We Measured Revenue Converted by Schedule Engine for 5 Months

Here are the results

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Introduction

The way customers want to do business with home service contractors is changing. 

Customers want more convenience and on-demand service, which is why we are seeing more and more revenue converting through tools like chat and form. But there’s a third conversion tool that’s quickly rising in revenue-converting numbers and that’s scheduling tools. 

We are finding that more and more customers are booking appointments online, including high ticket installation and replacement jobs. 

Because we are frequently asked whether or not Schedule Engine works or if it is worth installing on your website, we decided to do a breakdown based on 5 months of data (January 2022 - May 2022) for ~8 HVAC clients from paid marketing leads (Google, Bing, and Facebook). 

In total, we tracked 744 leads that converted through Schedule Engine. 

We did a podcast episode on the topic but wanted to expand on it further with refreshed data.

Schedule Engine Converted $2.48 Million in Revenue Potential From January 1st, 2022 - May 31st, 2022

Let’s start off with revenue potential, which is the sum of Open Estimates (one per customer, taking the average), Sold Jobs, and Closed Jobs from Google, Bing and Facebook paid advertising leads. 

Revenue potentia represents all of the combined revenue of the potential at-bats generated by digital marketing. 

We found 525 matched jobs (customers with a job record in the CRM after the lead came in) with an average ticket of $4,049.36 for a total revenue potential of $2,480,403.03 that converted through Schedule Engine’s scheduling tool. 

Across this specific portfolio of clients, the tool ranked 2nd, behind phone leads (which generated over $12.75 million in revenue potential). 

While we are consistently asked if a scheduling tool would convert revenue, many of our clients are still skeptical about letting customers book appointments online. 

Based on our data, customers who schedule an appointment online, without talking to someone on the phone, had an average ticket of $4,049.36. 

Measuring revenue potential is great, but how well is that revenue converting into paid jobs? Let’s dive into closed revenue from Schedule Engine next.

Schedule Engine Converted $1.26 million in Closed Revenue From January 1st, 2022 - May 31st, 2022

Closed revenue is defined as completed work. The job is done and you’ve been paid. 
We like to track open, scheduled, and closed work in order to help you understand the way revenue flows through your business, but if you really want to know how well Schedule Engine converts paying customers, closed revenue is the metric to look at. 

Remember, this is only data from digital marketing leads and the tool converted $1,261,007.18 of closed revenue at an average ticket of $4,487.57.

It was again the second-highest converting tool on the sites (second to phone calls, which generated $5.77 million in closed revenue) and had the third-highest average ticket (behind chat leads and form leads). 

In fact, Schedule Engine converted customers’ average ticket of $4,487 was nearly $1,000 higher than phone call leads, which had an average ticket of $3,561. 

In total, Schedule Engine converted 281 customers who completed work with our clients. Phone leads had 1,621 customers with completed work, but chat and forms generated 150 and 139, respectively. 

With each passing week, the data becomes more and more clear that some customers want the option to book appointments online, and yes, they will spend money with you if they do that. 

67% of Closed Revenue Converted by Schedule Engine was From New Customers 

You might also be wondering how much of the closed revenue Schedule Engine converted came from new customers. 

With our tracking technology, we define a new customer as someone who hasn’t spent money with your business previously. 

67%, or $853,797.82, of closed revenue converted by Schedule Engine was from new customers. 

Even better is that the average ticket for closed revenue from leads converted by Schedule Engine was $5,403, the second-highest of any conversion tool (chat had the highest average ticket, with $5,896). 

158 new customers booked an appointment using Schedule Engine and ended up doing business with our clients. 

While phone leads still dominate this client segment volume-wise, Schedule Engine’s appointment tool has proven to convert valuable revenue with higher average tickets.

Schedule Engine Converted Facebook Leads with $9,9668.31 in Average Tickets

One of the more fascinating trends we have seen in our data is that hardly any Facebook leads come through phone calls.

In the case of the client portfolio we used to measure the performance of Schedule Engine, we saw 0 Facebook leads come in via phone call.

We did, however, see 29 leads come in via Facebook advertising across Schedule Engine, form leads, and chat leads.

24 of those leads clicked on a Facebook ad and converted via the Schedule Engine tool, with an 82% match rate (meaning the lead matched to new work in the CRM). 

The average ticket for the 14 leads that turned into closed revenue was $8,711.86, resulting in $121,966 in closed revenue.

To summarize, some of our clients ran paid Facebook advertising, and what we found is that Schedule Engine’s scheduling tool converted $121,966 in closed revenue from 14 customers at an average ticket of $8,711.86.

That means that customers were willing to pay an average of $8,711.86  after seeing a Facebook ad, clicking it, and booking an appointment using Schedule Engine, without talking to someone on the phone. 

Conclusion

As home service contractors (HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Roofing, etc.), we can’t force our preferred conversion path on our customers.

You may be used to talking to everyone on the phone, but if that’s not what they want, you have to study and interpret the data and adapt.

At the start of 2022, we weren’t sure if putting an appointment scheduling tool on client websites was a good idea.

The industry standard is to make the phone ring. That’s what our clients look for and want.

But we do have the power of data on our side with the technology we built, so we didn’t have much to lose by testing it out.

It’s important to remember that this data is just from paid advertising leads (we will have more data from all website activity in the future) and Schedule Engine had a significant impact on converting revenue for our clients.

It’s also worth mentioning that this is a mature portfolio - they have dialed in websites, a strong Google My Business profile, sharp teams running the businesses, and adequate advertising budgets.

Despite this, the trend is clear: Schedule Engine converts revenue and it’s not just service jobs.

Customers don’t initially have to get on the phone with you to spend big money on an install or replacement and some may even prefer the convenience of booking online. 
The next time you are considering adding a scheduling tool to your website, keep this data in mind.

We’ll have future newsletters that refresh the data and talk more about what we’re seeing.