How do I stop customers texting me at 9pm about quotes?

You do not have to answer every text at 9pm. Set up an auto-reply that acknowledges the message, confirms your business hours, and lets the customer know when you will get back to them. Most job management apps and phone systems can send this automatically, so the lead stays warm while you stay off the tools. The real risk is not the late text, it is the silence that follows when nobody replies.

Updated 10/09/2026

Why do customers text tradies after hours in the first place?

Most customers are not trying to be rude. They finished work themselves at 5 or 6pm, got home, noticed the dripping tap or the cracked tile, and reached for their phone. Your number came up on Google or a referral. They text because it feels less intrusive than calling, and they assume you will reply in the morning.

The problem is what happens on your end. You see the notification, feel the pull to reply (because you know approximately 78% of deals go to the first business that responds), and suddenly your evening is gone. Or you ignore it, forget by morning, and the customer has already texted the next tradie on the list.

Neither outcome is good. The fix is not willpower. It is a system.

What does a good after-hours auto-reply look like?

A good auto-reply does three things in under 30 words: confirms you received the message, states when you will respond, and keeps the door open. Here is a practical example:

Thanks for getting in touch. Our business hours are Mon to Fri, 7am to 5pm. I will get back to you first thing tomorrow morning.

That is it. No sales pitch, no "we're so busy" humble-brag, no emoji overload. The customer knows their message landed, knows when to expect a reply, and is far less likely to text the next tradie while they wait.

You can set this up through your phone's built-in Do Not Disturb auto-reply, through your job management app (ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus, and simPRO all support scheduled messaging), or through a dedicated missed-call text-back system.

Does replying late actually cost you jobs?

Yes. The data is clear, even if the exact numbers depend on the study. Leads contacted within 5 minutes are 21 times more likely to qualify than those contacted after 30 minutes (HBR/MIT, originally ~2011, still the canonical reference cited in 2026). And SMS messages carry a 98% open rate, with 90% read within three minutes, which means your auto-reply lands almost instantly.

An auto-reply is not as good as a personal response, but it is vastly better than silence. It buys you until morning. The customer knows you exist, you are professional, and you will follow up. That alone puts you ahead of the majority of tradies who do not reply at all until the next day, if ever.

How do I actually set this up?

There are three practical paths, from free to fully automated:

If you are just starting out, the phone's built-in auto-reply costs nothing and takes two minutes to set up. If you already use a job management app, check whether it has a business-hours auto-responder built in, most do.

What are the Spam Act rules for auto-reply texts?

If your auto-reply is purely transactional (acknowledging an enquiry, confirming business hours, stating when you will respond), it is not a commercial electronic message and the Spam Act 2003 does not apply to it.

But the moment you add a promotion, a discount, or a link to your services page, it becomes a commercial electronic message. Under the Spam Act, commercial electronic messages require consent, must identify the sender, and must include a functional unsubscribe honoured within five business days. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) enforces this:

"Businesses must not send commercial electronic messages without the consent of the person they are sending the message to."
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), Avoid sending spam

Keep your auto-reply simple and transactional. Save the sales message for your personal follow-up in the morning, when the customer has already engaged.

How do I stop the after-hours texts from coming in the first place?

You cannot eliminate them entirely, but you can reduce them. The most effective lever is making your business hours visible everywhere a customer finds you:

• Google Business Profile. Set your hours. Google shows them on the search card before the customer even visits your site.
• Website header or footer. A simple "Mon to Fri, 7am to 5pm" line near your phone number sets the expectation.
• Voicemail greeting. State your hours and when you will call back. A voicemail that just says "leave a message" invites a text instead.
• Quote confirmation texts. When you send a quote during business hours, include your hours in the footer so the customer knows when to follow up.

Over time, repeat customers learn the pattern. New customers still text at 9pm, but the auto-reply handles them.

What should my morning follow-up routine look like?

The auto-reply bought you time. Now you need a system to use it. A reliable morning routine takes 10 to 15 minutes before you leave the house:

1. Check your queue. Open your job management app or phone and review every after-hours enquiry. If you are using a system that logs leads automatically, they are already waiting as job cards.
2. Triage. Sort by urgency: emergency work (burst pipe, no power) gets a call. Standard quotes get a text or email with a time estimate.
3. Reply personally. A short, direct message: "Hi [name], thanks for reaching out last night. I can come out Thursday arvo to take a look. Does that suit?" That personal touch is what the auto-reply set up.
4. Log it. If you quoted, mark it in your system so your quoting workflow picks it up for follow-up.

The goal is that by the time you start your first job, every after-hours enquiry has a personal reply. The auto-reply held the lead. Your morning routine closes it.

Can I automate the follow-up too?

Yes, up to a point. A job management app can automatically send a follow-up text the next morning if you have not manually replied. Some systems (ServiceM8 with add-ons, or a dedicated automation layer) can trigger a sequence: auto-reply at night, personal-style follow-up at 7:30am, and a second nudge two days later if the customer has not responded.

The line is consent. If the customer texted you first (an enquiry) and your reply is purely transactional (acknowledging receipt, stating business hours), it is not a commercial electronic message and the Spam Act consent requirements do not apply. If you layer on marketing messages later, you need explicit opt-in and a working opt-out. When in doubt, keep automated messages transactional and save the pitch for a conversation.

For a deeper look at what you can automate end to end, setting deposit terms and the full TradieBuddy AI solution set cover the next steps.