Speed to lead is the time between somebody reaching out and somebody responding. It is measured per inquiry and reported as a median rather than an average, because a few forgotten weekend forms will distort a mean past usefulness. It is also, in most local businesses, the cheapest improvement available.
Briefly explained
- Time from inquiry to first reply.
- Report the median, not the average.
- The first to answer usually books the job.
- Ranking better takes months. Answering faster starts this week.
Why does the first responder usually win?
Because the customer is working down a list, not waiting for the best option.
Somebody with an urgent problem calls until somebody picks up. The business that answers is the one that gets the job, regardless of who ranked higher or spent more on advertising. Every marketing dollar upstream was spent to create that moment.
What does it cost to be slow?
Everything spent to produce the inquiry.
The campaign worked, the page converted, and the lead then sat for four hours. That lead is counted in your reports as a lead. It just never became anything, and the channel gets blamed for a failure that happened after it did its job.
How do you improve it?
- Route calls to a person during business hours, with a defined path outside them
- Reply to forms and chat within minutes, not by end of day
- Text back missed calls automatically, so the conversation stays alive while somebody is on a job. See missed-call text-back
- Measure it. If response time is not on a report, it drifts
What should the after-hours path be?
Decided, rather than left to chance.
An automated first touch, an honest statement of when a person will reply, and a separate route for genuine emergencies. Being honest about a morning callback costs less than promising an immediate one and not delivering it.
What do the terms mean?
- First response: The first reply of any kind, automated or human.
- Median: The middle value. The honest version of this number.
- Lead routing: The rules deciding who an inquiry goes to.
- After-hours path: What happens to inquiries outside working hours.
- Cost per lead: What a slow response quietly throws away.
Owner questions
