The call comes in. You drive out. You diagnose it, price the part, write the quote and hand it over.
Then nothing.
You do not chase it because you are already on the next job, and a week later it is buried under twelve more. Multiply that by a year and there is a pile of work sitting there that you already paid to create.
Why this is the most expensive silence in the trade
Everything expensive about that job already happened. The drive, the diagnostic time, the parts research, writing the quote. All of it is spent.
The only thing missing is the customer saying yes, and the most common reason they never said yes is not price. It is that life got in the way and nobody reminded them.
They meant to think about it. Then work happened, then the weekend happened, and by Tuesday it was easier to just live with the noisy dryer.
Price out the quotes you never heard back on
How many quotes you send, how many close, and what one is worth. It shows what is sitting in the pile you stopped calling, which for most shops is the cheapest money available to them.
Your numbers
Percentage points added to your close rate, not a percent of a percent.
What that means
Day 1 text, day 3 call, day 7 email, day 14 last-call text. Four touches, written once, sent automatically. That is the whole system.
What this assumed
- Assumes quoted work is still winnable, which stops being true after a few weeks.
Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
This is an estimate
This tool returns an estimate based on the numbers you entered. Your real result depends on your own costs, rates and conditions. Check it against your own records before you make a decision with it.
How to run it, step by step
- 1Count quotes, not calls. How many written estimates went out last month after a diagnostic. Only the ones where you gave a real number for a real repair.
- 2Count how many turned into work. Approved and completed. If somebody approved it and then ghosted before the part came, that is not closed, and it belongs in the unclosed pile where it can be worked.
- 3Use the average value of a completed repair. Parts and labor together, blended across your normal mix. Not your biggest compressor job and not a dryer belt.
- 4Estimate a realistic recovery rate. What share of the dead quotes would come back with two proper follow-ups? Be conservative. Even a small recovery on a big pile is a large number in this trade.
How to read what it gives you
- The unclosed total is work you already paid to create. The truck went out, the diagnostic happened, the quote got written. That cost is spent whether or not the job books.
- Compare the recoverable figure to what you spend on advertising. Following up on quotes you already have is almost always cheaper per job than buying new calls.
- If your close rate is low but your quotes are fair, the problem is usually silence after the quote, not the price on it.
The tool is free, it does not expire, and you can put it on your own website if you want it there. Nothing on this page is locked.
Not ready to talk? Browse the rest of the free tools
The two messages
Forty-eight hours. Short and specific. "Hi, it is Ryan from the shop. Just checking on the quote for the fridge compressor. Want me to order the part?" That is it. Reference the actual appliance so it is obviously not a mass text.
About a week. Now the annoyance has had time to build. "Still happy to get that dryer sorted whenever you are ready. The part is available and I could be out Thursday." A specific day converts far better than an open offer, because it turns a decision into a yes or no.
Two messages. Both under thirty words. That is the entire system, and in most appliance repair businesses it is worth more than any advertising they could buy with the same effort.
Why it does not happen
Not laziness. Memory. You are under a sink or behind a washer, and the moment to follow up passes while your hands are full.
Which is exactly why it should not depend on remembering. If your invoicing or scheduling software can trigger a message a set number of days after a quote goes out, turn it on today. If it cannot, a recurring twenty minute block on Friday afternoon with a list of the week's open quotes does the same job.
The mechanism matters less than the fact that it is not you remembering.
What the pile tells you
Once you are following up, the responses sort themselves into three groups and each one is useful.
"Yes, go ahead." This is the money you were leaving on the table. In most shops it is the largest group.
"We decided to replace it." Fine, and worth knowing. If this group is large, your quotes may be landing too close to the price of new, and that is a conversation to have during the diagnostic rather than after.
Silence. Some people just go quiet. Two messages and move on. Do not chase a third.
The bigger picture
Almost every repair business assumes that more work means more leads. Very often it means more of the leads you already had.
You already paid for the truck to go out. Ask for the job again.
Questions people actually ask
How many times should I follow up?
Two is the sweet spot for most repair shops. One at about forty-eight hours while it is still fresh, one at about a week when they have had the annoyance of living without the appliance. A third rarely helps and starts to feel like pressure.
Text or call?
Text first, in this trade. People screen calls from numbers they do not recognise and they read texts. Keep it short, reference the specific appliance, and make it easy to reply with one word.
Should I charge for the diagnostic?
Most established shops do, and they credit it against the repair if the customer proceeds. It stops the truck rolling for free and it makes the follow-up conversation easier, because the customer already has money committed.
What if they just decided to buy a new one?
Some will, and that is fine. Knowing that is still useful, because a quote that died on repair-versus-replace is a different problem from one that died on price or on silence, and the fixes are not the same.