, 2 min read
Which channel actually brings you customers?
Calls, texts, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, email: customers reach you everywhere. How to see which channels lead to bookings, and why honest numbers matter more than big ones.
Customers reach local businesses in more ways than ever: a phone call, a text, a WhatsApp, an Instagram DM, a Facebook message, an email. Ask most owners which of these brings in the most work and you'll get a guess.
Guesses are fine until you have to decide where to spend time and money. Should you post more on Instagram? Is it worth promoting your WhatsApp number? Is anyone actually calling?
Count people, not just messages
One customer might call on Monday, then WhatsApp on Tuesday to confirm. That's one person, not two. If you count every conversation as a new customer, every number looks bigger than it is.
Follow the conversation to the booking
The useful question isn't "how many messages did we get?" It's "how many of the people who contacted us booked?" That means linking each booking to the conversation that made it, and seeing where people stopped: they asked a price and never replied, they were offered times and didn't pick one, or they booked.
Be careful with "this post brought customers"
It's tempting to say a post worked because messages arrived the same day. That's a coincidence, not evidence. Real evidence looks like this:
- The customer messaged by tapping a link or button on the post itself.
- The same account commented on the post and then sent a message.
Anything else should be counted as "not known", not credited to whichever post went out last.
What to do with it
Once you can see which channels bring bookings and where people drop off, the next steps are usually obvious: answer faster on the channel that converts best, follow up the people who asked a question and never booked, and stop spending time on what doesn't bring anyone in.
How RingPost shows it
RingPost's Insights page shows how many people contacted you, on which channels, how many asked about a service, how many were offered times and how many booked, with the conversations behind every number. Posts and campaigns are credited only when there's evidence, and everything else is labelled as unattributed. You can also mark outcomes yourself, such as "booked elsewhere" or "not a customer", so the numbers match what actually happened.
See insights.
Written by the RingPost team.