How can I test how fast my business replies?
Send a realistic enquiry through your own website form and WhatsApp from a personal phone, note the time to the second, then do nothing on the business side. Record when the first reply arrives, on which channel and whether it asks for useful details. Repeat in the evening and at the weekend.
Most owners believe they reply quickly. The only way to know is to test it the way a customer would. This self-test takes about five minutes, costs nothing and contacts nobody except your own business.
Why test it?
Enquiries rarely arrive when you are sitting at a desk. They come in while you are on a job, driving or with a client. Research published in Harvard Business Review (2011) found firms that contacted a lead within an hour were nearly 7x more likely to qualify it. A test shows you what your customers actually experience.
Step by step
- Use a personal phoneFrom your personal phone, not the business account, open your own website.
- Send a realistic enquiryNote the time to the second, then send a realistic enquiry through your contact form, for example “3-bed house, fortnightly clean, postcode LS6”.
- Repeat on WhatsAppSend the same message to your business WhatsApp.
- Start a timer and waitDo nothing on the business side. Don’t “help” it.
- Write down what happenedWhen did the first reply arrive (if at all), on which channel, and did it ask for anything useful such as postcode, size or frequency?
- Check where it landedDid the enquiry land somewhere you would see on a busy day, not a spam folder or an unread inbox?
- Try again at awkward timesRepeat at 7 pm and on a Sunday.
- Score itUnder 5 minutes is great; under 1 hour is OK; next day or never means you are probably losing quotes to whoever replies first.
- Clean upDelete your test enquiry so nobody quotes it.
What a good first reply looks like
- It arrives within minutes, on the channel the customer used.
- It thanks them and says when a person will be in touch.
- It repeats what they told you and asks only for what is missing.
- It is a plain service message: no offers or discounts (see auto-replies and PECR).
If your score was poor
You can fix it yourself with free tools, following our guide to Gmail limits and the planned Reply-in-5 Kit, or have it installed in 48 hours with Reply-in-5.