- 01Contact received
- 02Service and location fit checked
- 03Appointment or estimate booked
- 04Job outcome recorded
Agree on the basic fit
For many service businesses, an inquiry is a better fit when it involves a service you provide, comes from an area you serve, and includes a customer who is ready to discuss an estimate, assessment, or appointment.
The criteria differ by business. A collision shop, waterproofing contractor, and renovation company may each qualify inquiries differently. Write down the criteria so marketing and the people responding to leads use the same definition.
Separate lead stages
A call or form submission is a contact, not necessarily a qualified lead. A qualified inquiry may become a scheduled assessment, estimate, booked job, and completed work. Keeping these stages separate prevents inflated reporting.
Record why an inquiry is not a fit when practical. Common reasons can include the service, location, budget, timing, or inability to reach the person. Review the patterns before changing campaigns.
Connect quality to source
Capture the source of each inquiry and update the outcome as it moves through your process. You can then compare channels by the inquiries they generate and the work that follows.
The information is only useful when staff can record it consistently. Start with a small set of fields your team will actually maintain.