Response speed

Response speed measures the time between a client's first move — a call, a text, a form — and the company's first reply. Studies on lead qualification converge: the odds of reaching and converting a lead collapse as minutes pass — answering within the first hour rather than the next one meaningfully changes the outcome, and waiting hours often means answering a competitor. The phone pushes the logic to its extreme: a call not answered within the minute goes elsewhere, because the client already has the next number on screen.

Response speed isn't the same as round-the-clock availability: the point is to send an immediate signal, not to hold conversations at all hours. The text-back sent within ten seconds of a missed call is the archetype of good effort-to-effect ratio: three lines of text, an acknowledgment ("we saw your call"), an offered slot. The client expects little — except total silence, which reads as a negative answer. The management rule that follows: measure first-response delay every week, the way you count the till.