Builders and trades live on quotes, but the follow-up always loses to the day job. Here is how automation wins back the jobs you are already halfway to landing.
Ask any builder, sparky or plumber where the jobs go, and the honest answer is often the same: not to a competitor with a better price, but to whoever followed up first. On the tools all day, the trades are exactly the people least able to chase quotes — and most likely to lose work because of it.
You quote in the evening or between jobs, send it through Xero, and then the day job swallows you whole. The follow-up that would win the work never happens, because the only time you have to send it is the same time you are up a ladder or under a sink. This is the core reason builder quote follow up software exists: to do the chasing when you physically cannot.
Quote Nudge connects to your Xero account and automatically follows up every quote you mark as SENT, on a cadence you set once. No spreadsheet, no diary reminders, no sitting at the laptop at 9pm. The nudges go out from your own email domain while you get on with the work.
A domestic electrician sends eight to ten quotes a week — consumer unit swaps, rewires, EV chargers. Half go quiet. Not because the customer chose someone else, but because they got distracted and the electrician was too busy to chase. An automated three-step sequence turns a meaningful share of those silent quotes into booked work, without a single manual email.
A builder quotes a £40,000 extension. The customer is comparing two or three builders and taking their time. The builder who stays gently present through the decision — a friendly check-in, an offer to walk through the scope — is the one who feels reliable before the job has even started. A quote that expensive is exactly the kind you cannot afford to send once and forget.
A plumber quotes a bathroom refit. The customer says "we're keen, just sorting a few things." Two weeks later they have forgotten. A timed final check-in — "still want me to hold that slot?" — prompts the decision while the plumber is elsewhere, hands full.
Fitted wardrobes, a re-roof, a garden redesign — same pattern every time. High-value, considered purchases where the customer needs a nudge or two before committing, and the tradesperson is far too busy to provide it manually. Consistent, automated follow-up levels the field.
On the tools you cannot chase quotes, and off the tools you are too knackered to. That is not a discipline problem — it is a scheduling impossibility. Automate it or lose the work.
Trades customers are often at work themselves during the day. Asking them to call you back to accept a quote adds friction exactly when they are ready to say yes. Quote Nudge sends them to a branded acceptance page — your logo, your colours — where they sign with their finger on their phone in seconds. The quote flips to Accepted in Xero automatically, so your paperwork updates itself.
No trade should be funding a customer's materials out of their own pocket. Quote Nudge lets you take a deposit the moment the quote is accepted, straight into your own Stripe account. The customer signs, pays a deposit for materials and mobilisation, and the job is genuinely locked in — no more chasing separate deposit payments, no more no-shows after you have ordered the timber.
You do not change your process. Keep quoting in Xero exactly as you do now. Mark a quote as SENT and Quote Nudge takes over the follow-up. When you get a spare five minutes in the van, the win-rate funnel shows you which quotes have been viewed and which are going cold, so you know where a personal phone call might tip a big job over the line.
If you want the wider picture on why Xero leaves this gap in the first place, this guide explains it. And when you are ready to write your sequence, the follow-up email templates are written in plain, no-nonsense language that suits trade customers.
A single recovered job a month — one rewire, one bathroom, one deck — pays for the tool many times over. The quotes are already leaving your account; the only question is whether anyone follows them up. Right now, for most trades, nobody does.
Start a free 14-day trial — no card required, then £16.79/mo, cancel anytime. Connect Xero, set your cadence once, and let Quote Nudge chase the jobs while you get on with the work.
Auto follow-ups, branded e-sign acceptance and deposits on your Xero quotes. £16.79/mo after the trial — no card required.
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