How fast do you reply to email, really?

Four inputs. We'll compare your reply time to the UK median for your industry, estimate the conversion you're losing to slower email, and tell you whether it's worth fixing.

Email response time benchmark hero illustration

Your inbox stats

Emails received per day (across the business)

Median time to first reply (hours)

If you don’t track this, guess on the high side

% of emails replied within 24 hours

70%

Industry (for benchmark)

Your numbers

Your median reply time

UK general median is 6h. You’re faster than the median by 0.0 hours.

Estimated conversion drop

35%

Est. leads lost / month

Reply speed band

average

What this means

Worth a 30-minute look

You're around the UK median, which means competitors who reply faster are eating your warm leads. The free quiz surfaces three quick wins.

Book an Assessment £799

Optional

Get the three email triage patterns

A one-page follow-up with the three inbox patterns we usually set up inside an Assessment — Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai for call summaries, templates for the top 10 repeat replies, and a triage rhythm. No spam.

Free

Personal score + 3 quick wins to try

The 9-question AI readiness quiz. Two minutes, no sign-up. We send your score and three small things you can try this week.

Take the free quiz

From £799

AI workflow assessment

60-minute interview, 48-hour custom report with named tools, exact steps and a 7-day plan. Money-back if we don’t surface 5+ hours a week.

Book an Assessment £799

Done for you

Done-for-you Agent Build

We design, build, and hand over the AI agent. Scoped on a call, priced by complexity band. Best for owners short on time, not ideas.

See Agent Build

How this works

Response time is one of the few things in small business marketing where the data is unambiguous: speed of first reply is a top-three predictor of whether an inbound enquiry converts.

We compare your median reply time to the UK SME benchmark for your industry. The medians are drawn from HoursBack assessment data and published service-industry research.

The conversion-drop estimate uses a well-cited rule from a Harvard Business Review study: every hour past the first cuts inbound conversion by roughly 7%, capped at 50%. We pair that with a 5% inbound-is-sales assumption to estimate leads lost per month. It’s directional, not a forecast.

Quick FAQ

Questions about this tool.

HoursBack assessment data across UK SMEs plus published service-industry benchmarks. They're realistic ranges, not precise measurements. Adjust mentally if your sub-niche is different.

Rough rule from a well-cited Harvard Business Review study and our own client data: every hour past the first cuts inbound conversion by roughly 7%, capped at 50%. It's directional, not exact.

We assume 5% of your inbound email is sales-relevant. Volume × 5% × conversion-drop % gives a rough number. It's a sense-check, not a forecast.

Only if you opt in to the email follow-up. The tool runs entirely in your browser otherwise.

A 60-minute interview, a 48-hour custom report with named tools, exact steps and a 7-day plan. £799, money-back if we don’t surface 5+ hours a week. See what’s in the report.