Most businesses that depend on enquiries believe they reply fast. Ask a team leader and you will usually hear the same answer: we get back to people quickly. The research suggests that this belief and the buyer's experience are often far apart.
The example here comes from real estate, but the pattern applies to any business where a stranger sends a message and hopes for an answer. That includes clinics, agencies, hotels, car dealers and service firms. The question is not whether your people care. It is whether anyone is there when the message arrives.
What the research measured
In aggregated research across GCC brokerages, 144 anonymous buyer enquiries were sent to real estate firms. 94 % of them went out outside office hours, which is when many real buyers actually browse and write.
The results were consistent:
- 63 % of all enquiries got no reply during the test window.
- Only 5 % were answered within 5 minutes, and 9 % within one hour.
- When a reply did come, the median first response took 9.4 hours.
- Of the 133 enquiries sent in the evening or at night, 38 % received a reply, and 5 % within 5 minutes.
None of this says agents are lazy. A 9.4 hour median is roughly what you would expect if messages arriving at night simply wait until someone opens their inbox the next morning. That is a coverage gap, not a motivation problem.
Why fast feels true from the inside
Teams judge their speed by the enquiries they see during the working day. A message that lands at 2 pm and gets answered at 2.15 pm feels like proof of a responsive business. The message that landed at 10 pm the night before is not part of that picture. By the time it is read, it already feels old, and the person who sent it may have contacted three other firms.
This is the central blind spot. Response time is usually measured from when the team notices a message, not from when the customer sent it. The customer only experiences the second clock.
Picture this as an example. A buyer finishes dinner, scrolls through listings and sends the same question to four firms at 9 pm. One answers within minutes with a clear reply and a suggested viewing time. The other three reply between 8 am and noon the next day. The buyer is not being unfair by continuing with the first one. They are simply talking to the business that was present.
Channel matters more than most teams think
The research also shows that the channel a customer chooses changes the outcome.
Of 87 enquiries sent by email, 22 % received a reply, with a median first response of 11.3 hours. Of 57 enquiries sent by WhatsApp, 61 % received a reply, with a median of 8.7 hours.
WhatsApp performed clearly better on reply rate, but even there the typical first answer arrived the next working day. Email often sits in a shared inbox that nobody owns, which helps explain both the lower reply rate and the longer wait.
The lesson for any owner is practical. Every channel you publish on your website, listings or social profiles is a promise. If a channel is listed, someone or something needs to be responsible for it, including at night and at weekends.
Coverage is a design decision
In hotels, nobody expects the front desk to close at 6 pm. Guests arrive late, phones ring at midnight, and the operation is built around that reality. Night shifts, clear handovers and simple scripts make sure every guest gets a first answer, even if the full answer comes later.
Enquiry driven businesses can borrow the same thinking. A first reply does not need to solve everything. It needs to confirm the message was received, answer the simple questions and set a clear next step. That alone keeps the conversation with you instead of a competitor.
The options range from rotating an on call person, to setting up honest auto replies with useful information, to using an assistant that handles first responses and passes qualified leads to the team. Tools such as HYBOTE are built for this kind of first response coverage, but the right choice depends on your volume and your team.
What to do this week
Start by measuring, not by buying anything. Send three enquiries to your own business this week from a number and email address your team does not recognise: one in the morning, one in the evening and one late at night. Use each public channel at least once.
Record the time each message was sent and the time the first real reply arrived. Compare that with what your team believes its response time is.
Then answer three questions. Which channels have no clear owner? What happens to a message that arrives after closing time? What should the very first reply say, and who or what will send it?
If the gap you find is small, you have confirmed something useful. If it looks like the research, you now know where enquiries are waiting, and that is the first step to answering them.