The deal that leaves the house isn't lost yet

Is the homeowner still shopping after you leave?

Almost always. In a 2025 roofing survey, 66% of homeowners said they would gather three quotes and 1% said they would accept one.1

So the rep who leaves without a written number, or promises one "by the end of the week," may be handing the homeowner to whoever sends theirs first.

That is the part of the sale Chapter 02 can't see. A recording of the appointment tells you what was said at the table. It doesn't tell you what the homeowner read on their phone at 9 pm.

How fast do contractors actually respond?

Slowly. Among 1,071 HVAC businesses using Hatch, which sells lead follow-up software, 88% took more than five minutes to reply to a new lead and only 3% replied in under a minute.2

Hatch measures replies to new leads, not follow-up after an appointment. I'd still expect the habit to carry over. A shop that takes a day to answer a web form rarely texts within the hour after a kitchen table quote.

The speed studies everyone quotes are old

The famous numbers come from research done in 2007 and 2011. The 2007 figures survive mostly in vendor blog posts, so I've left them out. The 2011 Harvard Business Review study audited 2,241 U.S. companies: 37% answered a web lead within an hour, and 23% never answered at all.4 In a separate set of 1.25 million leads, firms that tried to reach a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited even an hour longer.4 Those studies measured whether a lead was reached or qualified, not whether it bought.

That is the gap we can fill. SalesAsk sees the appointment and the follow-up thread that comes after it, so it can measure how many no-decision appointments still close at each hour of delay. That chart leads this chapter once the data pull is done.

Is one follow-up message enough?

No. In Hatch's data, the worst campaign was a single message, with an 8% response rate. The average campaign got 60%.2

Phone still matters in home services. Invoca, which sells call tracking software, put home services phone-lead conversion at 45% in its 2026 benchmarks, against 42% across industries. It also found 64% of businesses don't ask leads to buy or book an appointment on the call.5

Do homeowners want a text or a call?

Both, depending on the moment. Nobody has measured it well for the follow-up after a quote.

Homeowners do expect texts once the work starts. In Housecall Pro's October 2025 survey of 1,040 homeowners, 59% said they expect text updates throughout the job.6 Housecall Pro sells software to home service businesses, and that question is about the job, not the quote. I haven't found a recent homeowner survey that compares text, email and phone side by side.

My guess is that the follow-up text that works names something from the appointment: the basement, the dog, the mother-in-law moving in. It is a guess. It is on the list below because we can check it.

What does the homeowner check while they decide?

Your reviews. 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses.7

BrightLocal, which sells local marketing software, surveyed 1,002 U.S. adults for its 2026 report. 41% always read reviews, up from 29% the year before. 85% said positive reviews make them more likely to use a business, and 77% said negative reviews make them less likely.7

What rules apply after the table?

Two that every in-home team should know, the cooling-off period and recording consent.

Under the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule, a homeowner can cancel most sales of $25 or more made at their home until midnight of the third business day after the sale. Saturdays count as business days; Sundays and federal holidays don't.3

Recording is the other one. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press lists about 11 states that require everyone's consent to record a conversation, including California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington. Missouri and Oregon also require all-party consent for in-person conversations, though not for phone calls.8 Disclose the recording at the start of the appointment. This is a summary, not legal advice; check your state.