The short definition
Booked-job rate = jobs scheduled ÷ enquiries received.
It is closely related to close rate. The useful distinction for a service business is that a booked job is one on the calendar — which is a firmer commitment than a quote accepted verbally, and a stage where you can still lose the work to a no-show.
Why it is the number that matters
Every earlier metric is a proxy. Impressions proxy for visits, visits proxy for enquiries, enquiries proxy for work. Booked jobs are the work.
Measuring at this stage removes the most common failure in small business marketing: optimising toward a channel that produces plenty of enquiries and very few jobs.
Measure it by source, always
A single blended rate is nearly useless, because it averages together channels that behave completely differently.
| Source | Enquiries | Booked | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | 24 | 11 | 46% |
| Shared marketplace | 31 | 4 | 13% |
| Referral | 8 | 6 | 75% |
Those are illustrative figures, not published averages — the point is the shape. Broken out this way, the marketplace looks busy and produces less than a third of the profile's work, while referrals convert best and nobody is deliberately generating them.
That is a decision. A blended number is not.
What drags it down
Slow response. The largest cause. Customers book whoever gets to them first.
No quote follow-up. Quotes sent once and never mentioned again.
Friction in booking. Requiring a phone call during working hours from customers who cannot take one.
Shared leads. Enquiries sold to several contractors convert far worse by design.
Poor qualification. Enquiries that were never going to be your work, counted in the denominator.
The step after booking
A booked job is not a completed job. Track no-shows separately — reminders and a reschedule link recover most of them, and a business with a strong booking rate and a weak attendance rate has a different problem from one with the reverse.
Building the habit
One row per enquiry: date, source, whether it booked, value. Fifteen minutes a week.
After sixty days you can calculate cost per booked job by source, which is the single most useful table in small business marketing and something no platform will produce for you.
Starting
Open a spreadsheet and record today's enquiries. The data does not exist until you start writing it down.
Frequently asked questions
How is booked-job rate different from close rate?
They are closely related. A booked job is on the calendar, which is a firmer commitment than a verbally accepted quote — and a stage where the work can still be lost to a no-show.
Why measure it by source?
Because a blended figure averages channels that behave completely differently. Broken out, a busy-looking marketplace often produces a fraction of the work a free Google Business Profile does.
What drags the rate down most?
Slow response, by a wide margin. Then quotes never followed up, friction in booking, shared leads sold to several contractors, and poor qualification inflating the denominator.
How do I start tracking it?
One row per enquiry: date, source, whether it booked, value. Fifteen minutes a week, and after sixty days you can calculate cost per booked job by source.