Turn incoming emails into jobs.

The inbox is your most important lead source

Every fabrication shop has the same lead source: an email inbox. A homeowner sends a message asking about countertops. A general contractor forwards a plan set. A designer attaches a material selection sheet. These emails arrive at random times, in random formats, and compete for attention with invoices, supplier confirmations, and newsletters.

The problem is not that leads are missing. The problem is that they are buried. A customer email sent at 9 AM sits unopened until someone clears the inbox at 4 PM. By then, the homeowner has called two other shops. Speed matters in fabrication sales, and the inbox is where speed is won or lost.

How inbound monitoring works

Inbound email monitoring connects your existing email address to the fabrication platform. When a message arrives, it is received, filtered, and displayed in an inbox view inside the app. Newsletters, marketing emails, and auto-replies are automatically filtered out. What remains are the real customer conversations that need attention.

The inbox shows each message with the sender, subject, and a preview. Unread messages are flagged. You can read the full email, see if the sender is an existing customer, and take action without leaving the platform.

One click from email to job

The real power is the convert action. When you see an inquiry worth pursuing, one click creates a new job record. The system extracts the customer name and email from the message, checks whether that person already exists in your customer database, and either links to the existing record or creates a new one.

The email body is attached to the job as a note, so the original request is never lost. The job is created with a default status — typically “Lead” — and the email is marked as converted. The entire sequence takes seconds instead of the minutes it would take to manually create a customer, create a job, copy the email content, and paste it into notes.

Why filtering matters

Not every email in the inbox is a lead. Marketing newsletters from suppliers, auto-reply messages, software notifications, and spam all compete for attention. Without filtering, the inbox becomes a wall of noise that people stop checking regularly.

Smart filtering automatically identifies and suppresses newsletter domains, auto-reply patterns, and known marketing senders. What reaches your attention is a curated list of actual human messages that need a response. That filtered view is what makes the inbox actionable instead of overwhelming.

Response time wins jobs

In fabrication, the shop that responds first usually wins the project. Homeowners shopping for countertops contact multiple fabricators. The first to respond with a professional estimate gets the meeting. The second often does not.

Inbound monitoring shortens the gap between inquiry and response. Instead of discovering an email hours after it arrived, you see it in real time. Instead of manually building a customer record before you can respond, the one-click convert puts you in a position to quote within minutes. For shops that track lead response time, the improvement is usually dramatic.

Converting email inquiries into qualified leads

Key takeaway: Not every email inquiry is a qualified lead — but the ones that are should be converted to job records immediately so they don't get buried under daily inbox noise.

The moment an inquiry lands in your monitored inbox, the clock starts. A homeowner asking "how much for quartz countertops in a 10x10 kitchen?" is a qualified lead. A supplier sending a marketing email is not. The filtering system handles the obvious noise, but the real qualification happens when you review the message and decide whether to convert.

The one-click convert action creates a job record with the customer's name and email extracted from the message, checks your existing customer database for a match, and attaches the original email as a note. The job starts in a "Lead" status — ready for estimating and scheduling when the customer is ready to proceed.

The speed of this conversion matters. A shop that converts and responds within 30 minutes wins more jobs than one that converts at 4 PM and responds the next morning. For shops tracking fabrication KPIs, lead response time is one of the highest-leverage metrics to track. See how email-to-job fits into the broader stone fabrication software workflow, or explore client portals for what happens after the lead converts to a job.

Email automation sequences that nurture prospects

Key takeaway: Automated follow-up sequences — triggered when an email converts to a job — keep prospects engaged without manual effort, ensuring no inquiry falls through the cracks.

Once an email converts to a job record, the nurturing begins. The first touch is your personal response — answering their question, confirming availability, and proposing next steps. But not every prospect responds immediately. An automated sequence ensures they hear from you again without anyone remembering to send the follow-up.

A simple three-touch sequence works well for fabrication: a same-day response with your initial answer, a check-in at three days if no reply ("wanted to make sure you got my response — any questions?"), and a final note at one week offering to schedule a consultation. Each touch should include a link to your client portal where the prospect can review layouts, materials, and pricing on their own time.

The key is making each touch valuable, not just a reminder. Include a relevant photo of similar work, a link to a material guide, or a reference to your estimating process. The goal is to position your shop as knowledgeable and responsive — the fabricator they want to work with. Our communication templates article covers the message content for every job stage, and the quote follow-up guide details the sequence from estimate to close.

Where Lithiq fits

Lithiq OS includes inbound email monitoring with Postmark and SendGrid webhook support. Emails arrive in your inbox view, get filtered for newsletters and spam, and can be converted to jobs and customers with one click. The original email content is preserved as a job note, and the sender is automatically matched against your existing customer database.

The inbox connects to the rest of the platform: a converted email becomes a job that flows into estimating, scheduling, and the client portal. See how it fits into the broader stone fabrication software workflow, or explore job planning for what happens after the lead converts.