Deptly

What Deptly handles

Follow Up & Close More Work

Carry opportunities to a clear decision.

Sound familiar?

You measured the job Tuesday and sent the estimate that night, after dinner, from the kitchen table. It's Friday. The homeowner hasn't replied, you can't decide whether a second nudge feels helpful or desperate, and there are six more quotes sitting in the same silence somewhere in your inbox.

See the Complete Workflow

What does "Follow Up & Close More Work" cover?

Deptly carries every estimate, proposal, and consultation you send to a clear decision. It tracks what has gone quiet, follows up on the schedule you approve, answers routine questions, chases signatures, deposits, and authorizations, and tells you the moment a customer says yes, says no, or needs you. Nothing waits on you to remember, and nothing goes out without matching the rules you set.

What is really happening

Nobody wins the job at the estimate. The estimate is the easy part — you know the work and you know the price. The job is won or lost in the days after, when the customer has a question they never ask, a hesitation nobody addresses, and three other quotes in the same inbox. The business that follows up first, answers first, and makes saying yes easiest usually gets the work — even when its price isn't the lowest.

Follow-up rarely fails because you don't care. It fails because it depends entirely on you remembering — after the day's jobs are done, after the calls are returned, after dinner. Every open estimate is an unfinished loop, and every unfinished loop lives in your head. When ten of them are open at once, some go quiet. Not because they weren't worth chasing, but because chasing them was one more job stacked on top of your actual job.

The last mile is the worst of it. Even when the customer says yes, someone still has to send the agreement, collect the signature, request the deposit, and get it all onto the schedule. That's four small tasks between a verbal yes and committed work — and every one of them is a place where won work can quietly stall.

The complete workflow, trigger to closure

Not a feature that fires once — a loop that runs every time, with approvals where judgment is needed and verified closure at the end.

  • Estimates
  • Proposals
  • Consultations
  • Recommendations
  • Agreements
  • Signatures
  • Deposits
  • Authorizations

  1. Trigger

    An estimate leaves your hands

    A quote, proposal, or consultation summary goes out — from your field software, your email, or a conversation Deptly captured. Deptly logs it and starts the clock.

  2. Action

    Silence gets noticed

    No reply, no signature, no deposit by the quiet window you set — three days, five days, whatever fits your sales cycle. Deptly flags the opportunity as going cold before you'd ever think to check.

  3. Communication

    A follow-up goes out in your voice

    A short, friendly check-in that references the actual job — not a generic blast. Cadence, tone, and wording follow the templates you approved.

  4. Action

    Routine questions get real answers

    The customer replies asking what's included, when you could start, or how payment works. Deptly answers from your approved scope notes and policies — accurately, within minutes.

  5. Approval

    Judgment calls come to you

    A discount request, a scope change, a competitor's lower bid — anything touching price or terms is brought to you with full context. You answer once; Deptly carries it back.

  6. System

    A yes becomes paperwork that's already moving

    On acceptance, Deptly sends the agreement for signature, requests the deposit or authorization on your standard terms, and updates your schedule and customer records.

  7. Escalation

    Stalled decisions don't just sit

    If the sequence finishes without a decision, the opportunity is flagged in your weekly brief with what was tried and a recommended next step — a final personal touch from you, or a clean close.

  8. Closure

    Every opportunity ends somewhere on purpose

    Signed and scheduled, a clear no with the reason recorded, or a planned future touch. Verified closure — never an estimate quietly dying in an inbox.

What this looks like in your industry

Same loop, native vocabulary. Three examples of where this responsibility shows up.

Home services

A roofing estimate sits unsigned a week after the inspection. Deptly follows up with the homeowner on your schedule, answers questions about the scope and warranty, sends the agreement for signature when they're ready, and collects the deposit that locks in the crew date.

Deptly for home services

Auto services

The digital inspection found brake and suspension work, but the vehicle owner authorized only the oil change. Deptly preserves the declined work, follows up with the DVI photos when the mileage comes due, and carries the authorization so your service advisor stays with the cars in the bay.

Deptly for auto services

Boutique legal

A prospective client finished the estate-planning consultation but never signed the engagement agreement. Deptly tracks their readiness, follows up on outstanding documents, sends the agreement and retainer request once the attorney approves, and confirms the retainer arrived before the matter opens.

Deptly for boutique legal

What Deptly handles, asks about, and never decides

Every workflow above runs inside this boundary. You set the rules; anything outside them waits for you.

Deptly handles

Routine work done within the rules you approve.

  • Tracking every open estimate, proposal, and consultation so nothing goes quiet unnoticed
  • Sending follow-ups on the cadence and in the tone you approved
  • Answering routine questions about scope, timing, and payment from your approved notes
  • Sending agreements for signature and confirming they come back complete
  • Requesting and confirming deposits and authorizations on your standard terms
  • Recording clear outcomes — won, lost, or waiting — in the systems you already use
  • Flagging stalled decisions in your weekly brief with what was tried and what's next

Deptly asks first

Anything judgment-shaped waits for your okay.

  • Any change to price, scope, or terms — discounts and negotiations come to you first
  • Follow-up on unusually large or sensitive jobs you've marked for personal handling
  • Extending a follow-up sequence beyond the schedule you originally approved
  • How to respond when a customer brings up a competitor's lower bid
  • Closing an opportunity as lost before your sequence has finished

Always human

The decisions that stay yours, always.

  • The price. Deptly never sets, discounts, or negotiates pricing on its own
  • Professional judgment about the work itself — scope, feasibility, and craft calls stay with your team
  • Legal, clinical, and safety determinations, including anything a licensed professional must sign off on
  • Whether to take the job at all — customer fit and business risk remain your call
  • The relationship. Deptly carries the follow-through; the trust behind the handshake is yours

The full rulebook — approvals, escalation, and audit history — lives on trust and control.

Systems and channels involved

  • Your quoting or estimating tool (Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, or similar)
  • Your email and calendar
  • Text messaging from your business number
  • E-signature platforms (DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, or the one built into your field software)
  • Your payment processor for deposits (Stripe, Square, QuickBooks Payments, or similar)
  • Your CRM or customer records, wherever they live
  • Your phone and voicemail, for customers who would rather call

These are examples of where this work usually lives, not guaranteed integrations. Deptly works within the tools you already have — setup starts from what you actually use, as described on how it works.

What typically changes

No invented numbers — just the differences owners can reasonably expect when this loop stops depending on them.

  • Estimates stop dying of silence — every open opportunity gets a documented next step instead of falling out of your inbox
  • Owners typically get back the evenings they were spending writing follow-up messages and chasing signatures
  • Decisions arrive sooner in both directions — a quick no you can plan around beats a maybe that lingers for weeks
  • Signed agreements and deposits come in before crews or providers are scheduled, so won work is actually locked in

See the loop close

Every proof item on this site is labeled for exactly what it is.

Workflow Demonstration

One estimate, from silence to signed

  1. Deptly

    Estimate #2418 — paver patio, $8,650 — has gone 3 days without a reply. Starting the follow-up sequence you approved.

    Day 3, 9:05 AM

  2. Deptly

    Hi Dana, just checking in on the patio estimate from Tuesday. Happy to answer anything about materials or timing — no rush either way.

    Sent to homeowner

  3. Homeowner

    Thanks! One question — does the price include hauling away the old concrete?

    41 min later

  4. Deptly

    It does — demo and haul-away are line 4 of the estimate, no extra charge. Want me to send the agreement over so you can pick a start week?

    Answered from your approved scope notes

  5. Deptly

    Needs your OK

    Dana asked if you'd meet a $7,900 quote she got elsewhere. Price is yours — reply with a number or 'hold firm' and I'll carry your answer back.

    To owner

  6. D

    Owner brief

    Friday brief

    inbox

    Estimate #2418 closed won at $8,400 per your approved adjustment. Agreement signed, deposit collected, job scheduled for the last week of April. Two other estimates in active follow-up; one flagged going cold.

The responsibilities around this one

Each loop hands off cleanly to the next — start with one, add others when you're ready.

Keep exploring

Questions owners ask

Deptly watches the tools where your estimates already live — your quoting software, your email, your e-signature platform. When an estimate passes the quiet window you set without a reply, signature, or deposit, the follow-up sequence you approved begins. You choose the window; three to five days is common for most service businesses.

No. Follow-ups reference the actual job — the patio, the roof, the treatment plan — and use wording and tone you approved up front. You can review every message before it sends while you build trust, then loosen the reins for routine touches. Cadence is yours too: how many, how far apart, and when to stop.

Price always comes to you. Deptly never sets, discounts, or negotiates pricing on its own. When a customer asks for a better number or mentions a competitor's bid, Deptly brings it to you with the full context, you decide once, and Deptly carries your answer back and keeps the decision moving.

Yes. Once a customer accepts, Deptly sends the agreement through your e-signature tool, confirms it comes back signed, and requests the deposit or authorization on your standard terms through your existing payment processor. If anything about the terms is unusual, it comes to you before it goes out.

As many as you approve — most owners land on three to five touches spread over a few weeks. When the sequence finishes without a decision, nothing is silently abandoned: the opportunity appears in your weekly brief with what was tried and a recommended next step, and it only closes as lost under a rule you set.

Yes. The same workflow carries any opportunity that's waiting on a decision — consultations, recommendations, treatment plans, care proposals, engagement agreements. The follow-up references your document, the routine questions get answered from your approved notes, and the professional judgment behind the recommendation stays with your team.

A clear no is recorded with the reason, so you know why jobs are lost, not just that they were. If you want, declined work is preserved for a respectful future touch — brake work when the mileage comes due, the project revisited next season — always on rules you approve, never a nagging drip.

Deptly is built to work in the tools you already have — quoting software, email, e-signature, payments, your CRM. The systems listed on this page are examples, not guaranteed integrations; during setup we confirm exactly how your tools connect and where Deptly reads and writes.

A reminder sends a template and stops. Deptly reads what comes back. It answers the customer's actual question, brings price and scope calls to you, sends the agreement, confirms the deposit, and records the outcome — the whole loop, not the first nudge. The difference shows up in the estimates that used to go quiet after the reminder.

Two things. Answer the judgment calls that reach you — price questions, unusual requests, jobs you've marked for personal handling — and read a short weekly brief showing what closed, what's in motion, and what's flagged. Everything routine in between is handled within the rules you approved.

One responsibility at a time

Would this loop make the biggest difference first?

Answer a few questions about where work waits in your business and get an honest read on which responsibility Deptly should carry first.

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