Service businesses lose thousands of dollars in revenue because they fail to consistently track and follow up on unsold estimates.
In a recent Back 2 Basics webinar, Brittany Burgess, Sr. Customer Advocacy Specialist, and Sena Sadeghi, Senior Manager, Customer Programs, share practical strategies for using the Follow Up tab to stay organized, automate outreach, and recover revenue from forgotten estimates.
They cover:
What the Follow Up tab is and why it’s critical for recovering unsold estimates
Best practices for timing, ownership, and consistency in follow-up workflows
How to use the Follow Up tab to improve close rates without adding more leads
Simple process tips to ensure no estimate slips through the cracks
Follow-Up Basics
Burgess opened the session by asking attendees what they currently follow up on in their businesses. Their responses included a wide range of activities, from unsold estimates and unbooked leads to expired memberships and recurring services.
“All of these are great. You wanna know why?” Burgess asks. “Because ServiceTitan tracks them for you, so you don't have to just rummage through your Post-it note collection on your desk to figure out which ones need to be followed up on.”
In a second poll, Burgess asked the audience how they follow up with customers.
The results show teams rely on calls, texts, emails, and even postcards. Some use ServiceTitan’s Follow Up tab or automated messaging, while others manage outreach through separate tools or campaigns.
“All of you that are replying and saying, ‘Yes, we follow up on things,’ I want you to go ahead and give yourself a little pat on the back or a little round of applause, because following up is not easy to do.
“If you’re one of those people who doesn’t have time or you're not following up on a consistent basis, it's OK,” Burgess adds. “We're gonna give you some tools today, and I'm going to convince you why you should be.”
Why Service Businesses Should Follow Up with Customers
Contractors pay a high price for every lead they generate, which makes follow-up critical. Burgess explains that many businesses spend around $200 per lead, and in some cases as much as $3,000, before accounting for the additional costs required to turn the lead into a customer. Without a consistent follow-up process, those investments go to waste when opportunities fail to convert.
“When you do a follow-up, just know the cost of that lead is actually even higher because we've already done work for them. We've sent out a technician. They've done some kind of diagnosis. Maybe they've given a sales estimate. So, we've already invested money into this customer, and if we don't do our due diligence and follow up on that work, we just wasted a lot of our own money for nothing.”
By the time a technician visits the site, Burgess says the customer already wants the work done. At that point, the decision shifts from whether to move forward to who to hire.
Burgess says most in-home sales don’t close on the first visit. In fact, ServiceTitan data shows only 37% convert immediately, which leaves the majority of opportunities dependent on follow-up.
She adds that 64% of customers say “no” four times before saying “yes,” reinforcing the need for a follow-up process with enough touchpoints to engage customers and move decisions forward.
“It doesn't have to be aggressive,” Burgess says. “It can be in a very strategic manner, but we want to follow up at least four times, given that stat.”
Another stats shows 72% of sales professionals never follow up, Burgess says.
This creates a major disconnect with customers. When a company fails to check back, especially after diagnosing an urgent issue, customers may assume the business doesn’t care. As a result, they either turn to a competitor who feels more responsive or simply move on, leaving the original opportunity behind.
“Maybe you gave them an estimate, it's work that’s optional for them, and then they just forgot about it,” Burgess says. “How many times have you called a customer to remind them that they have an open estimate. Sometimes they just need that reminder.”
Finally, Burgess says 87% of sales professionals who do follow up give up after one attempt.
“One follow-up is just not enough,” she says.
What Should Businesses Follow Up On Today?
Burgess explains the best place to start is the Follow Up tab in ServiceTitan.
From there, teams can quickly see open opportunities, including unsold estimates customers haven’t responded to yet and sold estimates customers have approved but haven’t scheduled. By focusing on these categories, businesses can prioritize the opportunities most likely to turn into booked work.
Recurring service events create additional opportunities, Burgess says. For example, these can include tune-ups, pump and plumbing inspections, and water heater flushes.
“Anything that's in your recurring service list, that's where you find the goldmine when you have an empty dispatch board,” Burgess says.
Expiring memberships can also turn into additional revenue. Burgess suggests calling customers in advance to get them to renew, rather than chasing them down after the fact.
Finally, she says the Leads tab often contains valuable follow-up opportunities.
“If a person calls in for service and they didn’t book for some reason, it's usually because there was an objection that can be overcome,” she says.
Other Options Beyond the Follow-Up Tab
Burgess notes how the Follow Up tab doesn’t work for every team setup, especially when multiple people handle follow-ups at the same time. She says reps often end up duplicating work, and without a way to assign ownership, it becomes difficult to know who was responsible for which follow-up.
For teams facing this challenge, she outlines two effective alternatives.
Scheduled Reports
One option is scheduled reports. ServiceTitan offers templates such as the Opportunity and Estimate Follow-Up reports, along with reports for expiring memberships and other use cases. Burgess recommends exporting these reports into a shared Google Sheet so the entire team can view updates in real time. By adding a column to assign ownership, managers can clearly define responsibility and refresh the list as needed.
Export Function
Another option is using the export function directly from the Follow Up tab. By applying filters and exporting the data from the top-right menu, teams can access the same information without building a report from scratch. This approach works well for distributing follow-ups across multiple people while maintaining visibility.
For teams with a single person managing follow-ups, Burgess says the Follow Up tab remains the simplest and most effective option.
Automating Follow-Up with Marketing Pro
Burgess explains how automation tools can streamline the follow-up process, especially for large organizations. Marketing Pro gives users a dedicated product specialist that acts as an extension of the customer success team and helps set up automated, set-it-and-forget-it campaigns.
She recommends checking every category in the Follow Up tab and building automated campaigns around each one. That includes unsold estimates, sold but unbooked estimates, expiring memberships, expiring credit cards, and unpaid invoices. As long as the data stays clean, she says these campaigns allow automatic follow-up activity without requiring manual outreach from staff.
SMS campaigns provide another tool to reach potential customers, especially for recurring services. Burgess notes how text messages consistently outperform email, with significantly higher open rates. By automating SMS follow-ups through Marketing Pro, businesses can stay top of mind with customers while reducing the day-to-day burden on their teams.
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When to Follow Up
Burgess emphasizes teams should review and clear the Follow Up tab daily, especially for unsold and sold estimates. Keeping the list clean ensures the data stays accurate, so teams always know exactly who needs follow-up and when. When customers ask for a later call, such as after a vacation, teams can simply update the follow-up date and trust the opportunity will resurface at the right time.
She also recommends assigning clear ownership whenever possible. Many businesses benefit from a dedicated follow-up coordinator who treats the Follow Up tab as their primary responsibility and maintains consistency across outreach. For teams without a full-time role, Burgess advises creating a structured schedule for call center staff or office teams, particularly during slower seasons.
Regardless of workload, she says the Follow Up tab is a valuable source of revenue. When dispatch boards are full, teams can shift focus to booking memberships and collecting outstanding payments. When schedules slow down, unsold estimates and recurring service events provide immediate opportunities to fill the pipeline. Used consistently, the Follow Up tab becomes a reliable way to generate work in any season.
Check out the full session for a detailed walk-through on using the Follow Up tab from Sena Sadeghi, Senior Manager, Customer Programs at ServiceTitan.
