Articles · by Nathan

Why the first reply wins: what a study of 2,241 companies found about enquiry speed

Most businesses think their offer wins the client. Very often it is something simpler: who replied first.

What the study found

In 2011, researchers published the results of an audit of 2,241 US companies in the Harvard Business Review. They sent web enquiries and timed the replies.

• The average first reply took 42 hours.
• 23% of companies never replied at all.
• Companies that replied within an hour were nearly seven times more likely to have a meaningful conversation with the decision maker than companies that waited even one hour longer.

Source: Harvard Business Review, “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads”, March 2011. The study is older, but the pattern it describes, that interest fades fast, is why speed-to-lead is still the first thing most sales teams measure.

Why it matters even more for agents

A renter looking for an apartment does not send one enquiry. They send several, often in the evening. The first agency to offer a viewing slot usually gets the viewing. The others get a polite “already found something”, or nothing.

What you can do this week, for free

1. Measure it. Look at your last 20 enquiries and write down how long the first reply took. Most people are surprised.
2. Write three templates. One for “is it available?”, one for viewing requests, one for questions about rules like pets or income. Most enquiries fit one of them.
3. Cover the evening. Decide who checks enquiries between 19:00 and 22:00, even for ten minutes.

When it is worth automating

If you get more than a handful of enquiries a day, or most of them arrive outside office hours, a system that drafts the reply for you to approve saves hours a week and answers people while they are still looking. You can open a live example or get a free demo on your own website.

Want your own number? The enquiry cost calculator estimates what slow replies cost you per month.