Lead response time calculator

The four inputs

• Leads per month — new inquiries from your website: chats and forms that start on the site.
• Share answered late or not at all — your honest estimate of the inquiries that waited too long or got no useful reply. If you do not know it, that is the number a check measures.
• Close rate — the share of answered leads that become customers.
• Average deal value — what a new customer is worth to you on average, for one job or one first order.

How to read the result

The calculator multiplies the leads that were answered late by your close rate and your average deal value. The result is the revenue those leads would bring if they converted like the leads you answer well. It is an estimate, not a forecast: some late leads still convert, and some fast replies still lose. Its use is to put a rough size on the problem so you can decide how much effort a faster reply deserves.

Change one input at a time to see what matters most. For many small businesses, halving the share of late replies moves the result more than any change in price.

An example

Say your site brings 120 inquiries a month, you think a quarter of them wait too long, a third of answered leads become customers and an average job is worth a few hundred dollars. The calculator shows what those thirty late inquiries would be worth if they converted like the rest. Now try the same numbers with one in ten answered late: the difference is the value of answering faster. Use your own numbers — the example is only there to show how the inputs interact.

What the calculator does not know

It does not know your competitors, your seasons or how urgent your customers’ needs are. A business where customers need help today loses more to a late reply than one where buyers compare options for weeks. Keep your inputs conservative, and treat the result as an order of magnitude.

From estimate to measurement

The weakest input is usually the second one: few teams know how many leads wait too long. An open AI check of your website chat measures it from the visitor’s side — time to first reply, time to a human reply and whether a next step was offered, with quotes. Read the speed to lead guide or start with the trial.