One question that tells you more than your analytics

There is a piece of research available to every business, costing nothing, that most never carry out. Ask each new customer how they first heard of you, write the answer down, and keep doing it.

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Asking every customer how they first heard of you captures what no tool can: calls made from memory, recommendations that were checked online first, visits that began months earlier, and shortlists produced by AI assistants. Ask at intake, record it in one consistent place, use their own words, and review quarterly.

Why the question beats the tools

Analytics sees a device arriving from somewhere. It does not see the neighbour who recommended you, the van somebody noticed, or the assistant that named you when they asked for a suggestion. It also loses the trail when months pass between the first visit and the purchase.

The customer remembers all of it, at least roughly. One question captures the whole picture in a way no combination of tools can, which is why businesses that ask it consistently understand their own marketing better than businesses that measure heavily and never ask.

How to ask it

The wording matters slightly. How did you hear about us invites a vague answer such as the internet. How did you first hear about us, and what made you get in touch, produces something usable.

Ask at intake, when the relationship starts and the memory is fresh. Asking months later produces reconstructed answers, and asking on the enquiry form itself costs you enquiries, because it is your question rather than their concern.

  • Ask at intake, not on the enquiry form.
  • Ask what first brought them and what made them act.
  • Let them answer in their own words rather than picking a category.
  • Ask every customer, without exception, so the record is not a biased sample.
  • Record it the same day, in the same place.

Record it somewhere consistent

The value comes from consistency rather than from any particular system. A column in the same sheet where you record enquiries and work won is enough for most businesses.

What kills the exercise is asking sometimes, recording elsewhere, and losing the notes. If it is not in one place, it cannot be counted, and after a year of scattered notes there is nothing to read.

Reading the answers honestly

Two habits keep the results useful. First, keep the raw words alongside any category you assign, because the words contain detail the category throws away: which article, which recommendation, which search.

Second, be careful about first versus last. Somebody who says a friend recommended you may also have read three of your pages before calling. Both facts are true, and a record that captures only one of them will misdirect your investment.

What you will probably learn

Most businesses that start asking discover two things. That referrals account for more than they thought, and that the referred customers still checked the website before making contact, which changes how they value that website.

The second discovery is usually a particular page or a particular search phrase appearing again and again in the answers. That page deserves more attention, and it is rarely the one anybody expected.

Review it quarterly against your tools

Every quarter, put your customers' answers beside what your analytics claims. Where they disagree, the customers are usually closer to reality, particularly where an assistant or a recommendation was involved.

Use the gap as information rather than as an argument. A large unattributed share in your analytics simply means the tools cannot see something, and now you know what it is.

How Licheo uses this

We treat customer-reported sources as the anchor and analytics as the supporting detail, rather than the other way round, because the anchor sees things the detail cannot.

It also keeps our reporting honest: when the tools cannot attribute something, we say so, rather than assigning it to whichever channel looks convenient.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Website ROI. The other parts:

Questions people ask

Why ask customers how they found me when I have analytics?
Because analytics cannot see calls made from memory, recommendations checked online first, or visits that began months earlier, and it increasingly cannot see visits sent by AI assistants. The customer remembers all of it.
When should I ask?
At intake, when the relationship starts and the memory is fresh. Do not put it on the enquiry form, where it is your question rather than their concern and costs you enquiries.
Should customers pick from a list?
Let them answer in their own words and record those words. Categories throw away the detail that makes the exercise valuable, such as which article or which specific search brought them.
What if somebody says both a referral and the website?
Record both. That combination is extremely common and it tells you something important: the referral started it and the website closed it, which means both deserve investment.
How do I use the answers?
Review them quarterly beside what your analytics claims. Where they disagree, trust the customers, and treat the difference as a map of what your tools cannot see rather than as an error.

Find out where your work really comes from

We combine what the tools can see with what your customers actually say, and we tell you plainly which is which.

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