Free template
The Five-Minute Lead-Response Standard
A ready-to-adopt SLA that ensures every incoming lead receives a fast, professional, and trackable response.
Purpose
To ensure every incoming lead receives a fast, professional, and trackable response.
Response standards
New Phone Calls
- Answer live whenever possible.
- Return missed calls within five minutes.
- Send an immediate text acknowledgment when a call is missed.
Website Forms
- Send an automatic confirmation immediately.
- Assign the lead to a team member.
- Attempt live contact within five minutes during business hours.
Text Messages
- Acknowledge within five minutes.
- Escalate urgent requests immediately.
Social Media Messages
- Respond within 15 minutes during business hours.
- Transfer qualified inquiries into the CRM.
Minimum contact sequence
- 1Attempt 1: Immediate phone call
- 2Attempt 2: Immediate text message
- 3Attempt 3: Email within 15 minutes
- 4Attempt 4: Second call later that day
- 5Attempt 5: Follow-up the next business day
- 6Continued nurturing when appropriate
Required CRM fields
✓Lead name
✓Phone number
✓Email address
✓Lead source
✓Date and time received
✓Assigned employee
✓Service requested
✓Contact attempts
✓Current status
✓Next action
✓Estimated job value
✓Lost-lead reason
Weekly performance metrics
- Average first-response time
- Percentage contacted within five minutes
- Missed-call rate
- Appointment-booking rate
- Estimate rate
- Close rate
- Unresponsive leads
- Lost opportunities by reason
Employee accountability fields
- Team member
- Shift
- Response goal
- Actual response time
- Missed SLA reason
- Corrective action
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