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Within the hour, and faster is better. 70% of UK consumers say they are likely to choose the business that responds first, and only 23% would keep trying after getting no response.¹ The job usually goes to whoever answers, not whoever is best. For a trade business on the tools all day, that is the leak that matters most.
In January 2026, 77% of UK business decision-makers believed a customer who got no response would try again. Only 23% of consumers said they would.¹ A 54-point gap between what businesses assume and what customers do. Silence is read as a no.
Across 70 million calls to US home-services businesses, only 52% of callers ever spoke to a person.² A decade earlier in the UK, a third of micro businesses failed to answer their phones consistently, and 69% of callers who reached voicemail hung up without leaving a message.³ The pattern has not changed. The phone rings, nobody answers, the caller moves on.
55% of home-service customers expect a reply within an hour and 28% expect an immediate one. Only 20% of businesses reply within the hour; 60% manage same day.⁴ The classic study of 2,241 US companies found 23% never responded to a web enquiry at all, and the average response among those that did was 42 hours. Firms responding within an hour were about seven times more likely to qualify the lead than those waiting one more hour.⁵ It is fifteen years old. Nothing since contradicts it.
A 2026 mystery shop sent 500 enquiries to trades across Germany’s ten largest cities. Between 24% and 63% went unanswered. Roofers replied to 37 in 100. In no trade did more than a third of enquiries produce a booked appointment.⁶ 85% of German craft firms say customers now expect constant availability.⁷ The customer’s expectation has changed. The trade’s habits mostly have not.
Nobody on the tools can answer every call. The fix is not heroics; it is a system:
Knight Li Group, a UK consultancy for trades and small businesses, sets these up so the phone always gets answered and every enquiry is acknowledged inside minutes, and measures how many jobs it recovers.
Within the hour, same day at the latest. 55% of home-service customers expect a reply within an hour and 28% expect an immediate one, but only 20% of businesses reply that fast. 70% of UK consumers say they choose the business that responds first, so speed decides the job before price does.
Usually the job goes elsewhere. Only 23% of UK consumers say they would keep trying after no response, and 69% of callers who reach voicemail hang up without leaving a message. A text within a minute of the missed call, saying when you will ring back, brings many of them back.
Mostly, yes. 70% of UK consumers say they are likely to choose the business that responds first, and in the US the figure is 83%. Responding first does not mean quoting first; an acknowledgement within minutes, followed by the quote the same day, is what customers count as a response.
By making sure every call is answered or acknowledged by something: an automatic text reply to missed calls, a call-answering person or assistant that books the job and passes on the details, and same-day quotes from a phone template. Knight Li Group, a UK consultancy for trades and small businesses, sets this up and measures the jobs it recovers.
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¹ Moneypenny, research by Censuswide, January 2026, 5,001 UK consumers and 2,000 UK business decision-makers. ² Invoca, Home Services Lead Conversion Benchmarks Report 2026, 70 million calls (US). ³ Moneypenny, Small Business Call Report 2016, 300 UK micro businesses and call data from 10,000 businesses. ⁴ Jobber, Home Service Trends Report 2026, 1,050 US home-service businesses, December 2025. ⁵ Oldroyd, McElheran & Elkington, “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads”, Harvard Business Review, March 2011, 2,241 US companies. ⁶ Aroundhome, Großer Handwerker-Check, May 2026, 500 enquiries, Germany (Aroundhome is a lead-generation platform). ⁷ Bitkom / ZDH, Digitalisierung des Handwerks 2025, n=504, Germany. US figure in FAQ 3: Moneypenny US wave 2026, 2,000 US consumers.