What is the Optimal Lead-Response Time?

Lead response time is the amount of time it takes a representative from your business to respond to a customer initiating contact. This initial contact might be made through call, email, or a Web form. Regardless, many businesses struggle with the dilemma of how quickly they need to respond to their customer leads in order to have a better chance of gaining business from these potential customers. It is commonly believed that the quicker a representative from your business responds to an initial customer contact, the more likely it is that the potential customer will follow up with and buy goods or services from your business.

That rule of thumb is generally accurate. Studies have shown that, especially for time-sensitive service-based companies, quick lead-response time is critical. A five-minute lead-response time is most efficient for the majority of businesses. If a representative from your business fails to call within thirty minutes after receiving a customer lead instead of within five minutes, the chances of that potential customer actually purchasing from your business decreases by more than twenty times. Furthermore, even if your business makes contact with a potential customer in response to their lead after just ten minutes rather than within five minutes, your business’s chances of gaining that individual as a paying customer drop by four times. As you can see from these statistics, your lead-response time really does matter. Every minute you waste without attempting to make contact after receiving a customer lead

Despite this general truth regarding the significance of quick lead-response time, there are many other factors relating to lead-response times that can affect how much energy and funds you want to allocate toward this area of your business. First off, which day of the week and what time of day you follow up with an initial customer lead can significantly affect your business’s chances of gaining that lead as a paying customer. It is good to know that Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days of the week to follow up on a customer lead. On those two days of the week, you have the best chances of gaining real business from that potential customer. Furthermore, eight to nine AM and four to six PM are the best times of day to contact a lead and gaining business from that lead. Therefore, it is best to make contact with your leads between eight to nine AM or four to six PM on a Wednesday or Thursday, if possible.

One final thing to note is that, if it happens that you cannot get in touch with a customer lead within the first day, it is generally not worth your business’s time to try getting into contact with that lead at all. Evidence demonstrates that every attempt a representative from your company makes to get into contact with a customer lead after twenty hours actually decreases your company’s chances of gaining business from that customer.

There are many factors to consider when it comes to generating an optimal lead-response time for your business. The most foolproof way to go about generating this response time is to try to follow up with every customer lead as quickly as you can. However, if you have more time and energy to devote to generating an optimal lead-response time, it is important to consider the day of the week and the time of day at which you try to make contact with a potential customer lead. Your business’s lead-response time is never going to be perfect. There will always be incidences when you do not follow up quickly enough or you try to make contact on the wrong days and never succeed. However, by knowing the facts regarding optimal lead-response time, you can create an efficient lead-response time goal for your business in order to grow your business and gain the most paying customers as possible.