Speed to lead test
How fast does your business answer a new inquiry?
If your website is not getting calls, the problem is often not the website. The inquiries come in, and then they wait. Here is how to find out how long.
Inquiry sent just now
No reply yet
This clock started when you opened the page. That is how a new customer waits on you.
For $97, we contact your business the way a new customer would, time the reply, and show you what slow replies cost each year.
Test my reply timeNo contract. No retainer.
Answer a new inquiry within minutes, not hours.
A person who fills in your form or calls your number is usually asking more than one business at the same time. The first one to give a real answer tends to get the conversation. The conversation is where the job is won.
Why reply speed decides who gets hired
A customer reaches out at the moment they are ready to act. That moment does not last. If nobody answers, they do not sit and wait. They try the next name on the list, and the first business to pick up gets to ask the questions, give the price and book the visit. Being better does not help if the customer never hears from you.
This has been measured. In a 2011 Harvard Business Review article, "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads", researchers reported that companies which tried to contact a web lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as companies that tried an hour later. In their audit of 2,241 U.S. companies, the average first reply among those that answered took 42 hours.
Where inquiries die
Most businesses are not short of interest. They lose it somewhere between the first click and the first reply.
Each of these looks like "the website isn't getting leads" from the outside. None of them shows up in a traffic report.
The form that never reaches anyone
The website form sends to an old inbox, a former employee, or a spam folder. The customer sees a thank-you message. Nobody on your side sees anything at all.
Voicemail
The call goes to voicemail and the caller hangs up without a message. Many people will not leave one. They call the next number on the list instead.
The slow reply
The inquiry arrives, someone means to answer it, and the reply goes out the next afternoon. By then the customer has already talked to a business that answered first.
No second follow-up
One reply goes out, the customer is busy, and nobody tries again. A single attempt treats a missed connection as a lost customer.
No reply after hours
People look for help in the evening and on weekends, when they have time. If nothing answers until Monday morning, the weekend inquiries go to whoever did.
Test your own speed to lead today
You can mystery shop your own business this afternoon. It takes a few minutes to start and a few days to finish.
- 01
Use an email and phone your team won't recognize
Ask a friend, or use a personal email and number your staff do not know. The test only works if the inquiry looks like any other new customer.
- 02
Submit your own website form
Fill in the form on your site with a normal request. Write down the exact time you sent it, or start the timer on this page.
- 03
Call after hours
Call your main number in the evening or on a weekend. Note what happens: a person, a voicemail, a text back, or nothing.
- 04
Time the first real reply
An auto-reply does not count. Stop the clock when a person answers with something useful, and note who replied and how.
- 05
Wait for the second follow-up
Do not answer the first reply. Over the next few days, see whether anyone tries again, and how many times.
- 06
Write down what a customer would have seen
Time to first reply, whether the after-hours call was answered, and how many follow-ups came. That is your speed to lead today.
Your reply timer
0m 00s
Press start the moment your test inquiry goes out.
The start time stays in this browser only, so you can close the tab and come back.
Got a number? Put it into the lost lead calculator to see what slow replies may cost you in a year.
Before you hire anyone to fix this
A slow reply is rarely fixed by more ads or a new website. It is fixed by knowing exactly where the inquiry stalls, then changing that one step: where the form sends, who answers the phone after six, what goes out automatically, and when the second follow-up happens.
So ask anyone you are about to hire one question first: how fast does my business answer a real customer today? If they cannot tell you, they have not looked. The follow-up side of this is what marketing automation is for.
Or have us run the test for $97
Testing yourself is hard to do neutrally. Your staff may know your number, and you already know the answer you hope for. The $97 review runs the test from outside.
- With your consent, we contact your business the way a new customer would, and time the reply.
- We check what Google and AI assistants say about your business when a customer looks you up.
- You see where customers give up, and what that costs you each year.
- You get what to fix first. A person conducts every review, not software.
No contract. No retainer. See how the $97 review works.
Questions owners ask
Within minutes during business hours, and by the start of the next morning at the latest after hours. A customer who contacts you is often contacting other businesses too. The first useful reply usually gets the conversation.
Sometimes the website really is the problem. Often the inquiries do arrive and then die: the form sends to the wrong inbox, calls go to voicemail, or replies come too late. Run the self-test on this page before you spend more on traffic.
Yes. Use an email and number your team won't recognize, submit your form, call after hours, and time the first real reply. The hard part is staying neutral about your own business, which is why some owners have someone outside do it.
No. Vantum only sends a test inquiry with the owner's consent. Your staff are not told when it is coming, so the reply is the one a real customer would get.
A real outside inquiry with the reply timed, a check of what Google and AI assistants say about your business, and a plain account of where customers give up, what it costs each year, and what to fix first. A person conducts every review, not software. No contract, no retainer.
Find out what a new customer waits through.
One real inquiry, timed from outside. $97.