You’ve visited the customer, given the potential job the once over, and sent off the quote.
At the same time, you email the invoice to that other customer whose job you completed the day before, and all being well, payment will land in a few days.
You’ve already got a few jobs lined up in the diary, and your attention quickly turns to them. You’ll hear back about the job you quoted on if they want to go ahead.
But those two open conversations with customers offer a brilliant opportunity to get more work. Do they have questions about the quote? How’s the completed job working out for them? What about that other project they mentioned in passing?
That’s where a strong follow-up game comes in. Because following up isn’t about pestering people until they buy something – it’s about making the next step easier.
And keeping conversations alive.
Key takeaways for electrical contractors
- Schedule a follow-up three to four days after sending a quote if it hasn’t been accepted.
- Tell customers when you’ll contact them again and make sure the call is in your diary.
- Use the phone when following up about more complex projects.
- Follow up after completed work to check everything is working as expected.
- Make reviews, recommendations and future follow-ups part of your regular customer process.
Step one: Agree on the next conversation
Don’t just send out a quote with no mechanism for a follow up. For every quote you send out, a follow up should be made in three-four days’ time if it’s not been accepted.
Set the expectation too – tell the client you’ll contact them on a certain day to go through any questions they have, and then have that call on that day’s to-do list.
That responsiveness and proactivity is critically important to getting jobs over the line. A 2025 PwC Australia survey found 75% of customers believed getting a service response took too long, highlighting the importance customers like yours place on good service.
Step two: Use the phone
While switching over a couple of sockets isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, other jobs – a switchboard upgrade, an EV charger, a smart home install – are more complex projects. And that means it’s good to talk.
When you’re following up after sending out a quote, don’t send an email or a SMS – get on the blower! Research from CPM Australia in partnership with Swinburne University, found that 77% of Australian customers preferred to speak to a person by phone for complex enquiries. See, it’s good to talk.
The same goes after you’ve completed a job. Diarise a call a few days after completion, to check everything’s ok. “How are the new lights working out? Any questions about the controls?”
That’s more than just courtesy; there’s a very strong reason why you should make that call. PwC’s survey found that almost 88% of customers were more likely to purchase again after experiencing good service. Of course, that’s not a guaranteed uplift compared to sending a text or an email, but just underlines the importance of customer aftercare post job completion.
Step 3: Follow up again
If you’ve made the call after sending a quote and there’s since been radio silence, follow up again. You may be thinking, ‘Yeah, nah’ at this point. And we get it – no one likes awkward conversations.
But you need to make that call, for three reasons. Number one: you might still get the job – they’ve just not been in touch to confirm it because something else has cropped up. Number two: you need to get it out of your pipeline if they’ve decided not to proceed. And number three: if they aren’t going to go ahead, it’s valuable business info to find out why. This isn’t about convincing them otherwise – that’s passed. But find out if they’ve decided against the job, or decided to go with another contractor. Is it a timing thing, or a price thing? If it’s the former, you can follow up again in three months’ time. If they’ve gone with another contractor, find out where you missed the mark – and use that info to improve or refine part of your process.
Step 4: Ask for reviews and recommendations – and make it easy
You can tell everyone how good you are – and you have to, too. But it means far more if you can get someone else to tell everyone how good you are. It’s far more powerful if you’ve got a satisfied customer shouting about you from the rooftops – and that’s where reviews and recommendations come in.
Make asking for a review on Google or TrustPilot part of your follow up process. When people search for someone like you, they’ll pay more attention to a contractor with hundreds of great reviews rather than your competitor with zero. Figure out what your customers respond to – they may do it because they love you and your work, or you may need to incentivise them a little. Either way, it’s worth it. Even if you get a negative review, you can turn it into a positive.
And, talking of incentives, after each job, give your customers a couple of $50 vouchers; one for them, one for a friend. There can be T&Cs on there – valid for jobs of $500 or more within the next six months, for example – but the incentive to use them is there. And, you can schedule a follow up call in five months time if you’ve not heard from them up until that point…!
The follow up secret: make it part of the process
The biggest takeaway is this: put follow ups in your diary, not in your head. Get them scheduled into your job management system as a part of the regular process, and make it normal, not something out of the ordinary.
Keep the conversations alive, because you never know what opportunities might spring up when you least expect them to.
Frequently asked questions about customer follow-up
How soon should an electrical contractor follow up on a quote?
For every quote you send out, schedule a follow-up three to four days later if it hasn’t been accepted. Tell the customer beforehand when you’ll contact them so they know to expect the conversation.
Should electricians follow up by phone, SMS or email?
For more complex projects such as switchboard upgrades, EV chargers and smart home installations, the article recommends speaking to the customer by phone. Research cited in the article found that 77% of Australian customers preferred speaking to a person by phone for complex enquiries.
Should I contact a customer after completing their job?
Yes. Diarise a call a few days after completion to check that everything is OK and ask whether they have any questions. PwC research found that almost 88% of customers were more likely to purchase again after experiencing good service.
What should I do if a customer doesn’t respond to my quote?
Follow up again. The customer may still intend to proceed, or you may need to remove the opportunity from your pipeline. If they’ve decided against the job, finding out whether timing, price or another factor influenced the decision can provide useful information for your business.
Should I ask customers for reviews?
Make asking for a review on Google or Trustpilot part of your follow-up process. Reviews and recommendations allow satisfied customers to tell other potential customers about their experience with your business.
