Why customers aren't coming

A business that wants more customers usually hears one recommendation: be easier to find. Sometimes that is the right work. Often the counts say something else, and the recommendation comes before anyone has looked.

This page is a way to read the counts. A pair of them chooses where to look next. It does not name the cause. Surmado’s reading of the counts is the table below. The sources say what you can actually measure, and they do not publish this table.

Count these four things

Use one period, and a comparison period of the same kind. This month against last month works when the business is steady through the year. A seasonal business compares this month with the same month last year. A mover’s January and June are different businesses. Comparing them tells you the calendar, not a problem.

1. Qualified inquiries. Someone asking for work you do, where you do it. A spam form, and a call for a trade you do not offer, do not count. If you cannot tell those apart, you do not know this number yet.
2. Bookings. Inquiries that became a job you committed to do.
3. Revenue from those bookings. The money, not the count of jobs.
4. How soon you can take the next confirmed job. A date on the schedule, not a feeling that you are busy.

If you have Google Search Console, add two numbers from the Performance report: impressions (how often Google showed your site) and clicks (how often someone chose it). Google says the report shows which queries showed your site, and that a query can appear there and still not show your site when you search it yourself, because results depend on the time, place, device, and recent history of the person searching. The report is Google Search only. It does not include calls, forms, bookings, or people who already have your number.

The SBA’s marketing guide says to write down each step a customer takes once they decide to buy, to measure your efforts the same way each time, and to compare what you spent to get customers with the revenue those customers brought. That comparison comes after you know which effort you are judging. It is not a substitute for the four counts.

What a pair can tell you

Read two counts together. One count is not a pair.

What you see, against the comparison period	Where to look next
Google clicks and qualified inquiries are both down	Demand, or being hard to find. The next check splits them.
Inquiries are steady and bookings are down	The path from inquiry to booking: reply, price, or trust.
Bookings are steady and revenue is down	The size of the job, which services you sold, or the price of the same job.
People want the work, and the next confirmed opening is far off	Whether you can take more work.

None of these is the cause. Each one tells you which evidence to get next, and what each result would mean. If you are not in a row, because all you know is that bookings are down, you are in When you still do not know.

Split the pair

Both reach and inquiries are down

You need two more facts.

• Did impressions fall with the clicks, or only the clicks? Clicks down and impressions steady means Google is still showing you, and people are not choosing you. Look at the listing and the page: what the result says, whether the phone number and the offer match, and whether a recent review is what a stranger sees. That is not “nobody wants the work.”
• Did people who already know you go quiet too? Past customers and referrals are demand that does not depend on a stranger finding you.

Impressions down, and referrals down, in a comparable period: start with demand, including the season. A new page does not create searches that are not happening.

Impressions down, and referrals steady: people who know you are still coming. Impressions also fall when fewer people search, and referrals do not tell those apart. The next facts are the queries in the Performance report, and whether average position on those same queries moved. Google describes average position as the average position of the topmost result from your site. Position down points at being shown less. Position holding points at fewer searches. Until one of those shows, you do not know which it is. Read how to get found by ChatGPT and other AI answers, and, if the drop is specifically Google, what to check when Google traffic falls, only after position says you were shown less.

You have neither impressions nor a referral count: you do not know yet whether this is demand or being hard to find. Those two counts are the next evidence. Do not buy more visibility, and do not cut the price, on this pair alone.

Inquiries hold and bookings fall

Take the last 20 qualified inquiries and write where each one stopped.

• No reply, or a reply slow enough that they hired someone else. That is follow-up. The number is how long until a person answered, and how many never got an answer.
• They got a quote and stopped there, or they said the price was why. That is price. You need their words or the step they left, not a guess that customers always want it cheaper.
• They got a quote, and what they said, or a recent review of a real job, is about trust, a no-show, or work that went badly. That is trust. Asking for more reviews is a later decision. The evidence here is what these 20 people, and the recent jobs, already show.

The SBA guide asks you to write the steps of the sale for this reason. The step they leave is the fact. If you did not record it, you do not know yet, and the tally is the next evidence. A new website does not tell you which of the three it was.

Bookings hold and revenue falls

Separate the jobs. Same kind of job, this period against the comparison period: how many of each, and the price of that job.

• More small jobs, and the booking count is about the same. The mix changed. Look at which work you are selling.
• The same jobs, at a lower price. The price changed. Look at who changed it and why.
• You do not separate job types. You do not know yet. The split by job is the next evidence. Being easier to find does not explain a full booking count with less money.

The work is there, and you cannot take it

If qualified inquiries are healthy and the next confirmed opening is far enough out that you are turning people away, more visibility adds people you cannot serve. The SBA guide treats the operation, not only the ad, as part of whether a customer comes back or tells a friend to stay away. A crew that cannot get there, and a schedule with no room, are that kind of fact.

Check whether the openings are confirmed jobs.

• Confirmed jobs, and you are saying no. You are at the limit of what you can do. The useful work is the schedule, who does the work, or which jobs you accept.
• The calendar looks full, and the jobs are not confirmed. Those are inquiries that have not become bookings. Use the last-20 tally above. A full-looking calendar made of holds is the sale, not a capacity problem.
• You do not know the next confirmed date. You do not know yet.

When you still do not know

“Bookings are down” is one number. Stay there until you have a pair.

Say it in one sentence: we do not know yet, and here is the count that would tell us. Then get that count. A recommendation before the count is a guess with a budget attached.

Two honest stops, after a pair:

• The next check still leaves two explanations. Name both, and name the fact that would retire one of them. Do not pick one because it is easier to act on.
• You cannot get the fact. A business with no inquiry notes cannot tell follow-up from price from trust. The page ends at the notes. It does not end at a channel to buy.

A moving company

Someone asks: we are a moving company, why aren’t we getting more bookings?

If the comparison is this January against last June, stop. That gap is the season. Compare this January with last January before you call it a problem. You do not know yet.

If this January’s bookings are down against last January, and that is all you know, you still do not know yet. The next evidence is the four counts for both Januaries.

Then the pair decides:

• Clicks and qualified inquiries are both down. Ask whether impressions fell, and whether past customers and referrals also went quiet. Both down: look at demand, including a slower January than last year. Referrals steady and impressions down: people who know you are still coming, and you still do not know whether fewer people searched or you were shown less. Queries and whether position on them moved are the next facts. Look at being found, and only then at the guides linked above, when position fell. Position holding points at fewer searches. Missing a fact: say you do not know yet.
• Inquiries match last January and bookings do not. Read where the last 20 estimate requests stopped: no reply, the price, or trust. No notes: you do not know yet, and the notes are the work.
• About as many jobs booked, and less money. Split local moves, long-distance moves, and packing. The mix or the price of the same move is the question. More search traffic does not answer it.
• The phone is ringing and the next confirmed truck is weeks out. More ads add moves you cannot crew. If those weeks are unconfirmed holds, go back to the last 20 and find where the estimate died.

A mover with one of those answers still has not been told to publish a page, buy ads, or cut the price. They have been told which fact to get, and what each result would change.

Do this

1. Pick the comparison. Same kind of period. For a seasonal trade, the same month last year.
2. Write the four counts for both periods: qualified inquiries, bookings, revenue, and the next confirmed opening.
3. Add Google clicks and impressions if you have Search Console. Label them as Google Search, not as all demand.
4. Find your row in the table. If you have no row, stop. You do not know yet.
5. Run the one check that row names. Impressions against referrals, then queries and position if referrals held. The last 20 inquiries. The job mix. Confirmed dates, not holds.
6. Write what each result would mean, including the result you do not have. If two explanations remain, name the fact that would retire one. Do not spend money to break the tie.

If the business has no customers yet, the counts do not exist. Find your first customers is the step before this page: a way to get paid, a true page, and a note on where each person came from. This page starts once those notes are worth comparing.

What you get back

A pair, or a clear statement that you do not have one. One next check. A sentence for what each result would change. Permission to stop there.