What a broken path can look like
Picture a busy HVAC shop. Trucks are out. Ads are running. The phone rings during the day. From the owner's chair, the path looks fine.
Traffic and ads do not prove the contact path works. A prospect can still hit a dead number, a slow form notification, or a page that is hard to use on a phone.
The owner may not know those prospects existed. That is the point of a public-path review, not a revenue estimate.
Where the path can break
These are the kinds of public-path problems a Check looks for. This is an illustration, not a customer result and not a scan history.
Their Google Business Profile phone number routes to a different line than the website number. The website number goes to a desk phone that nobody answers after 4 PM. The Google number routes to the owner's cell. That is two different numbers for the same business, and one of them only works during office hours.
Their contact form works. But the notification goes to an email address the office manager checks once a day. A prospect submits the form at 10 AM. The notification arrives at 10 AM. Nobody sees it until 4 PM. That is a six-hour response time for a lead with five-minute expectations.
A slow mobile page can send a prospect to the next listing before they ever try to contact you.
None of these leaks is dramatic. But they add up.
What a Check does not invent
A Check does not estimate lost or recovered revenue. It grades six categories and names up to three observation-supported findings.
The same illustration might include path problems like these:
- Contactability: mismatched phone numbers on the public site and listing.
- Speed: form notifications that sit unread for hours.
- Conversion: a mobile page that is slow or hard to act on.
- Those are path observations. They are not a lead count, a close-rate assumption, or a dollar estimate.
- Trust, Visibility, and Follow-Up get a grade too. Unknown is a valid grade when the public path does not show enough.
The Fix Is Worth More Than It Costs
Fixing the phone number mismatch costs nothing. Updating the notification email takes five minutes. Improving page load speed might cost a few hundred dollars for a developer.
Some path fixes are small (a number, a notification, a form). We do not publish a recovered-revenue figure or an ROI multiple.
If a scoped fix is warranted, that is a separate conversation after the Check.
Many lead leaks are like this. They are not expensive to fix. They are expensive to ignore.
Calculate Your Own
You can look at your own books without a fake leak rate. Use your numbers, not ours:
- Estimate your monthly leads. How many new prospects reach out per month (calls, forms, walk-ins) without counting repeat customers?
- Estimate your close rate. Of those, how many book a job? Use your own close rate. We do not publish an industry average.
- Calculate your average ticket. Total revenue divided by total jobs. Include service calls and larger projects.
- Multiply. Inquiries x your close rate x your ticket = revenue from the inquiries you actually received. That still misses prospects who never reached you. A Check looks for those path breaks. It does not apply an average leak rate.
Common questions
Do you publish an average leak rate or Lead Leak Score?
No. A Check does not return a numerical Lead Leak Score, an average leak rate, or a recovered-revenue estimate. It returns six category grades and up to three supported findings.
Does every finding need to be fixed at once?
No. A Check names up to three observation-supported findings with practical next steps. It does not rank leaks by recovered revenue or claim a recovery percentage.