How to stop losing leads that come in after hours
You stop losing after-hours leads by answering them when they arrive, not the next morning: put something on your website that answers the common questions from your own material, takes the customer's details, and books a real time on your calendar. A contact form and a voicemail only record the lead. The customer keeps shopping, and the first business that answers usually gets the job.
Updated
Why do after-hours leads go cold?
People shop for service businesses in the evening. The AC quits at 9pm. The kid chips a tooth at dinner. A parent finally has time to look for a lawyer after the house is asleep. They visit three sites, message all three, and book with whoever answers first.
By 8am, the customer who wrote to you at 10pm has often already booked someone else. Your form captured the lead. It didn't keep it.
What doesn't work after hours?
A few common fixes don't solve the problem:
- A contact form. It takes the details and promises a reply. The customer keeps shopping.
- An autoresponder. 'Thanks, we'll be in touch' is polite, and it answers nothing.
- A chat widget with nobody behind it. An 'away' message is a contact form in a different box.
- A scripted chatbot with buttons. Customers ask their own questions, and a menu of five choices misses most of them.
What works: answer, capture, book
Three things have to happen while the customer is still on your site.
First, answer the question they actually asked. Most after-hours questions are the same few: do you cover my area, what does it cost, how soon can you come, and do you do this kind of work. Those answers are already on your website or in your head, so write them down.
Second, capture the details that make the callback worth making: name, number, address, and what's wrong. 'Water heater leaking in the basement, 12 years old' is a lead. 'Please call me' is a chore.
Third, book a real time. If the customer leaves with a Thursday 10am slot and a confirmation, they stop shopping. A small deposit makes it more likely they show up.
What should you write down first?
Whatever tool you use, it can only answer what you've written down. Before you set anything up, spend an hour on this list:
- Towns or zip codes you cover, and ones you don't.
- What a service call or first visit costs, or honest ranges.
- How soon you can usually come, and what counts as an emergency.
- What you do and don't work on.
- Hours, including weekends and holidays.
- Cancellation, deposit and refund rules.
When should a person take over?
Some after-hours messages shouldn't wait for any system. A gas smell, a flooding basement, someone in pain. Decide which topics always go straight to a person and how that person gets reached. The rest can be answered and booked, and your team picks them up in the morning with the details already taken.
How many leads did you miss last month?
Before you buy anything, count. Go through last month's form submissions, voicemails and texts. Note what time each one came in and how long it took you to answer. Then call a few of the ones you didn't book and ask, politely, whether they found someone else.
Most owners who do this find a pattern: a cluster of questions after six, on weekends, and on the busiest days when nobody could get to the phone. Those are the hours to cover first, and they tell you what the answers need to say.
How does Doug handle after hours?
Doug is built for exactly this. He learns your business from your website, PDFs and the Q&A pairs you write, then answers customers in seconds at any hour, in their language, typed or spoken. He takes the job details, offers real open times from your calendar or set hours, books one, and takes a deposit through Stripe that comes off the bill.
When a question isn't covered, he says so and offers to get a person, and it shows up in your dashboard with a drafted answer for you to approve. A weekly report sums up what came in. He starts at $49 a month, and for a lot of trades one booked job covers the year.
Questions
- Do I need someone on call to use an after-hours agent?
- No. The agent answers and books on its own. You decide which topics, like emergencies, should always go to a person, and how.
- Will customers book without talking to someone?
- Many prefer it. If they get a straight answer and a real open time, they book. If they want a person, a good agent takes their details and passes them on.
- What if my schedule changes often?
- Connect your Google or Microsoft calendar so the agent only offers times that are really open. Doug books straight onto it.
- Is a deposit going to scare people off?
- You set the amount, and it comes off the bill. A small deposit mostly filters out no-shows. You can also book without one.
