Timing Matters: When to Follow Up For More Effective Client Communication

Timing can be everything. So if your clients are busy or distracted when you call them to follow-up, you’ll have a hard time engaging them in conversation. It’s important to call them just at the right time, and unfortunately, determining this time can take some trial and error.

• To give you a starting point, consider this piece of research: Insidesales.com studied three years of data across six companies in an effort to determine which time of the day and day of the week to follow up with web-generated leads for ideal contact and qualification rates. (Note: While these results are a good place to start, they won’t necessarily be your ideal times. Do a little experimenting for yourself to see what works with your clients. Be sure to document which times and days work best for each client so you can continually optimize your approach.)
• Wednesdays and Thursdays were found to be the best days to call to make contact. In fact, sales representatives had 47.8 percent more success contacting leads on Thursday than the worst day, which was Tuesday.
• Wednesdays and Thursdays were also the best days to call to qualify leads, according to the statistics. There was a 24.9 percent difference between the top day, Wednesday, and the worst day, Friday.
• When looking at calls that successfully connected, Thursday was best in order to qualify that lead, producing 19.1 percent better results than Friday, which is the worst day.
• The best times to call to qualify a lead were 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. There was a 164 percent difference in success rates between 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., right after lunch.
• For calls that actually connected with leads, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. is the best time to qualify that lead. According to the results, it was 109 percent better  than 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., which was the worst time during normal working hours.
• For e-mail follow-ups, you might want to test 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. According to research from GetResponse.com, sending e-mails during these peak engagement hours can increase average open and click through rates by 6 percent.

Not many agents actually look forward to making follow-up calls, but scheduling them into your workflow at the optimal times will make the process easier. Set aside time dedicated to following up so that the process isn’t overwhelming. Break it up into small chunks if you want. The most important thing to do is make sure to stick with it. Relationships aren’t built on a single contact, but on consistent engagement. Maintaining regular contact is key to building positive rapport.