A person fills in your contact form and waits. Most small companies do not lose that enquiry to a bad offer. They lose it to silence: the message went to someone on holiday, or sat in an inbox where everyone assumed a colleague had answered.
The fix is a routine, not software. It fits on one page and takes an afternoon to set up.
One inbox for every enquiry
Send all web forms, and the address printed on your contact page, to one shared inbox such as enquiries@. Do not send them to one person's mailbox. When that person is away or leaves, the enquiries go with them.
Check that the form really delivers. Submit a test enquiry once a month and confirm it arrives within a few minutes and is not in spam. If you suspect messages are being lost between the form and the inbox, the one-week check in where web leads get lost between form and reply shows how to find out.
One owner, one deputy
Decide who answers. A rotating weekly owner works well for teams of three to ten people: the owner checks the inbox at fixed times, and a named deputy covers absences.
Write the rule in one sentence: "This week, Anna answers enquiries; Tomas covers if Anna is away." Put it where everyone sees it, for example the team chat topic. The point is that nobody has to wonder whether someone else has replied.
For marking status, a simple convention is enough. Use a label or folder for each state: new, replied, waiting for customer, closed. If you already use a CRM, the same four states work there.
Reply within one working day
Choose a promise you can keep and say it on the form: "We reply within one working day." Then keep it. Two checks per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, are usually enough.
The first reply does not need to solve the problem. It needs to show that a human read the message and tell the sender what happens next. If a full answer takes longer, say when it will arrive.
If the enquiry belongs to sales rather than support, the handover between marketing and the person who sells matters too; see handing leads from marketing to sales on one sheet.
A short first-reply template
Keep a template, but edit the first two lines for each person. A reply that reads like a form letter gets fewer answers.
Subject: Re: your enquiry about [topic]
Hello [name],
Thank you for getting in touch. I'm [your name] and I'll look after your enquiry.
To give you a useful answer, could you tell me [one specific question]?
If it's easier to talk, I'm free [two time slots]. You can also reply here.
Best regards,
[name, role, phone]
Ask exactly one question. A list of five questions often gets no reply, while one easy question gets an answer.
Follow up on day 3 and day 10
Many enquiries go quiet after the first reply, usually because the sender got busy, not because they lost interest. Plan two follow-ups and stop after that:
- Day 3: a two-line reminder that repeats your question and offers a call.
- Day 10: a polite last message: "I'll close this for now; write to us whenever it's useful."
After the second message, mark the enquiry closed. Persistent chasing damages trust, and a clear closing message often brings a reply.
Set a reminder in your calendar or CRM when you send the first reply, so the follow-ups do not depend on memory.
Review once a month
Spend fifteen minutes at the end of each month and count four things:
- How many enquiries arrived?
- How many were answered within one working day?
- How many led to a conversation or a quote?
- Which ones were not relevant, such as sales spam or job applications?
You need the numbers only to see trends. If the share answered within a day is below 90%, the cause is usually unclear ownership or too few inbox checks, not too many enquiries. Remove spam with a form-field or simple filter so it does not hide real messages.
Common mistakes
- A form that goes to one person. Absence or departure breaks the chain.
- A promise you cannot keep. "Within one hour" is worse than "within one working day" met every time.
- A long first reply. It delays the answer and the sender does not read it.
- No follow-up. Many sales are lost after the first reply, not before it.
- No closing. Open enquiries pile up and nobody knows what is current.
- Never testing the form. A broken form looks the same as a quiet month.
Summary
Route every enquiry to one shared inbox, name an owner and a deputy, reply within one working day with a short template that asks one question, follow up on day 3 and day 10, and close the enquiry. A monthly count of arrivals, timely replies and conversations tells you whether the routine works. Setup takes an afternoon; the daily cost is two short inbox checks.
Sources
- Common practice for small businesses, offered as a practical guide. No client results or market figures are claimed in this article. Adjust the response promise, the follow-up days and the tools to your own team and customers.
