The one number every service owner should track
If I could get every service owner to track one number, it would be this: how long it takes to answer a new inquiry, from the moment it comes in to the first real reply.
Not the average. Last Tuesday night's. Last Saturday's.
Why this number
Customers who reach out to a service business are usually reaching out to more than one. The first company to get back with a real answer has a head start, and it often keeps it. Your reply time is the first impression of what working with you will be like.
Averages hide the problem. A shop can answer weekday calls in minutes and still leave Friday-night forms until Monday. Those are the leads that go to someone else.
How to track it for one week
- Keep a simple sheet: the time each new call, text, form or message came in, and the time someone replied for real.
- Mark the ones that came in after hours or on the weekend.
- At the end of the week, look at the slowest five, not the average.
You don't need software for this. A notebook by the phone works.
What to do with it
If the slow ones cluster at night and on weekends, that's an answering problem. If they're spread through the week, it's usually a "whose job is this?" problem. Each has a different fix, and some cost nothing.
Our free check gives you an outside view of what a customer meets when they reach out, with fixes you can make yourself.