Trades and home services · ServiceM8 · Quotes

How do I set up an automatic quote follow-up in ServiceM8?

By BREME · Updated 19 October 2026

Who this is for: Tradies and home service businesses who quote in ServiceM8 and want every unanswered quote followed up on time, without having to remember to do it.

What the Quote Follow Up automation does

ServiceM8's Quote Follow Up is part of the Automation Add-on. Once it is on, every quote you send can trigger a set of follow-up messages by email, SMS or both, at the times you choose. ServiceM8 says the add-on is available on all plans, and each SMS sent uses a text credit from your plan.

The messages go to the same contact or contacts you sent the quote to. ServiceM8 notes that the email address or phone number must match a saved contact on the job, or the follow-up will not send. So the habit that matters most is sending quotes to the customer saved on the job, not to an address typed in on the fly.

How to set it up, step by step

1. Go to Settings > ServiceM8 Add-ons and make sure the Automation Add-on is activated.
2. Go to Settings > Automation. Next to Quote Follow Up, click Edit.
3. Choose how many times you want to follow up after a quote. The maximum is 5.
4. For each follow-up, choose email, SMS or both, and set how long after the quote is sent it goes out. ServiceM8's own example is an SMS 3 hours after the quote and an email 3 days after.
5. Decide whether to automatically change jobs with unaccepted quotes to Unsuccessful, and choose the timeframe.
6. Write the template for each follow-up. ServiceM8's Smart Assistant can generate a message or improve a draft you have written.
7. Test it by sending a quote to yourself as a saved contact on a test job. Once the automation is active, scheduled emails and texts show in the job's Diary, so you can check the timing there.

A simple sequence that suits most trades

ServiceM8 allows up to five follow-ups and suggests one possible sequence: a brief text a few hours after the quote, an email a few days later, further follow-ups at 7 and 14 days, and a final note that the quote and prices will soon expire.

For most small trade businesses we would start with two. A short text on day 2, when the customer has had time to read the quote and compare, and a final text on day 7 that makes it easy to say yes, no or not yet. Two messages feel like good service. Five can start to feel like a system chasing them.

If you turn on the automatic Unsuccessful status, set the timeframe to match how long your quotes are valid. That keeps your quote list honest without closing a job the customer is still thinking about.

What stops the follow-ups

ServiceM8 cancels scheduled follow-ups in these situations:

• The customer replies and you have not yet responded to or dismissed the reply. Responding or dismissing resumes the automation.
• The customer accepts the quote online, which changes the job to Work Order.
• You manually change the job to Work Order, Completed or Unsuccessful.
• A team member cancels the automation from the dropdown next to it in the job's Diary online.
• You resend the quote to someone who is not a saved contact on the job.

Handling replies so you do not double up

Because responding to a reply resumes the automation, a customer who texts back "we're going with someone else" could still get your day 7 message if the job stays in Quote status. When a customer gives you a clear answer, change the job status or cancel the automation in the Diary as part of replying.

ServiceM8 also notes that quotes with outstanding customer replies are not changed to Unsuccessful automatically, and that if a customer replies after a job has been changed to Unsuccessful, it goes back to Quote status.

The help article does not say which merge fields you can use in templates, whether messages respect business hours, or how the quote link appears. Check the current wording in your ServiceM8 account before you rely on any of those.

Hi [first name], [your name] from [business] here. Just checking the quote for your [job] came through okay and made sense. Happy to run through it or answer any questions. If you're keen, reply and I'll pencil you in. Reply STOP to opt out.

Hi [first name], last one from me on the [job] quote. If you'd like to go ahead, reply YES and I'll lock in a date. If the timing's not right or you've sorted it another way, no worries at all, just let me know and I'll close it off. Cheers, [your name], [business]. Reply STOP to opt out.

Subject: Your [job] quote from [business]

Hi [first name],

Just a last check-in on the quote for your [job]. If you'd like to go ahead, reply to this email or accept the quote online and we'll book you in.

If you've got questions about the price or the scope, I'm happy to talk it through. And if you've decided not to go ahead, that's completely fine. A quick reply helps me keep things tidy.

Cheers,
[your name]
[business] | [phone] | ABN [ABN]

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