Charleston AI Playbook

Directory / Prompts / Home services & trades

Four-message estimate follow-up

Updated

Problem it solves

The estimate went out and nobody followed up. You want four short messages with no pressure and no new discount.

Best tool

  • ChatGPT (free chat)
  • Claude (free chat)
  • Gemini (free chat)
  • Copilot (free chat)

The free chat is enough for one draft. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and the free Microsoft Copilot chat can each do this. A paid plan only helps if you hit a usage limit. Copilot inside Word, Excel, or Outlook is a separate paid Microsoft 365 feature. You do not need it to try this once.

Copy-paste prompt

Write a 4-message follow-up sequence (text, email, text, voicemail script) for a customer who got an HVAC estimate but hasn't replied. Friendly, short, no pressure.

[your notes]

Replace every [bracket]. If you cannot fill one, delete that line.

Template

Customer first name: [name or "there"]
What the estimate was for: [job]
Date it was sent: [date]
Do not offer: [a discount, a new price, or anything you have not approved]

1. Text:
2. Email subject:
   Email body:
3. Text:
4. Voicemail, under 20 seconds:

Download saves a .txt file. estimate-follow-up.txt

Example output

A usable draft is four short pieces: text, email, text, voicemail. Friendly, no guilt, no invented discount, and a way to say no.

Tips

  • Change HVAC to your trade if you are not an HVAC company. The directory prompt says HVAC because that entry is a plumbing and HVAC company.
  • The contractor note says to send them yourself over two weeks and see what happens. It does not promise a close rate.

Time saved

Estimate: writing four versions usually takes longer than editing a draft. Sending them, and not sending a fifth that begs, is the actual work.

How to use it

  1. Copy the prompt. Copy the prompt on this page into a free chat.
  2. Fill every bracket. Replace each [bracket] with a fact from your own notes. If you cannot fill one, delete that line instead of guessing.
  3. Edit before you use it. Read them aloud. If one sounds like a collection call, cut it.

Also written on this site

Quoted from another page on this site. If a quote names a time, that figure is an estimate, not a measured result.

You don’t need new software to test this. Take one estimate that went quiet. Ask an AI tool to write four short messages: a text, an email, another text and a voicemail script. Friendly, no pressure.

No. Start by writing your follow-up messages and call rules with ChatGPT or Claude, then look for a tool that connects to the CRM you already use.

Where this came from