Water heater quote follow-up: closing 'let me think'

A water heater quote is decided in about 48 hours. The heater has failed or is about to, and nobody sits on a cold shower for two weeks. So the follow-up runs faster than for any other job you quote: text the same evening (day 0), call on day 1, text on day 3, one last text on day 7, then stop. I call it the 0-1-3-7 for water heaters. Templates below.

A water heater quote doesn't wait the way a bathroom quote does

A bathroom quote can sit for a month. Nothing's broken, the customer is choosing tiles. A water heater quote (a cylinder quote, if you're in the UK) is a different animal. Either the tank has let go and there's water on the utility room floor, or it's fourteen years old and making the noise, and someone has told them what that noise means. They're showering at the gym. Every day without a decision costs them something, so they decide fast, and they decide for whoever made deciding easiest.

Two things make this job worth chasing properly. It's real money: HomeAdvisor puts a replacement at $881 to $1,825, average $1,347, and tankless or heat pump units run higher. And it's a long relationship. The US Department of Energy assumes a 13-year product life in its own cost sums. The plumber who fits this one gets the drips, the anode checks and the next replacement.

Here's what the customer does. They ring three plumbers because the internet told them to. Two turn up, one quotes over the phone. Then they say the sentence: "Let me think about it." They mean it. But on a water heater, "think about it" means "compare for one evening and pick tomorrow", not "revisit in the spring". If you haven't been in touch by the next evening, you weren't in the comparison.

The speed data agrees, though it isn't plumbing data. Harvard Business Review's study of web enquiries found firms that made contact within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead as firms that waited an hour longer. That's about the first enquiry, and I've written up why the first plumber to answer wins on its own. This post is about the two days after the quote goes out.

The 0-1-3-7 for water heaters, with the templates

Four touches in a week, three texts and one call. It stops the moment they reply on any channel, and you take over. If they've gone with someone else, you say thanks and mean it.

If you're in the UK, read "water heater" as "cylinder" in every template, and on the day 0 text add "I'm G3 registered" if you're quoting an unvented one, because the cheaper quote may not be able to say that.

Day 0, text, the same evening. Not the next morning. The evening the quote lands is the evening they're comparing.

Hi [name], [your name] from [company]. Your water heater quote is in your inbox. One question so I can hold you a slot: if you go ahead, is this week or next week better?

Day 1, call, before lunch. The one touch you can't automate and shouldn't. Two minutes. You're not selling, you're removing the last question.

Hi [name], it's [your name]. Just checking the quote made sense. People usually ask me one of two things: whether the [tankless or heat pump] option is worth the extra, and how soon I can fit it. Which one's on your mind?

Answer it, then ask for the job. If they've had a cheaper quote, ask what it includes. It's often missing the permit, the expansion tank or taking the old one away. Say so, without slagging anyone off.

Day 3, text. One line, one thing they may not have weighed.

Hi [name], one thing on the quote I should have said out loud: [the one thing]. Happy to talk it through, or reply YES and I'll get you a date.

Day 7, text, the close-out. People answer this one, because silence now costs them manners.

Hi [name], last one from me on the water heater. Shall I close the file, or do you want a date? Either answer is fine, and thanks for letting me quote it.

Then stop. If the heater had really failed, they decided days ago. If it hadn't, you've a clean reason to stop and they know where you are.

One line on the rules, because software may end up sending these for you. The US and UK texting rules (consent, a working STOP, PECR's soft opt-in) are covered in the electrician follow-up post and I won't repeat them here. Read that section before you switch anything on. I'm a plumber, not a lawyer.

Put three prices in the quote so the follow-up has something to say

A quote with one number gives you nothing to text about on day 3. A quote with three gives you a conversation. I'd put the like-for-like tank, the tankless option and the heat pump option on the same page, each with a sentence on who it suits. Most will take the tank, but the other two lines give the day 1 call its question.

The US bands, so your numbers land in the right places. HomeAdvisor's June 2026 ranges: a tank $600 to $2,500, tankless $1,400 to $3,900, a heat pump (hybrid) unit $1,200 to $3,500. Labour alone is $150 to $450 for a tank swap and $600 to $1,900 for a tankless install. Permits $25 to $300, an expansion tank $90 to $350. National spreads, not your price.

The UK bands, from Best Builders' August 2026 guide: an unvented cylinder £900 to £3,000 fitted, which by law needs a G3-registered engineer; a vented copper cylinder £750 to £1,400; a heat-pump-ready cylinder £1,100 to £2,200. London and the South East run 15 to 25% over. Put your G3 number on the quote.

Then itemise the lines the cheaper quote leaves off: permit, expansion tank, pan and drain, the flue if it's gas, disposal of the old unit. Day 3's "one thing" is nearly always one of these.

In the US, be straight about the heat pump tax credit. The federal 25C credit was 30% of cost, up to $2,000 a year, for property placed in service before 31 December 2025; ENERGY STAR's page says the same. For a 2026 install that credit has ended unless Congress changes it. Don't put a credit on the quote. Say it's ended, point them at the IRS page, and check with your own advisor if a customer insists otherwise. A promised credit that never arrives turns a good install into a bad review.