Five things should happen every time someone enquires: the enquiry is acknowledged, recorded in one place, given an owner, answered with a clear next step, and followed up on a set schedule until the person says yes or no. Most businesses do the first one and drop the rest. This guide shows what should happen in the first hour, the first day, the first week and the first fortnight, so you can write it down and make it routine.
Why the period right after an enquiry matters
When someone enquires, they have just told you they are interested. They have also probably told one or two of your competitors. Whatever happens next decides whether the conversation continues or quietly ends. Because they have already reached out, this is the cheapest moment in the whole customer journey to win or lose a customer: the marketing has been paid for, and what remains is how you handle the person.
The trouble is that this period is usually handled by habit rather than process. A reply goes out when someone has time. A follow-up happens when someone remembers. Nobody can say afterwards which enquiries were answered and which were forgotten. A simple timeline fixes this by deciding in advance what happens, when and who does it.
If you want the bigger picture first, read our guide to lead and enquiry conversion. This article focuses on the timeline itself.
The first hour: acknowledge, record, assign
Three small jobs belong in the first hour of every enquiry, even if the full answer takes longer.
- Acknowledge. Send a short message that thanks the person, confirms what they asked about and says when they will hear from you. This can be written once and reused. It tells them the enquiry arrived and that a real business is on the other end.
- Record. Write the enquiry down in one place: name, contact details, what they asked, where it came from and the date. One shared list or spreadsheet is enough. If enquiries live only in inboxes, phones and notebooks, some will be lost.
- Assign. Decide who owns this enquiry. Without a named owner, everyone assumes someone else is dealing with it.
These three jobs cost a few minutes. They are also the ones most often skipped when a business is busy.
The first day: understand the need and give a clear next step
Within the first day, send a proper reply. A good first reply does two things: it shows you understood what the person asked, and it makes the next step obvious.
To understand the need, ask a small number of well-chosen questions rather than a long form. Two or three questions that show you have read their message are better than ten that make them repeat themselves. If you can answer their question directly, do so, and then offer the next step.
The next step should be specific. “Let me know if you are interested” leaves all the work to the customer. “Reply with a time that suits you for a short call this week” or “Here is how booking works and what it costs” gives them something to do. Our guide to how quickly you should respond to an enquiry goes deeper on setting a response standard that fits your business.
Days two to five: follow up with something useful
If you have not heard back, a follow-up is not pestering. Most people who go quiet are busy, comparing options or waiting for a better moment. A follow-up that adds something useful keeps your business in their mind.
Useful might mean answering a question they are likely to have, sharing a short guide, or describing how your process works so the next step feels less uncertain. Avoid a message that only says “just checking in”. It adds nothing and is easy to ignore.
Decide in advance how many follow-ups you will send and when. Our article on building a simple lead follow-up system gives an example schedule and message templates you can adapt.
Days six to fourteen: check in, then close the loop
In the second week, send a short, friendly check-in that makes it easy to answer either way: yes, not now or no. Then close the loop. Tell the person you will stop messaging for now and that they are welcome to come back. This is polite, it protects your reputation, and it often prompts a reply from people who were meaning to answer but had not got round to it.
Closing the loop also helps you. An enquiry with a clear outcome (won, lost, or paused) gives you cleaner numbers than one that simply drifts.
A one-page checklist
You can adapt this table into a checklist for your team. The timings are examples, not rules.
| When | What happens | Who | Done? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Within the first hour | Acknowledge the enquiry, record it, assign an owner | Named owner | |
| Within the first day | Send a personal reply with a clear next step | Owner | |
| Days 2 to 5 | Follow up with something useful if there is no reply | Owner | |
| Days 6 to 14 | Friendly check-in, then close the loop | Owner | |
| When there is an outcome | Record won, lost or paused, and the reason if known | Owner |
The timeline by channel
Enquiries do not all arrive the same way. The principle is the same, but the details differ.
| Channel | Watch out for | A good habit |
|---|---|---|
| Phone | Calls missed or taken without notes | Write down every call straight after, and return missed calls the same day |
| Messages buried in a busy inbox | A shared inbox or a rule that flags new enquiries | |
| Website form | An automatic confirmation that says nothing useful | A confirmation that states what happens next and when |
| Messaging apps and social media | Enquiries scattered across several apps | Copy each one into your single list as soon as it arrives |
What to automate and what to keep personal
Automation is useful for the parts that repeat and do not need judgement: the instant acknowledgement, recording the enquiry in your list, reminding the owner to follow up and sending scheduled follow-up messages. It means nothing depends on memory.
Keep the human parts human: understanding what the customer needs, answering their specific questions and deciding whether a lead is a good fit. Automate the process, not the relationship. And write the process down before you automate it, because automation makes a clear process faster and an unclear one messier. What is a business growth system? explains how the pieces fit together.
Common mistakes
- Replying only to the enquiries that seem most promising.
- Sending one reply and never following up.
- Letting each team member handle enquiries in a different way.
- Leaving the next step vague.
- Never recording the outcome, so you cannot learn which enquiries were lost and why.
Where to go from here
Start small. Write the five steps on one page, agree who owns them and use them for the next ten enquiries. Then look at what happened and adjust. If you would like ready-made starting points, the Business Growth Toolkit includes editable checklists and templates you can adapt to your own process. And if you would like a follow-up system built for your business, see the Business Growth Automation System packages.
Frequently asked questions
How soon should I reply to a new enquiry?
Acknowledge it within the first hour if you can, and send a proper reply within the same business day. The right target depends on your business, so set one you can meet consistently and measure how often you meet it.
What if they do not answer my follow-up?
Send a short sequence of follow-ups spread over one to two weeks, then close the loop politely. Stop sooner if the person says they are not interested.
Should I follow up by phone or by message?
Use the channel the person used to contact you, and offer another if it helps. Someone who emailed may prefer an email; someone who phoned may welcome a call.
What counts as an enquiry?
Any contact where someone shows interest in what you offer: a call, an email, a form submission or a message. If in doubt, treat it as an enquiry and record it.
Keep reading
- Lead and enquiry conversion: a practical guide
- Why your business gets enquiries but not enough customers
- How to build a simple lead follow-up system
- What is a business growth system?
- Why customers go quiet after a quote
Part of our guide series: Lead and enquiry conversion: a practical guide.
