What the free audit looks like
Northside Painting, in this example, is a residential repaint company with two crews, an owner who estimates, and an office manager who answers the phone from eight to four. The owner asked for the audit because "quotes go cold and I do not know why." Here is what a public review turns up, ranked by what I think is worth fixing first.
Summary
Fix first: after-hours calls go to voicemail with no text-back, and there is no record of who calls back or when. That is the leak with the clearest evidence and the cheapest fix.
Fix second: estimates go out as PDFs by email with a single follow-up. Nothing tracks which ones are open.
Needs your records: whether the website is losing work. Traffic and form volume cannot be judged from outside.
Leave alone for now: the Google Business Profile is in decent shape. Reviews are recent and answered.
Findings, ranked
After-hours calls go to voicemail with no reply until the next morning
- Evidence
- Called the listed number at 5:40 p.m. on a weekday: standard voicemail, no text follow-up within an hour. Website hours say "8 to 4, Monday to Friday." No contact form on the site, so the phone is the only after-hours route.
- Likely impact
- Any call after 4 p.m. is competing against a voicemail, and whoever replies first has the first conversation. In this example, the office manager estimates six to ten after-hours calls a week; I cannot verify that from outside.
- Confidence
- High that the gap exists. Low on how much it costs until we see the call log.
- Next action
- Missed-call text-back on the existing number, a named person who owns the reply by 9 a.m., and a weekly count of after-hours calls so the cost stops being a guess. This is a First Fix.
- Needs more data
- Three months of call logs from the phone provider, to count after-hours calls and see how many were ever returned.
Estimates go out as PDFs with one follow-up and no open-quote list
- Evidence
- The owner described the process: measure, price in a spreadsheet, export a PDF, email it, "follow up in a week if I remember." No signing step; the customer replies by email or calls. Nothing shows which quotes are still open.
- Likely impact
- One follow-up means the second call, if it comes, is from a competitor. The bigger cost is invisible: the owner cannot see how many dollars are sitting in unsigned estimates at any moment.
- Confidence
- High on the process gap, from the owner's own description. Medium on the size, until the last quarter's estimates are counted.
- Next action
- A short follow-up sequence in the owner's voice that stops when the customer replies, books, declines, or opts out, plus a one-page list of open estimates. Later: proposals the customer can sign on their phone, priced from the same spreadsheet.
- Needs more data
- A list of last quarter's estimates with sent date and outcome, even if it is handwritten.
The website cannot be judged as a lead source from outside
- Evidence
- The site loads in a reasonable time on a phone, shows the phone number in the header, and has real job photos. There is no contact form and no way to see how many people visit or call from it. The owner "does not think the website does much."
- Likely impact
- Unknown. A site can look fine and still send nothing, or look dated and send half the work. Without data, a redesign is a guess with a large invoice.
- Confidence
- Low, on purpose. This one is not ranked until there is data.
- Next action
- Put a tracking number on the website only, leave the advertised line alone, and turn on basic analytics for thirty days before deciding anything about the site. The tracking number costs a few dollars a month; analytics is free. If the site turns out to send work, a form and a faster response path come before any redesign.
- Needs more data
- Thirty days of visits, calls from the site, and form fills.
Google Business Profile is in decent shape and can wait
- Evidence
- Recent reviews, most with an owner reply, current hours, a dozen job photos, and the services listed. Category and service area match what the company does.
- Likely impact
- Small. There are minor gains available (more photos, a review request after every job), and they can be added to the follow-up sequence later without a separate project.
- Confidence
- High. This is what "good enough" looks like.
- Next action
- Nothing now. Add a review request to the end of the job workflow when Finding 2 is built.
- Needs more data
- None.
What I would propose to Northside
- First Fix: missed-call text-back on the existing number, with a named lead owner, escalation to the owner if a reply is late, and a weekly count. $1,500 to install, $295 a month to run, messaging billed at cost. Usually live within two to three weeks of access, depending on how fast access and approvals arrive.
- Then, if the open-estimate count justifies it: the follow-up sequence and open-quote list, scoped as a second fix or as part of a connected pipeline.
- Not proposed: a website redesign, ads, or an answering service, because nothing above shows they are the problem.
What this format promises and what it does not
A real audit lists what I observed, what I think it means, how sure I am, and what I could not see without your records. It does not put a dollar figure on a leak unless your records support one, and it does not recommend the biggest project. It recommends the first one worth doing. If the honest answer is "nothing here is worth paying for yet," the audit says that too.
The same audit, for a real company
Company name and the best way to reach you is all it takes. Joshua replies within one business day, and the written findings usually follow within a week.
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