Research consistently shows that businesses responding to enquiries first win them the majority of the time. Most Australian businesses respond in hours — not minutes. Here's the data, the maths, and what you can do about it.
When a prospect submits an enquiry to a local service business, they're typically comparing three to five options simultaneously. Research from Harvard Business Review found that firms attempting contact within the first hour were significantly more likely to qualify leads than those waiting longer — and the advantage compounds dramatically when the response arrives in minutes rather than hours.
The Drift Lead Response Report consistently shows that the average B2B response time sits around 42 hours. Even in local services, most businesses don't respond to web enquiries until the next business day — if they respond at all. A prospect searching for a plumber, electrician, or mechanic at 9pm on a Tuesday is making a decision that evening. The business that responds first sets the frame for the entire conversation that follows.
Most business owners assume they lose jobs on price. The data suggests otherwise. A prospect who gets an immediate, professional response to their enquiry — one that addresses their specific situation and offers a clear next step — is far less likely to price-shop than one who waits hours for any response at all.
The waiting period creates doubt. "Are they busy? Are they disorganised? Would they be responsive if something went wrong?" Speed of response signals professionalism, capacity, and care — all before a word is spoken about price.
20 web enquiries per week. Current response time: 4 hours average. Estimated enquiries lost to faster competitors: 8–10 per week. Average job value: $800. Annual revenue lost to slow response: $320,000–$400,000. This is a conservative estimate that doesn't account for lifetime value.
The LeadLasso Speed to Lead automation doesn't send a generic acknowledgement. It reads the specific enquiry, identifies the service requested and the location mentioned, and sends a personalised response that addresses what the prospect actually asked — in under 60 seconds, on any channel, at any hour.
For a prospect who has submitted three enquiries simultaneously to three local businesses at 9:47pm, receiving a personalised, competent response within a minute — while the others are silent until morning — is a decisive advantage.
There are three approaches to building this capability:
The channel that matters most varies by industry — for tradies, it's typically phone and web forms. For real estate agents, it's portal enquiries. For e-commerce, it's live chat. The principle is the same: the prospect who gets a fast, relevant response from your business first is far more likely to become your customer.