Quote follow-up email template: three messages, and the yes to get first

You sent the quote a week ago and heard nothing. Silence isn’t a no. It’s a quote sitting in an inbox under the school newsletter.

Here are the three messages to send, when to send each, and when to stop. First, though, the one thing to sort out before any of them go.

First, get the yes when they ask for the quote

Before you send a single chaser, get the customer’s yes to hearing from you. It takes one sentence, and it means you never have to argue about whether you were allowed to send it.

We read the Spam Act 2003 again on 7 October 2026. Section 16 bans sending a commercial email or text unless the person consented, and section 16(5) puts the burden of showing that consent on whoever sent it.1 The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the regulator for phones, internet and spam, says it plainly: “Under the Spam Act, it’s up to you to prove that you have a person’s consent”.2

Is a quote chaser a commercial message? Section 6 says a message is commercial if one of its purposes is to offer or promote goods or services.1 A message whose job is to win you the work looks like that to me.

Whether asking for a quote counts as consent to be chased about it isn’t settled anywhere we read, so I’d skip the argument and ask. This isn’t legal advice.

How do you ask?

In person, on the phone, or with a tick box. Those are three of the ways ACMA lists for giving express consent, meaning a clear yes rather than one you assume.2 ACMA’s guidance recommends express consent, because it is “a clear and unambiguous choice”.3

What you can’t do is email them afterwards to ask. ACMA says “You cannot send an electronic message to ask for consent, because this is a marketing message”.2 So ask while you’re standing in their kitchen, or while they’re on the phone asking for the quote.

The line to say:

“I’ll email the quote through by Thursday. If I don’t hear back, are you happy for me to check in a couple of times by email or text? You can tell me to stop any time.”

On a quote request form on your website, an unticked box:

[ ] It’s fine to follow up about this quote by email or text.

Write it down

ACMA’s guidance says a record of consent should include “the method by which the consent was obtained, the terms that applied and the date and time it was obtained”.3 One line in the job notes does it:

Follow-ups OK by email and text. Said on site visit, 7 October 2026, 2.15pm.

No yes? Then no chasers. The quote stands on its own, and you can still pick up the phone: voice calls sit outside the Spam Act under section 5(5), with their own rules that this post doesn’t cover.1

When do you send each message?

On day 2, day 7 and day 14 after the quote goes out. The first checks it arrived, the second offers to change it, and the third closes it off honestly.

That spacing is my advice. It sits close to what the trade software does: ServiceM8’s help page suggests a text a few hours after the quote, an email a few days later, then follow-ups at 7 and 14 days,4 and Tradify sends its reminders 7 and 14 days after the quote and 3 days before it expires.5

Every message, whatever it says, carries three things:

• Who you are. Section 17 of the Spam Act wants a commercial message to identify who sent it and how to contact them.1
• How to stop. Section 18 wants a working way to unsubscribe.1 A plain “reply stop” line does it, as long as replies actually reach you.
• One link at most, to the quote. Nothing about your other services.

The three quote follow-up templates

Change the words in square brackets. Keep the stop line.

Message one, day 2, by email: did it arrive?

Subject: Your quote for [the job]

Hi [first name],

Checking the quote for [the job] reached you. It’s here if you need it again: [link to the quote].

If anything in it doesn’t make sense, or you’d like it done a different way, reply and tell me, or ring me on [phone].

[Your name], [business], [phone]

If you’d rather I didn’t check in again, reply “stop” and I won’t.

Message two, day 7, by text: anything to change?

Hi [first name], [your name] from [business]. Any questions on the [job] quote? Happy to adjust it. Call or text [phone]. Reply STOP to opt out.

Filled in with a short business name, it fits in one text. If they said yes to email only, send it as an email with the same words.

Message three, day 14, by email: the last one

Subject: Last note about your [job] quote

Hi [first name],

I won’t keep chasing. If you’ve gone with someone else, no hard feelings. If the timing’s just wrong, the quote stands until [date].

A one-word reply either way helps me plan the next few weeks.

[Your name], [business], [phone]

Reply “stop” and you won’t hear from me again about this.

When do you stop?

The moment they reply, whatever they say. Even “still thinking” means the chasers stop and you talk to them like a person.

Stop too when they say no, when they say stop, and after the third message.

The Act gives a stop request up to 5 business days to take effect (Schedule 2, clause 6).1 I’d stop the same day. Nobody hires the business that kept texting after they said no.

Get an AI assistant to put each one in your words

The templates above are deliberately plain. ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini can rewrite one to sound like you and fit the job.

Paste the template and the facts of the quote: the job, what’s included, and anything the customer asked about. Leave out their address, phone number and email; the AI assistant doesn’t need them. The request:

Rewrite this message to a customer about a quote I sent. Keep it under 80 words, friendly and plain, in Australian English. No pressure, no discount, no exclamation marks. Keep my name, business and phone number, and keep the last line about replying stop exactly as it is.

The message: [paste the template]

About the job: [two or three lines]

Read what comes back before you send it. If it promises something you didn’t, or sounds like a call centre, change it.

Already on ServiceM8 or Tradify? Switch it on

You don’t need anything new. Both already send quote follow-ups, and each has one catch worth knowing.

ServiceM8. With the Automation add-on, go to Settings, then Automation, and next to Quote Follow Up select Edit. You choose up to five follow-ups by email, text or both, and when each goes.4

The catch: when the customer replies, the follow-ups are cancelled, but ServiceM8’s page says that responding to the reply or dismissing it “will resume the automation”.4 So once they’ve replied, change the job’s status or cancel the automation in the job’s diary.

Tradify. Go to Settings, then Quotes, find Email Reminders, turn on Send email reminders, and edit the Message to Customer.5 The catch: Tradify’s reminders stop when the quote expires, or when it’s accepted or declined, not when the customer replies.5 So mark the quote the day they answer.

Tradify’s text reminders are a different matter. Its help page says their wording is fixed, can’t be changed, and ends “Do Not Reply”.6 I’d leave those off and put your stop line in the email message instead, because a text that tells people not to reply gives them no way to say stop.

Whichever you use, getting the yes is still your job, at the quote request.

Want it set up for you?

If your software already does this, switch it on and keep your money. If it doesn’t, on our menu this is Follow-ups that stop when they reply: two or three chasers, spaced, stopping on reply. It needs a small subscription, Brevo, which is free to start.

It works the same for quotes that aren’t for a job on site, such as a function or a group booking at a pub. Start with one thing, or a bundle. If yours is different, we scope it.

Book a free hour.