Two-city enquiry tracking

The problem in this corner of Metro Vancouver

North Road is a municipal boundary with Burnaby on one side and Coquitlam on the other, yet most residents treat the shops and services on both sides as one neighbourhood. Lougheed Town Centre station sits on the Burnaby side near the boundary, while Burquitlam station is in Coquitlam, a short ride away.

For tracking, that creates confusion. A customer may search from a Burnaby suite, call about a job at a parent's Coquitlam townhouse and mention a strata manager's recommendation. Unless someone records each of those facts, the enquiry ends up labelled "Google" or "word of mouth" and the useful detail is lost.

Who this is for

• businesses paying for ads, listings, sponsorships, flyers or vendor-list placements
• owners who suspect one channel is carrying the business but can't prove it
• businesses deciding whether to put more effort into Burnaby or Coquitlam customers
• anyone who has heard "we got a lot of leads" from a supplier and wanted to see them

What's included

1. A source list in your words. We agree a short list of sources, such as Google map listing, website, referral, repeat customer, strata manager, sign or vehicle, and a paid ad named by platform, with no more than ten options.
2. An enquiry record. One row per enquiry with date, source, city, neighbourhood or building, job type and outcome. In a spreadsheet or in fields inside your existing software.
3. A question at intake. A natural way for whoever answers to ask how the customer found you, recorded the same way every time.
4. Platform checks. We look at how your profile, ads and listings define location so their reports line up with your record.
5. A monthly one-page view. Enquiries, booked jobs and revenue by source and by city, with the cost of each paid source alongside.

Our guide to building an enquiry source log shows the record layout we start from.

Timeline

Setup takes two to four weeks. The first useful monthly view comes about a month after launch, and we review the first three months with you to see whether the categories need adjusting.

How we measure it

The test is simple: can you answer, for last month, how many enquiries each source produced, how many became paid work and what each paid source cost per booked job? Before the fix most owners can answer roughly. After it they can answer from the record. Once the record exists, the cost per booked job for each source is plain division you can do yourself.

Mistakes we see often

• Too many categories. Twenty-five sources means nobody records them properly. Keep the list short.
• Recording "Google" for everything. Map listing, organic website visit and paid ad are different sources with different costs.
• Tracking enquiries but not outcomes. An enquiry that never books is a cost, not a win.
• Changing your main phone number across listings. Inconsistent numbers can confuse customers and search platforms. Get tracking right without breaking consistency.
• Never looking at the report. A monthly view only helps if someone reads it and makes one decision from it.

What the first monthly view usually reveals

The first month of clean records nearly always contains a surprise. Often a source the owner thought was minor, such as repeat customers or one strata manager's recommendations, turns out to produce a large share of paid work at almost no cost. Just as often, a paid listing produces plenty of enquiries but few booked jobs. Neither finding needs interpretation from us; it sits in the record for you to see.

Where it fits

Tracking is often the right second fix after new-resident visibility, because it shows whether the newcomers are actually booking. See our results from HVAC work for what clear tracking made possible there, or go back to the services overview.