Asking new customers how they found you, properly

5 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Introduction

The question is asked in most businesses occasionally, by whoever remembers, and recorded nowhere. That produces a vague impression rather than data, and the impression is biased towards the answers that were surprising enough to be remembered.

Done properly it costs four seconds per enquiry and becomes the most useful marketing dataset a small business owns. The details matter more than they seem: when you ask, how you phrase it, whether you accept the first answer, and what you do with it afterwards each change the quality of what you learn by a substantial margin.

1. Asking new customers how they found you works best at the start of the conversation

Timing matters.

Asked at the beginning it is natural small talk. Asked at the end it feels like a survey, and by then the conversation has moved on and the answer is rushed. It also gives you context for the rest of the call, because a referred enquirer needs a different conversation from a cold one.

2. Ask an open question, not a list

The phrasing decision.

"How did you come across us?" produces their own account. A list of options produces whichever option seems closest, which is frequently wrong, and it never produces the answer nobody thought to include. The answers you did not anticipate are usually the most valuable part of the exercise.

3. Ask the second question

Where the real answer usually is.

If they say they searched, ask what made them look you up. Half the time the answer is that somebody mentioned you. The first answer is the last step; the second question finds the origin.

4. Write it down immediately and verbatim

The discipline that makes it data.

In the enquiry log, in their words, at the time. Answers reconstructed at the end of the week are a recollection, and the distinctive detail that makes them useful is the first thing lost. A single free-text column is enough; structure can be imposed later once you know what the range looks like.

5. Do not lead them

The accuracy risk.

"Did you see our advertisement?" gets a yes from people being polite. Neutral phrasing costs nothing and prevents the specific error of confirming whatever you were hoping to hear.

6. Ask customers as well as enquirers

Two different populations.

Enquiry sources and customer sources differ, because some channels produce enquiries that never convert. Asking at both points shows you which channels produce work rather than merely contact. The two lists side by side are what expose a channel generating volume and no revenue.

7. Include the timing question for slower purchases

The second dimension.

"When did you first hear of us?" separates the person who found you last week from the one who has known about you for two years. That distinction changes how you read the whole dataset.

8. Make it somebody's job

The reason it lapses.

Asked by everybody means asked by nobody once a busy week arrives. One person responsible for the log, and a weekly check that entries have a source, is what keeps it alive.

9. Report it back to the people asking

The motivation.

Show the team quarterly what the answers revealed and what changed as a result. Data collection that visibly influences a decision continues; data collection that disappears into a spreadsheet stops within two months.

Be careful about treating the answers as precise. People misremember, compress and simplify, and somebody who says they found you on a search engine may have seen your van first. The pattern across a hundred answers is reliable; any individual one is not.

Conclusion

Ask early, openly, and always, because the wording and timing determine what you learn.

Use an open question rather than a list, ask a second question to get past the last step to the origin, record the answer verbatim at the time, avoid leading phrasing, ask both enquirers and customers because the populations differ, add a timing question where purchases are slow, make one person responsible for the log, and report back quarterly so the asking continues.