By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
Why do most quotes go cold before anyone follows up?
Most quotes do not get lost because the price was wrong. They get lost because nobody circled back at the right moment. A trade business sends the quote, the ute moves to the next job, and the quote sits in an inbox with no date attached to it.
There is rarely a clear point in the day when a tradie is meant to chase quotes. It is squeezed between jobs or left for the evening, and the evening often has more pressing things in it. By the time anyone remembers, the customer has already rung three other businesses and picked whoever called back first.
What does chasing quotes actually cost a trade business?
When the follow up does happen, it often happens late, rushed, and at a random hour that has nothing to do with when the customer is most likely to read it. A text sent at ten at night after a long day rarely reads the way the owner meant it to.
This can quietly cost a trade business work it should have won. The job was not lost on price. It was lost because the gap between sending the quote and following it up was too wide, and a competitor filled that gap first. Most owners can point to a quote they know they should have chased and did not.
How do you stop a quote falling off the list?
You stop it falling off the list by putting something in the gap, right at the point where quotes usually go quiet. That is the method: find where the problem starts and put an agent just before it, so the quote cannot sit untouched for days without anyone noticing.
An AI agent is software that does a job the way you would do it, using your prices, your wording and your rules, rather than a generic template. For quote follow up, that means the agent watches every quote you send and acts on your behalf the moment it has gone quiet, without you needing to remember it exists.
This is the job an agent takes off you here. Not the quoting itself, and not the conversation once a customer is ready to talk, but the chasing in between, which is the part that usually falls through.
What does an AI agent actually do with a quote once it is sent?
Once a quote goes out, the agent keeps an eye on it and follows your rules for what happens next. If there is no reply within the time you set, it sends the next message in your own words and tone, not a stiff automated line that sounds nothing like you.
Picture a plumber who sends a quote on a Friday afternoon for a bathroom renovation. Normally that quote waits until Monday, if it gets chased at all. With an agent in place, a polite check in can go out on Saturday morning, worded the way the plumber would word it, asking if there are any questions and offering to lock in a start date. The plumber never has to remember to send it.
If the customer replies, the agent can pass that straight back so the owner can jump on the phone for the bigger jobs, or it can book the smaller ones straight in, depending on the rules the owner has set.
When is the right time for the follow up to happen?
The right time is whatever gap you decide gives the quote the best chance, not whatever time of day you happen to remember. That might be a day after sending, three days after, or a short string of touches over a week or two, depending on the size of the job and how your customers usually behave.
The advantage of an agent is that it does not care what hour it is. It can send the follow up at the point you have organised in advance, whether that is early morning, the middle of the afternoon, or a weekend, without anyone sitting at a screen waiting to press send. The Agent Office runs that timing in the background so the follow up lands when it should, not when there is finally a spare minute.
What should the follow up message actually say?
It should sound like you, offer something useful, and make it easy to say yes. A generic nudge asking if the customer has made a decision rarely moves anything along. A message that repeats the good, better, best options from the quote, answers a likely question, and offers to book the job in tends to do more work.
Because the agent is set up with your pricing, your wording and your rules, the message it sends carries your voice rather than a template voice. That consistency is often what keeps a follow up from feeling like spam, even when it is sent automatically every time a quote goes quiet.
