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Follow up on every unsold estimate

Every estimate that doesn't close gets a steady, polite run of follow-ups by text and email until the homeowner says yes, no, or not yet.

Last verified October 11, 2026We may help you set these up. Tools don’t pay us for placement.
Hours back
1 to 2 hrs a week
Monthly cost
$20 to $139 a month
Setup
Moderate
Evidence
Seen in the field
FitsHVACPlumbingRoofing

Also written up for Plumbing: Chase down unsold plumbing estimates · Roofing: Follow up on unsigned roof estimates.

Worth it if

You send more estimates than you close and nobody owns the follow-up.

Skip it if

Your comfort advisor already calls every open estimate on a schedule. Don't pile automated texts on top of a real person.

What gets set up

Your field software sends a planned run of follow-ups after an estimate goes out: a check-in after a couple of days, then a week, then two weeks, stopping the moment the customer replies. AI helps write messages that sound like you and that mention the options you quoted. One HVAC company in Virginia reported follow-up sales on unsold estimates up 25% after adding it.

Who’s done it

Real exampleTrade press

A Virginia HVAC company automates unsold-estimate follow-up

Leonard Splaine Co. uses AI to handle estimate follow-ups and membership inquiries so its CSRs don't have to.

Use case estimate: 1 to 2 hrs a week ours, not theirs
More customersBigger tickets

What they did. Picked an AI vendor (UpSmith) after shopping options at an ACCA event, and handed it routine estimate follow-ups and membership questions.

How it went. The COO reports follow-up sales on unsold estimates went up after going live. He frames it as taking work off CSRs, not replacing them.

Worth knowing. His advice is crawl, walk, run: test, expect some failures, and structure contracts so the payments match the return.

Their number. Follow-up sales on unsold estimates up 25% since going live (company-reported, no baseline given).

“There's going to be some failures with it, because it's technology.”
Source: ACHR News · Apr 2026Read the original

Tools mentioned here

Listed alphabetically. Lowest plan that does this job, checked on each vendor’s own pricing page.

ToolWhat it does hereStarts atPrice checked
Claude ProWrites follow-up messages in your voice$17 a monthBilled annually ($20 billed monthly). Includes Projects.Oct 11, 2026
ZapierBuilds the follow-up run yourself if your software can't$19.99 a monthProfessional plan billed annually. Free plan covers 100 tasks a month.Oct 11, 2026

You’ll need

  • Estimates sent from your field software, not paper or PDFs in email
  • Customer cell numbers and permission to text
  • A rule for when the follow-ups stop

Try it

This one needs setup: it connects to your phones, your software or your client records, so there’s no copy-and-paste version. Have this set up for you.

Run your own numbers

Use a normal week's open estimates, not your best week.

Your numbers
Use your own numbers. Nothing you type is saved or sent.
Extra jobs a month
–
Extra revenue a month
–
After the tool
–

Why it matters

Replacement estimates take an hour to build and present. Then they sit. The comfort advisor means to call back, the season gets busy, and three weeks later the homeowner went with whoever followed up.

How I estimated the hours

1 to 2 hrs a week: Writing and sending follow-ups on 10 to 20 open estimates a week at about 5 minutes each. Rounded down. The real money is in estimates you win back.

Sources (6)

Sources

  1. Claude Pro pricing, https://claude.com/pricing (accessed 2026-10-11)
  2. Housecall Pro Pipeline pricing, https://www.housecallpro.com/pricing/ (accessed 2026-10-11)
  3. Jobber pricing, https://www.getjobber.com/pricing/ (accessed 2026-10-11)
  4. ServiceTitan pricing, https://www.servicetitan.com/pricing (accessed 2026-10-11)
  5. Zapier pricing, https://zapier.com/pricing (accessed 2026-10-11)
  6. ACHR News, https://www.achrnews.com/articles/166041-crawl-walk-run-how-hvac-contractors-are-successfully-adopting-ai-in-2026 (accessed 2026-10-11)

Questions

Not if they stop when the customer answers and stay polite. A common pattern is a message on day 1, day 3, day 7 and day 14, then a tag in your system so a person can decide what's next.

Zapier can connect your estimates to texts or emails, and Claude can write the messages. It's more setup, which is why I'd check your field software first.

Related use cases

All HVAC use cases · AIMention Toolbox · How to get your HVAC company found by ChatGPT and AI search

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