The first to reply gets the first shot

40%

of 466 home service companies never answered a web inquiry in a five-day test

Valve+Meter, about 2021 (agency test of web forms, not phone calls)

In one test, a marketing agency filled out web forms at home service companies and waited five days. A large share never wrote back. That test is a few years old, and it covers forms, not phones.

An older Harvard Business Review study across all kinds of companies found a similar pattern: 23% of 2,241 U.S. companies never responded to a test web lead.

Why the first hour matters

Nearly 7x

as likely to reach a decision maker when firms tried within an hour, compared with even an hour later

Harvard Business Review, 2011 (measures a real conversation, not a sale)

That study is old, and it measured getting a real conversation, not a closed sale. The direction still makes sense to anyone who has hired a contractor: you call a few, and the first one who talks to you has the advantage.

Consumers say so too: 72% of consumers say they are likely to choose the business that responds first.

What to check this week

• Fill out your own website form and time the reply.
• Find out who owns that inbox on a busy day.
• Ask what happens to a form that comes in on Saturday.