Reply Index

If a customer emails them today, when do they hear back?

An independent measurement of how quickly Canadian businesses answer a written enquiry. One ordinary question, sent to every shop in a trade, and the result published in full — including the ones that never answered.

First measurement in progress

Auto repair, Ottawa

Every independent repair shop in the Ottawa region that publishes an email address receives the same question, on a weekday morning, from an ordinary customer. Nothing is sold, nothing is offered. We wait fourteen days and count.

Results are published here when the measurement closes.

The question

Do you work on a 2015 Audi A4? Do you keep front brake pads and rotors for that car in stock, or would they have to be ordered in? What is your current wait for that job, and is it something that could be done the same day?

What is counted

Replied within 24 hoursthe answer arrived on the first day
Replied within 72 hourswithin the first three days
Never repliedsilence on the fourteenth day
Median reply timeacross everyone who answered, in hours
Answered on the first tryall three questions addressed, without "call us"
No written channel at allno form, no address on a working site

Method

  1. Every business in the trade with a published address is included — not a sample chosen by us.
  2. The same question goes to everyone, on a weekday between 9am and noon local time.
  3. The enquiry is genuine and the reply is read. No business is asked for more than one reply.
  4. Replies are timed to the minute from the moment the message was sent.
  5. Everyone who replies is told honestly that the work is being postponed.
  6. Before publication, every business is shown its own line and may correct it.
  7. Forms and email addresses are reported separately — a form that never delivers is itself a finding.

The index does not rate the quality of anyone's work. It measures one thing: whether they answer.

Corrections

If your business appears in a published measurement and the line is wrong — you replied and it was missed, or the address we used is not the one you read — write to corrections@replyindex.com. Corrections are applied and dated.