11 September 2026
A tally sheet for five days. Afterwards you will know whether the topic is worth it for you: the seven enquiries most often left unanswered between 5 pm and 10 pm.
Between 5 pm and 10 pm, the same thing happens in many businesses in the Zollernalbkreis: the customers now have time, the business no longer does. The enquiries come in anyway. They wait until the next morning, until the kitchen table, or forever.
This list names the seven that are most often left unanswered. Print it out, keep it next to your phone for five working days and make one tally mark per enquiry, with the time it came in and the time it was answered.
“Is the car still available?” at 7.40 pm via mobile.de or AutoScout24. In the same minute, the prospective buyer writes to two other dealers. According to the matelso lead management study 2024, 43 per cent of prospective buyers switch to another dealer or brand after four hours without a response.
Count: when it came in, when you replied, and whether the car was bought from you in the end.
A photo of the dashboard, followed by: “What could that be?” When buying a used car, 60 per cent of customers want the first contact to be digital, almost one in four via WhatsApp (DEKRA/Ipsos used car study 2025). In the skilled trades, two out of three businesses already use messenger apps to write to their customers (Bitkom, digitalisation of the skilled trades 2026).
Count: how many WhatsApp messages come in after 6 pm, and how many of them do you still answer the same evening from the sofa?
“Do you have a slot next week for tyres?” 53 per cent of vehicle owners would like to book appointments via WhatsApp or an app, 21 per cent can do so at their garage (DEKRA/Ipsos aftersales study 2026, 1,000 vehicle owners).
Count: form enquiries after hours, and how many of them turn into an appointment.
“Is my car ready? Can I pick it up first thing tomorrow?” Two out of three vehicle owners would like a status update on their repair, one in four gets one (DEKRA/Ipsos 2026: 65 versus 27 per cent). Those who do not get one call or write, usually in the evening.
Count: status questions per day. Every single one is an update you could have sent beforehand.
For 61 per cent of vehicle owners, the phone remains their preferred way of making first contact (DEKRA/Ipsos 2026). How many callers leave a message after hours and how many call back, nobody knows reliably for garages. That is why this is your own figure.
Count: missed calls after 6 pm, voicemail messages, and callbacks where you still reach the person the next day.
“How much do you charge for a cambelt on a Golf 7?” At 48 per cent, email is the most frequently named digital first contact (DEKRA/Ipsos used car study 2025). It lands in the same inbox as suppliers, advertising and the tax adviser.
Count: customer emails after hours, and how long they sit in the inbox until someone opens them.
“Do you also do air-con servicing?” under your latest post or as a direct message. The question is meant seriously, but it sits in the one place nobody in the business opens regularly.
Count: comments and messages with a genuine question, and who answers them and when.
Add up the tally marks. Work out the average time between an enquiry coming in and the reply. Then one honest question: which of these seven enquiries really needs you, and which just needs a reply in your tone, within minutes, that you approve with a glance the next morning?
Once you have your figure and want to know how much of it can run automatically for a business of your size: write to me. I read every enquiry myself.
If you want to know what can run automatically in a business of your size: write to us. Every week a new short case from a business in the region is added, by email via our newsletter.
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