How many times to go back
There is no universal number, and the honest way to find yours is to look at where your own returns stop converting. Track how many callbacks close on a first, second and third return. The point where the curve flattens is your answer, and it will differ by trade and by how strong the original reason was.
Why the published numbers do not transfer
The widely repeated "it takes N touches" figures come from B2B inside sales and were not measured at a residential door. Repeating them here would be borrowing authority from a different job.
A door-to-door callback also decays faster than a B2B lead, because the reason attached to it usually had a short shelf life.
Measuring your own
Record which visit closed each sale: first return, second, third. After a season you will have a curve, and the point where it flattens is where additional returns stop paying for the time.
This is the sort of thing that is trivial once every visit is logged and impossible if it is not, which is most of why the logging matters.
The nuisance boundary
Separate from arithmetic, there is a point where returning damages the relationship and the company's standing on that street. It usually arrives before the point where returns stop converting, which means the ceiling is social rather than mathematical.
Common questions
- How many times should I go back?
- Until your own numbers show returns stop converting, bounded by the point where you become a nuisance. The second bound usually binds first.
- Is there a standard number of touches?
- The commonly quoted figures come from B2B inside sales and were not measured at a residential door. We would rather not repeat them as if they were.
- What if they keep saying come back later?
- That is usually a soft no. Ask a question that makes a no easy to give, and you will free up the time either way.
More on callbacks
The doors you already earned: callbacks, appointments, follow-up timing, and where they get lost.