a necessity. After watching home services businesses grow over the past decade, one thing has become increasingly clear: fast response times can be a make-or-break factor in your ROI, and this is why different advertising channels, such as Thumbtack and LSA, demand near-instant follow-up.
Let’s dive into this important operational reality and also what simple rules you can deploy to ensure your team doesn’t let opportunities slip away.
The Reality: Homeowners Don’t Wait
Imagine this: A homeowner walks into their kitchen at 7:30 am to find water pooling under the sink. They’re already running late for work. They grab their phone, Google “emergency plumber near me,” find Thumbtack, click on it, and start filling out a few quick forms.
By 7:35, they’ve submitted their info to three local plumbers.
By 7:45, only one of them had called back.
Guess who gets the job?
It’s not the one with the best reviews.
It’s not the one with the cheapest rate.
It’s the first one to respond.
In home services, it's not just about being good—it's about being fast. Because when something goes wrong at home, people don’t wait around. They are more willing to book the first available person. Homeowners don’t shop around like consumers in other industries—they react to urgency. When their AC breaks, water is leaking, or pests are invading, they’re looking for someone who can solve the issue now. The moment they hit "Submit" on a contact form or lead inquiry, they’re either calling the next contractor in line or already texting the next option that responded first.
Don’t take our word for it:
- The average lead in home services converts 21x more when responded to in under 5 minutes (Source: Convoso)
- 78% of buyers choose the first company to respond (Source: LeadAngel)
That's a real, material impact on your revenue. Without availability or treating requests with urgency, your marketing “performance” will always be subpar.
Think about this: what if it were that simple? What if you could increase your revenue and fill your schedule simply by speeding up how quickly you can connect with customers who need you?
For Some Businesses - It Is That Simple
We always strive to strike a balance between lead volume, lead cost, and lead quality. Our Leads AI product automatically rates and scores leads from all forms of advertising. Highly rated lead quality scores indicate that the lead is seeking the services the business offers in the area where it is available.
When speed to response is an issue, even if a lead is high-quality, our data shows that the close rates drop the longer it takes to get back to a lead.
In some cases, the response time may exceed what a customer considers acceptable. We’ve found some examples of “need service now” form fills from lead generation channels that have gone unresponded until the end of the day—sometimes hours after submission.
When that happens, even if it is a high-quality lead, you’ll start to get this feedback about the lead:
- Leads ghosted
- Jobs were booked elsewhere
Some might even think that the channel generates spam calls when, in reality, it was a response time issue.
The world has changed. You can order Postmates, Instacart, or an Uber and get immediate action. In some cases, you can have delivery from Amazon in hours, not days. Today’s consumer expects immediate action, and this expectation is particularly true in the home services industry.
Adjust your intake to account for the fact that leads expect friendly and fast responses, and you’ll maximize your marketing investment.
Spending Your Money Smarter
There are several ways to spend your advertising dollars smarter:
- Diversified lead channels (Google Ads, LSAs, Facebook, Thumbtack, directories)
- Data-driven budget allocation using tools like our Budgets AI tool to move spend toward what’s performing best.
- End-to-end visibility with real-time tracking so you see what leads are coming in—and from where.
- Continuous optimization of the advertising campaign towards improving your cost per acquisition, part of which is optimizing towards high-quality, lower-cost lead channels
But even the best campaign, driving the best leads, can’t overcome one thing: slow response times.
We design advertising to put you in front of the right customer at the right moment. If that moment passes, the opportunity is gone. That’s why our highest-performing clients combine smart marketing with fast operational follow-through.
It's the smart way to turn ad dollars into actual jobs.
Ad Channels Aren’t All the Same. Some Demand Lightning Speed.
With advertising costs rising on various platforms, there is a growing pressure for marketing agencies and business owners to rethink their advertising approach. And here is the kicker: different platforms carry different expectations:
- Thumbtack & Angi: Customers typically submit forms to multiple vendors simultaneously. If you’re not first, your performance will suffer.
- Google Local Services Ads (LSAs): Calls are connected live. If you miss it, Google can penalize your profile for responsiveness problems.
- Facebook Lead Forms: Passive interest. Fast follow-up increases the chance of conversion.
- Google Ads (PPC): Typically, customers are ready to book but want to solve problems immediately
Rule of Thumb: The faster you follow up, the better you will convert leads to customers.
When response time lags or your availability is too far in the future:
- Your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) increases, even if your Cost Per Lead (CPL) looks great.
- Your close rate plummets, creating frustration for your team.
- You could even decide to shut off high-performing channels.
Conversely, when response time is quick:
- Campaigns convert more efficiently.
- Your budget stretches further.
- You unlock the true power of high-volume, alternative lead platforms like Thumbtack, LSA, and Facebook, enabling you to effectively counter inflationary pressures on traditional search advertising, such as Google Ads.
Simple Rules to Make Response Time a Competitive Advantage
Ensure Leads Go to the Right Person as Fast as Possible
Track everything in one place. Use call tracking and form fill notifications to ensure visibility.
Ensure you have someone dedicated to upholding a high standard of response time.
Set a Max 5-Minute Response Rule
Anyone who owns lead follow-up must respond within 5 minutes, with no exceptions.
Leverage an Answering Service or AI Intake
If you are a smaller shop, get an answering service if you know you cannot get to the phone quickly enough
Monitor Daily Lag Time as a Key Performance Indicator
Track “response times” like you track close rate
Don’t Stop a Channel Without Fixing the Follow-Up First
If you’re not responding fast, you don’t know if it works yet.
Fix your response process before turning off channels that seem to be lower quality or lower conversion rates
Lead Volume Doesn’t Matter If You’re Not First
In today’s home services market, your speed is as important as your message. Your speed of service becomes an indispensable part of your brand. If you’re serious about maximizing your revenue, make response time a priority. Because the first one to call wins.
Ready to Audit Your Response Process?
We’ve helped over 15,000 Local Service Professionals not only get more leads, but also close more leads by incorporating our tools to improve operational efficiency. Let’s review your follow-up strategy and unlock the full potential of your marketing performance.
