How fast should a local business respond to a new lead?

As close to immediately as possible. Research on call-handling shows most callers who don't reach a business the first time never call back — they move to the next name on the list instead.

A Practical Guide

How fast should you
respond to a lead?

As fast as you possibly can. Here's why that matters more than almost anything else in local business marketing — and what to actually do about it.

Why Speed Matters

Most leads don't wait, and don't call back.

62%

of small business calls go unanswered

85%

of those callers never call back — they call the next name on the list

$26K+

average yearly revenue a small business loses to missed calls

The takeaway isn't "answer every call" — for a one- or two-person service business, that's often not physically possible. It's know the moment you miss one, so you can call back before the customer has already found someone else. That's the entire gap between a missed call costing you a customer and a missed call costing you nothing.

Sources: 411 Locals · Ambs Call Center

What Actually Helps

Three practical levers.

Know immediately, not eventually

An alert the moment you miss something — call, DM, or email — beats checking your phone hours later every time.

Reply with context, not blind

Calling back cold is worse than calling back knowing exactly what they asked for. A transcript changes the whole conversation.

Cover every channel, not just the phone

Instagram DMs and Facebook messages get missed just as easily as calls — and often get checked even less often.

This is exactly what Sentra is built to do.

Learn about Sentra →