Do you leave them sitting in New until they respond, archive them, or have some kind of process for keeping the request list clean?
I'm curious how other service businesses are handling this, especially when you have a lot of incoming requests.
What does your process look like?
I’d avoid treating those requests as simply “new” or “archived.”
I’d give each one a simple status:
The part I’d really want to track is the value sitting in the “no response” bucket.
For example, if you have 20 unanswered requests worth $X in potential work, that tells you much more than simply knowing how many requests are sitting in “New.”
It also helps separate a follow-up problem from a lead-quality problem.
I’m curious whether you’re currently tracking the dollar value and age of those unresponsive requests, or mainly just their status in Jobber?
They should be put in some sort of nurture sequence. Where you are at least texting and emailing every couple days for a month. If they respond, they get dropped in another category that kicks them out of the sequence. The Jobber pipeline is great for this. I use GHL because the automations and sequences is really good. It can work to super charge jobber not replace it.
Two built-in options can keep that list clean. On plans that include Automations, Settings > Automations has "Automatically archive requests", which archives a request after a set number of days if it was never converted to a quote or job. Archived is a final status, and the client can't see it.
Until then, log a note each time you reach out. A request's History panel shows every edit and note, with who made it and when, so it's easy to tell who has already been contacted.
We try not to let them sit in New indefinitely.
Our process is basically: make the initial contact quickly, follow up a few times, and then give the request a clear expiration point.
If they’ve received pricing or a quote and still haven’t responded, we’ll let the follow-up process run and then archive it after about 10 days rather than letting the pipeline fill up with dead leads.
I like keeping the active list focused on people who are actually still in play.
The big thing for me is making sure “cleaning up the list” doesn’t mean giving up after one attempt. A lot of people are busy, miss the first message, or need a couple touches before responding.
But eventually there needs to be an exit condition, otherwise your New requests stop being useful and just become a graveyard of old leads.
After they exit that flow, they're put in an endless nurture sequence with monthly or quarterly offers sent to them depending on the time of the year.
Good question. The part that trips most businesses up is treating "they haven't replied" the same way whether it's hour two or week three — the contact cadence should change with how long the request has been sitting.
A few practical guardrails that have worked for other owners. First, the initial contact window. When a request lands, try to make first contact inside 2 hours on a business day. The form said name and phone, so a quick call is usually the fastest, and if it goes to voicemail you leave a short greeting that sets the expectation: "I just saw your request for [service], calling you back today to go over the details — please call or text me at [number] if that's easier."
Second, a 4-touch sequence before you close it out. Day 1 call plus voicemail. Day 3 follow-up text or email that gives them an easy way to reply (a two-line "Still looking to get this scheduled, or should I close this out for now?" tends to get a straight answer). Day 7 one more touch that includes a soft deadline, something like "I'm wrapping up my schedule for next week, so I'll close this on [specific day] unless I hear from you." Day 10 archive.
The reason to name the archive date is so the caller doesn't sit in a black hole; too many owners just disappear after a couple of weeks and the customer assumes the company ignored them.
Third, when you do archive, move them to a "closed — re-engage later" list instead of deleting, and pull it up seasonally for a single re-engagement message. That keeps your active New list useful.
Are you tracking whether the ones that come back after that first contact window were won because of the follow-up cadence itself, or because the original inquiry was a strong fit?
Good framework. In Jobber, the Day 10 step can be the built-in 'Automatically archive requests' automation, and tagging those requests 're-engage' makes the seasonal pull easy. On your question, I'd log the touch number in which each lead replied. That shows quickly whether the cadence is doing the work.
