The 5-Minute Window
Back in 2023, Workato contacted 114 companies as a prospective customer and tracked how each one responded. Not one called back within five minutes. Nearly a fifth never replied at all. Most business owners hear this and think: not us. They're usually wrong — not on Tuesday morning when they're at their desk, but on Friday at 5pm, on a job site, or the week someone's off sick.
Speed isn't just a nice-to-have. A study of over 15,000 leads found that companies contacting a prospect within an hour were seven times more likelyto have a meaningful conversation than those who waited longer. Wait 24 hours and you're not even in the race — the customer decided long before you picked up the phone.
The fix isn't hiring more people or working longer hours. It's making sure something responds the moment a lead arrives — a text, an email, a booking link — so the first five minutes don't depend on whether you happened to be free. That's the whole game.
Read the full research — 4 min