The radio contests are coming. In the next couple weeks, you’ll no doubt be hearing “Be caller 10 to win tickets to the Super Bowl!” over and over again. If you don’t dial right away, you can forget about winning. And if you don’t keep calling, you’ll never get through. The challenge is half timing and half determination.
Timing and determination means a lot when you respond to a prospect’s inquiry, too. It has long been a best practice to call a homeowner back as fast as possible when they submit an online form.
Logic says that the faster you call them back, the more appointments you will set. But exactly how fast are we talking? And how much does it really matter?
A client asked me recently, so I did some digging around in the Keyword Connects’ call center, and the results were startling. As it turns out, set rates are significantly higher if you’re timely and determined to win.
Where the Data Comes From
Our on-shore, homegrown call center takes thousands of inbound calls per month. Some of our home improvement clients (about 15%) ask us to call back the web forms that we generate for them via our pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns – and set appointments with homeowners for them.
Most studies will show you that calling back web leads within 1 hour generates significantly stronger results. What’s more, calling back within 5 minutes generates better results than calling back after the first 5 minutes of receiving the web form.
But what about those first 5 minutes? Is there a difference between a call back made in 1 minute, 2 minutes, and so on?
Breaking it Down, Minute by Minute
It turns out there is a difference. A pretty big difference, in fact. Here are the numbers.
- Minute 1: When we called back a web form within 1 minute, we were 28% more successful at setting an appointment with that homeowner than we were in Minute 2.
- Minute 2: We were 15% more likely to set an appointment than in Minutes 3 and 4.
- Minute 3, 4 and 5: In this period of time, performance plateaus – there was no significant difference in the appointment set rate.
The difference between calling back in Minute 1 and Minute 3 was 48%. I repeat: you are 48% more likely to set an appointment by calling a homeowner back within the first minute than you are two minutes later!
Making Every Minute Count
I know not everyone has the infrastructure to manage such small periods of time, but attention spans are only getting shorter…capturing a homeowner’s attention and maintaining their momentum is key. The sooner you can do it, the better your chances will be to get front row seats to better business and better profits.
