How to Follow Up on Thumbtack and Angi Leads (When the Customer Already Texted Five Other Contractors)

You pay for a lead. Your phone buzzes, you see a name, a zip code and two lines about a leaking deck or a bathroom redo. You text them. Nothing. You call. Voicemail.

Meanwhile you've got money sitting in a lead that's going cold by the hour. So what do you do with it?

I'll walk through how I'd work these, because a paid lead is a different animal from a customer who found you on their own.

Why these leads go quiet so fast

The customer on the other end usually filled out one short form. The platform then sent that form to a handful of contractors at the same time. Some of them are texting inside two minutes.

So the person isn't ignoring you. They're getting buzzed by five strangers while they're at work, picking up the kids or standing in line somewhere. Most of them answer the first one or two who sound normal, then stop looking.

That changes the game. You're not trying to convince anybody yet. You're trying to be the first normal-sounding human in their phone.

Speed is the whole first move

If a lead lands and you wait until the evening, you're mostly competing for scraps. Reply inside a few minutes if you can, even from the truck.

You don't need to write a speech. A short text that sounds like a person is enough.

"Hi [name], it's [your name] with [company]. Saw your request about the [deck/bathroom/fence]. I'm free to take a quick look this week. Easier to text or call?"

That last question matters. Some people hate phone calls, some hate texting. Let them pick and you've already removed a small bit of friction.

If you can't reply fast because you're up a ladder, set up something that answers for you. A basic auto-text that says you got the request and will be in touch within the hour beats silence every time. Even that small thing keeps you in the race.

What to do when they don't answer

Say you texted within five minutes and heard nothing. Here's the rhythm I'd use.

Same day. One text, one call. If you get voicemail, leave a short message with your name, what you're calling about and when you'll try again. Don't leave a three minute ramble.

Next day. A different text, not the same one pasted again.

"Hey [name], just circling back on the [job]. Still thinking about it? Happy to give you a rough number over the phone if that's easier."

Offering a rough number is a real hook. A lot of these folks haven't answered because they assume you'll show up, hard sell them and leave. Lowering the stakes helps. Our piece on whether you should give a ballpark price over the phone goes through when that makes sense and when it'll bite you.

Day three or four. Short, no pressure.

"No worries if you went another direction. If you still need the [job] done, I've got room next week."

A week later. One last message, then stop. If you want to know how many touches is too many, we wrote about how many times to follow up on a quote, and the same logic applies here. Four or five spread over about a week is plenty for a cold lead. After that you're just annoying someone who has moved on.

Call or text?

For a lead that just came in, text first, because it's what they're most likely to answer at work. Then call a couple of hours later or the next morning, because a real voice builds more trust than another message does.

If you only ever text, you miss the ones who'd rather talk. If you only call, you miss everyone who lets unknown numbers ring out. Do both, in that order. There's a longer take on call or text for a follow-up if you want the reasoning.

Don't open with a price

When you text a lead cold, don't throw out a number in the first message. You haven't seen the job. You don't know if it's a simple swap or a rotted subfloor. A number too early either scares them off or locks you into something you can't do.

Ask one useful question instead. "Is the deck attached to the house?" or "Are we talking one bathroom or the whole floor?" It shows you know the work, and it gets a reply from people who'd have ignored a generic hello.

Be honest about the lead itself

Not every lead is worth chasing, and it's okay to say so to yourself.

If the request is vague, the budget is obviously tiny or they want it done tomorrow for nothing, don't burn an hour on it. Send a polite text, say what you'd need to give a real number, and move on.

The ones worth a few extra touches are the ones with a specific job, a real address and a reason to act soon. A leaking roof. A broken water heater. A deck they want done before a party. Those people have a deadline, and a deadline answers texts.

When the lead says they're getting other quotes

They will, usually. Don't get defensive. Say something like:

"Makes sense, you should compare. Happy to come out and give you a written number so you have something solid to put next to the others."

Then follow up after the visit. We covered this situation in what to say when a customer is getting other quotes. The short version is that the contractor who shows up, writes it down clearly and checks in after usually beats the one who sent a number by text and vanished.

Track what these leads really cost you

This is the part most guys skip. Write down, for a month, how many leads you bought, how many answered, how many got a quote and how many turned into jobs.

Divide what you spent by the jobs you won. That's your real cost per job, not the price of a single lead. Some people find the leads pay off nicely. Some find they're paying a lot to chase people who never wanted a contractor in the first place.

If the follow-up is what's failing, fixing that is cheaper than buying more leads. If the leads themselves are junk, no amount of texting will save them. You can't tell which one you have without the numbers.

A short version

Reply fast, in a few minutes if you can. Text first, then call. Ask one good question instead of quoting a price. Follow up four or five times over about a week, then let it go. Skip the junk leads and spend your time on the ones with a real job and a real deadline. Keep count of what each job cost you to land.

The part that slips

Here's what actually happens. You're busy. A lead comes in at ten in the morning, you mean to text them at lunch, lunch turns into an emergency, and by the time you remember it's the next afternoon. They've already picked somebody.

The lead wasn't bad. The follow-up just didn't happen on time.

That's the gap QuoteChaser is built for. It sends your follow-up texts and emails in your own voice on a schedule, so a customer hears from you the same day and again a few days later, even while you're on a roof. When someone writes back, it pings your phone so you can take it from there.

Join the QuoteChaser waitlist and stop losing paid leads to a slow reply.