Speed to lead: the first reply wins the job.

What speed to lead means

Speed to lead is a measurement: the clock starts when a lead reaches you (a form submit, a missed call, a text, an email, a Facebook message) and stops at your first real reply. Not an auto-responder that says "we received your message". A reply that moves the conversation: a question, a booking link, a callback promise with a time on it.

It matters because a person looking for a plumber, a cleaner or a med spa is not sending one enquiry. They are sending three, and then doing something else. The first business that gets back to them is the one that is still on their mind when they pick the phone up again.

What the research says about response time

The numbers below are from two published studies, linked at the bottom of this page. They are the only speed-to-lead figures we quote, because most of the statistics that circulate on this topic have no traceable source.

• A 2011 audit of 2,241 U.S. companies found the average response to a web lead was 42 hours. Only 37% replied within an hour, 24% took more than 24 hours, and 23% never replied at all. [1]
• In the same study, companies that reached the lead within an hour were about seven times as likely to qualify it as companies that waited one more hour, and more than sixty times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or longer. [1]
• A 2007 study of lead response found the odds of making contact drop roughly 100 times when the first attempt happens at 30 minutes instead of inside 5 minutes, and the odds of qualifying the lead drop 21 times. [2]

You do not need to be at the phone to win on these numbers. You need a system that replies in the first minute and keeps the conversation warm until you are free.

How we get you under 60 seconds

We do not sell you software to configure. We set the system up around how your business already works, we run it, and we answer for the result. The pieces that make the first minute happen:

1. Every channel lands in one inbox. Your phone number, your website form, texts, email, and (once Meta's app review clears) your Facebook and Instagram messages arrive in one place, in one thread per customer. Nothing is sitting in a voicemail box or a personal phone.
2. The first reply goes out inside a minute. A new lead gets a first touch within 60 seconds, by text or email, from a message you approved in advance. It is your wording, not something an AI made up on the spot. It is switched on by you, so nothing automatic goes to a person unless you decided it should.
3. Missed calls get a text straight away. If a call goes unanswered, the caller gets a text from your number while they are still holding the phone. See missed call text back.
4. Calls get answered when you cannot. An AI front desk picks up, takes the details, books where it can, and hands anything complex to a person. The line at the bottom of this page is answered that way. See AI receptionist.
5. Follow-up does not quit. If the lead does not reply, the conversation stays in a follow-up cadence until they answer, book, or opt out. See lead follow-up automation.
6. You get the conversation, not a notification. When you are free, the thread is waiting with everything the customer said, so you pick up mid-conversation instead of starting from a missed call.

How we measure it, and what we measured

The first-touch timer is built into the software we run (our own product, Relay), and we measure it on our own business line, not in a demo environment. Our last measurement of the first reply on our own line was 2.9 seconds. That is the number on our homepage, and we will update it when we measure again.

Your own number will depend on the channel and the message you approve. A text goes out faster than an email. A reply that asks a question performs better than a reply that only confirms receipt. We set both with you on the call.

Who this is for

Businesses where a lead is worth real money and the owner is the one answering the phone: trades (plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing), cleaning and landscaping companies, med spas and clinics, groomers and boarders, agents and small practices. It is also built for a business that is just getting started, or starting over, and wants the phone and the follow-up handled from day one.

It is not for a business with a full-time front desk that already answers everything in under a minute. If that is you, the money is better spent elsewhere, and we will say so on the call.