One-year Cornerstone result
Monthly revenue doubled. Cost per client fell 44%.
Both came off the same set of numbers, at a company that had never been able to see them in one place.
The result in one line
Growing a service business while your cost to win a customer falls is not what usually happens.
Spending more normally buys worse customers at a higher price. It went the other way here because the company stopped guessing which marketing was working and started reading it.
The Cornerstone is one complete installation with three connected parts: a reason customers choose the business, a way to see how quickly the customer investment is recovered, and written next steps the office can run.
Before the work
Buying leads without being able to price them.
An established company with a recognizable fleet and an owner who ran a tight operation.
Dispatch, field service management, and diagnostics were all systemized. Marketing was the exception. Spend sat in one combined view across several agencies and vendors, each reporting in its own format on its own schedule.
Calls came in and work got booked, but nobody could say which channel produced which customer, or what any of them cost.
Part 1 of 3
Give customers a reason to choose this company
The company's strongest asset was already on the road. Everyone in town knew the trucks on sight.
Recognition is not the same as a reason. A customer who recognizes the truck still has to be told what this company will do that the next one will not.
One promise, in the same words, on the website, in the ads, on the estimate, and in the follow-up call.
That is what turns a fleet people recognize into a company people call first.
Part 2 of 3
Show how quickly the customer investment is recovered
Every vendor was sent one reporting form. The in-house marketing manager filled in conversion and revenue by channel, and within days the owner could see return across every channel at once, for the first time. What it showed was that the gains were not all at the front of the job.
What it cost to win one
Cost per acquisition measured $280. Twelve months later it was $158, a 43.6 percent decrease, while the company was handling more than twice the volume.
| Monthly revenue | $337,000 to $692,000 |
|---|---|
| Cost per client | $280 to $158 |
| Conversion rate on leads | 48% to 54% |
| Call booking | 58% to 68% |
| Memberships converted | 33% to 65% |
| Revenue growth | +105% |
Where the money was found
Winning the customer was half of it. The rest happened after the technician was already standing in the house. The clearest read on that came from a text campaign to the company’s own past customers, where the offer that got the appointment and the work that came out of it were counted separately.
The offer brought in $2,829. What got sold once somebody was there brought in $59,900, and all of it landed within two weeks. Across the year the same pattern shows in the rates: lead conversion 48 to 54 percent, call booking 58 to 68, memberships converted 33 to 65.
| Appointments booked | 41 |
|---|---|
| The $59 offer that got them in | $2,829 |
| 7 upsells, sold on site | $45,500 |
| 12 service agreements and added work | $14,400 |
| Total, inside two weeks | $62,729 |
Revenue by channel
| Website opt-ins | $3,448.50 to $170,480 |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | $9,376.15 to $136,950 |
| Direct mail | $22,644.80 to $75,955 |
| PPC | $12,742.00 to $57,440 |
| Tracked channel revenue | $48,211 to $440,825 |
In April 2020, 14 percent of the month could be traced to a channel. In April 2021, 64 percent could. The company did not simply earn more. It learned where the money came from, and that is what made the rest of it repeatable.
Part 3 of 3
Give every inquiry a next step
The number the owner watched hardest was the one for work that never happened. Missed opportunities were running at 44.53 percent of revenue. Almost half of what the company could have booked was walking out through unanswered calls, unreturned estimates, and inquiries nobody followed up.
What happened
By April 2021 missed opportunities were down to 29.85 percent of revenue, a third less of the business slipping through, on a month that was twice the size. In dollars the figure still rose, from $150,080 to $206,570, because the business doubled underneath it. The share is the part that moved.
What was installed
- Every call answered or called backUnanswered calls were the single largest line of lost revenue in the business. Call booking went from 58 to 68 percent across the year.
- Estimates chased on a scheduleNot when somebody in the office remembered. An estimate that goes quiet is a job already paid for, and it was the second largest line.
- A next step for customers already wonNot only new leads. The people who had already paid once got asked back, which is the cheapest work in the building.
- One person calling customers back, every dayIt was her whole job. She talked to the people the technicians had just finished with, asked how it went, and asked for the review. The company went from 191 reviews at 3.9 stars to 539 at 4.7, and moving an average that far when the count is already in the hundreds takes hundreds of good ones. The reviews are what the next customer reads before the phone ever rings.
The connected outcome
Three parts, and each one carrying the next.
A recognizable fleet became a consistent promise, carried in the same words everywhere a customer meets the company.
One reporting view across every vendor took cost per client from $280 to $158 and made 64 percent of monthly revenue traceable.
Giving every unanswered call, quiet estimate and past customer a next step cut the share of revenue lost to missed opportunities by a third while volume doubled.
Closing
More traffic is useful when the company is ready for what happens next.
A reason to choose the business. A number that shows what a customer costs and where they came from. A next step for every inquiry the advertising produces.
Those three connected parts are the Cornerstone. The advertising comes after them, when there is somewhere for every click, call, and visit to go.
Next step. Bring one period of advertising spend, your booked and collected revenue, and the dates the money arrived. We'll show you what can be measured and what is still missing.
Book the 15-minute call: neovora.com/schedule