The enquiries you're losing without knowing
Most work goes to whoever gets back first. And most owners are up a ladder when the message lands. Here's how to stop losing jobs you never knew you had.
Enquiries don't come down one pipe any more. A call, a text, a Facebook message, a form on your website, a WhatsApp off a mate's recommendation. They land all day, and they land while you've got your hands full. The person on the other end rarely waits. They message two or three firms and go with whoever answers first, which often isn't the best one, just the quickest.
That same 2026 HeyBRB survey found most trades owners are so buried in admin they're doing it in the evenings, which tells you when the daytime messages are getting answered: late, or not at all. Here's how to tighten it up, and most of it costs nothing.
Get every enquiry into one place
If leads are scattered across your call log, your texts, a Facebook page you check twice a week and a website inbox you forgot the password to, some are dying quietly. You can't answer what you can't see.
Do this: pick one place everything funnels into, even if it's just forwarding them all to one phone to start with.
Reply fast, even if it's just to say you'll reply
You don't have to quote in five minutes. You have to answer in five minutes. "Got your message, I'm on a job, I'll call you at five" keeps the door shut to the next firm.
Do this: the moment you can glance at your phone, fire back a one-line holding reply. It's the single biggest difference between winning and losing the job.
Have a holding message ready to go
If you have to think of what to type each time, you won't do it when you're busy. Write it once.
Do this: save a reply in your phone you can fire in two taps. Friendly, says when you'll be in touch, done.
Follow up the quiet ones once
Plenty of people who go quiet aren't a no, they just got busy too. A single nudge a day or two later brings a fair few back from the dead.
Do this: once a week, run back over the enquiries that didn't turn into anything and send one friendly follow-up.
Notice where they come from
If half your work comes off Facebook and you're pouring time somewhere else, you're pulling the wrong lever. Knowing where enquiries land tells you where to spend your effort.
Do this: jot down, for a month, where each enquiry came from. The pattern tells you a lot.
You can't win a job you never saw come in. Speed is the whole game, and it's the one thing a busy owner can't give it.
An honest word: with a shared inbox and real discipline you can do a lot of this yourself. If you've got someone in the office who can stay on top of it, you might not need me.
Where I come in is for the owner who's on the tools all day. I build an enquiry catcher that pulls every call, text, message and form into one place, fires back a reply in seconds so nothing goes cold, and flags the ones worth stopping for. You stay on the job, and no lead slips. That's one of the systems I build on a flat monthly fee.
How many enquiries are you missing?
Tell me how yours come in. I'll tell you straight where you're likely losing them and what it'd take to catch the lot. No hard sell.
Source: UK Admin Drain Report 2026, HeyBRB (via Electrical Times).