1. Make sure the lead reaches you with the phone number
Thumbtack's notification emails leave the customer's phone number out, so a lead that only lives in your inbox cannot be called from there. Two things fix it: keep push notifications on in the Thumbtack app, and connect Thumbtack to wherever you keep your customers, so the lead arrives complete — name, phone, the job.
In WorkTime CRM that connection is a card in Settings → Lead Sources. It takes about five minutes and the lead then lands on your pipeline as a client card.
2. Write the first message once
The first message has one job: show a real person read the request and give the customer an easy next step. Four parts are enough.
- Their name.
- The job in their own words, so they know you read it.
- One question you actually need answered — size, timing, or a photo.
- A next step with a choice: a call today, or two times for a visit.
3. Let the first message send itself
You cannot type from a ladder. If the first message is already written, the only thing left is sending it, and software can do that.
WorkTime CRM sends your message into the Thumbtack chat within seconds of the lead arriving, through Thumbtack's official Partner API. {name} and {category} are filled in for each lead. You get a note in Telegram that it went out, and a warning if it did not, so a lead is never silently left unanswered. You can switch it off any day and answer by hand.
4. Use the next ten minutes
The automatic message buys you time; it does not win the job. As soon as you can:
- 01Call. A two-minute call tells you more than ten messages, and a customer is more comfortable hiring someone they have spoken to.
- 02If they do not pick up, send one short text saying who you are and that you just called.
- 03Put the visit on the calendar while you are still talking.
- 04Write down what was said on the customer's card, so whoever follows up knows.
5. Follow up once, the next day
Customers go quiet for ordinary reasons. One polite message the next day — "still happy to take a look, does Thursday work?" — is fair. Three in a row is not.
What to avoid
- A price in the first message for a job you have not seen. It either scares the customer or boxes you in.
- A long introduction about your company. They can read your profile.
- Copy-paste that ignores what they wrote.
- Answering only in the evening. By then the conversation has happened without you.