Quote Follow-Up Automation for Contractors

Why quotes go quiet

A quote goes out, the customer says they will think about it, and the next time anyone mentions it is never. You are busy on the next job. The customer is comparing two or three other quotes. Nobody is being rude.

A short, polite follow-up on a schedule fixes most of that. It does not need to be pushy. Each text below asks one easy question.

The six-text cadence

Replace the items in brackets. Every text names the business, asks one thing, offers a reply option, and ends with the opt-out. All are within 160 characters, the limit Twilio's documentation gives for one standard text. They assume a business name up to 25 characters, a customer name up to 12, a job description up to 20, a date up to 10 and a link up to 35; the count under each text uses those lengths.

How the schedule maps onto your software

In Jobber

From Jobber's Automations help page:

1. Select the gear icon, then Settings, then Automations. Only admin users can open it.
2. Under the Quotes heading, select a quote follow-up card to open Edit Automation.
3. Set the number of days after the quote was sent. The maximum is 90 days.
4. Edit the message and select Save Automation.

Jobber offers two quote follow-up automations, so the built-in cards cover two of the six texts. Follow-ups go out in the same way as the original quote, text or email, and the client needs "outstanding quote follow-ups" enabled on their profile. The page says quote follow-ups need the Connect plan or higher.

For more than two, Jobber's Custom Automation Builder help page describes a path of Gear Icon, Settings, Automations, then New Automation. It lists day-based delays of up to 90 days after a quote is sent and a Notify action that can send a text. It says the feature is on select plans. It does not list an hours-based delay, so send the 2 hour text by hand.

In Housecall Pro

From Housecall Pro's Getting Started with Pipeline help page:

1. Click Pipeline in the left navigation, then select the gear icon at the top right of the board.
2. At the top of the Automation settings, choose Estimates.
3. Use the pencil icon on a rule to change its timing, in days.
4. Click Edit next to Automated message to change the message. SMS is editable only if Custom SMS is set up.
5. Click Update, then Save.

The estimate rules resend the estimate and move it through First, Second and Third Follow-Up. A last rule declines the estimate if it is still unapproved. That is three resends, so it covers part of the cadence above. Housecall Pro's Pipeline FAQs say follow-ups go out by email or text, matching how the estimate was first sent, and that timeframes can be entered as decimals of a day. Automation settings are on the web portal, not the mobile app.

In ServiceM8

From ServiceM8's Quote Follow Up Automation help page:

1. Turn on the Automation add-on in Settings, then ServiceM8 Add-ons.
2. Go to Settings, then Automation, and click Edit next to Quote Follow Up.
3. Choose how many follow-ups to send. The maximum is 5.
4. For each follow-up, choose email, SMS or both, and set the timing. The help page's own example is an SMS 3 hours after the quote and an email 3 days after.
5. Write a template for each follow-up.

The page says the Automation add-on is available on all plans and that each SMS uses a text credit. Follow-ups stop when the customer replies and you have not answered or dismissed the reply, when they accept the quote online, or when the job status is changed by hand. Five follow-ups plus one sent by hand covers the six-text cadence. The help page's own example uses a delay measured in hours, so a text near the 2 hour mark may be possible; check the timing options on your screen.

In Tradify

From Tradify's Turn on Quote Reminders help page:

1. Go to Settings, then Quotes, and find the Email Reminders section.
2. Toggle on Send email reminders, and Send Text Reminders if you want SMS as well.
3. Adjust the Message to Customer and select Save.

The page says reminders go out 7 and 14 days after the quote is sent and 3 days before it expires, and stop when the quote expires or is accepted or declined. That timing is fixed on the page, so Tradify covers two of the six texts. Send the others by hand.

Everything else

If your software has no quote automation, put the six texts in your phone's notes and send them by hand. Set a reminder when you send each quote. It takes about 30 seconds per text.

Rules that keep follow-up polite

• Stop the moment the customer replies, whatever they say. Answer them yourself.
• Honor STOP and similar words every time. The FCC's 2024 order covers how consumers can withdraw consent.
• Name your business in every text.
• Send during normal hours. Housecall Pro's Pipeline guide describes Quiet Hours, which lets Pros with 24/7 business hours stop automated pipeline texts from sending overnight and holds them until the soonest business hour. The same page says it is available "On the Web and for Pros enrolled in the alpha", so check that your account has it before you rely on it.
• Close the quote in text 6 and then close it in your system.

Questions contractors ask

About the author

Adrien Harrison is the founder of OpsJuice. On our assessment page he describes OpsJuice as an operations shop for trades and home service businesses, and says he builds and runs these automations in his own companies first. Before OpsJuice he worked in startup mentorship and accelerator programs.

Sources

• Jobber: Automations
• Jobber: Custom Automation Builder
• Housecall Pro: Getting Started with Pipeline
• Housecall Pro: Pipeline FAQs
• ServiceM8: Quote Follow Up Automation
• Tradify: Turn on Quote Reminders
• Twilio: How long can a message be?
• FCC order 24-24 on revoking consent to calls and texts

Vendor menus change. Each setup section above names the help page it came from; if a label does not match your screen, that page is the current version.