Make care versus recruitment the first split.
A job applicant may arrive through a client-intent search, so first establish whether the contact concerns receiving care, employment or another purpose. Only prospective-care contacts should enter care-enquiry reporting.
Give visitors an early “I’m looking for care” or “I’m looking for work” choice, but retain post-contact classification because applicants may still use a general form or main telephone number.
| Field | Example values | Why record it? |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiry type | Prospective care, recruitment, supplier, existing client, other | Separates commercial opportunities from other contact. |
| Service area | Within area, outside area, unclear | Shows whether targeting and location information are aligned. |
| Care service | Domiciliary, live-in, respite, specialist, unclear | Connects demand with the services being promoted. |
| Timing | Immediate, planned, research stage, unknown | Prevents early-stage family research being labelled automatically as poor quality. |
| Initial suitability | Potential fit, not suitable, needs assessment | Creates a cautious commercial classification without making a clinical judgement. |
| Next step | Call back, consultation, assessment, no action | Shows whether the enquiry progressed. |
| Marketing source | Google Ads, organic, referral, direct, unknown | Supports channel evaluation when attribution is available. |
Use stages that reflect the real enquiry journey.
- Contact recorded: a call, form or other contact is captured.
- Enquiry categorised: care, recruitment, supplier or another type.
- Potential fit identified: the basic location and service requirements may be supportable.
- Meaningful conversation: the team has spoken with the prospective client or representative.
- Assessment or consultation arranged: a defined next step is booked where appropriate.
- Outcome recorded: proceeding, not proceeding, unavailable capacity, unsuitable service or another reason.
Not every provider will use these exact labels. Consistency matters more than choosing the perfect terminology.
Create a feedback process the care team will actually use.
- Nominate an owner for categorising new enquiries.
- Use a short set of agreed values rather than free-text notes for reporting fields.
- Set a realistic deadline for the initial classification.
- Allow “unclear” where the team does not yet know.
- Review uncategorised enquiries in a regular marketing-and-operations meeting.
- Feed useful outcomes back into paid campaigns where consent and platform rules allow.
- Audit classification quality before treating the data as an optimisation signal.
What should the report show?
Report the funnel in layers so a high volume of low-value contacts cannot hide behind one conversion number.
| Measure | Question it answers |
|---|---|
| Total contacts | How much contact activity did marketing generate? |
| Prospective-care enquiries | How much was about receiving care? |
| Potentially suitable enquiries | How much matched the initial service and location criteria? |
| Assessments or consultations | How many enquiries progressed to a meaningful next step? |
| Recorded outcomes | What happened after the marketing conversion? |
| Unknown/unclassified rate | How much of the conclusion is limited by missing feedback? |
Keep the measurement proportionate.
Use lawful, approved systems and restrict access to people who need it. Do not send sensitive health or care information into advertising platforms. Where offline conversion feedback is used, the provider should confirm its privacy, consent and platform-policy position.
This framework supports commercial enquiry measurement. It is not a care assessment, clinical triage model or data-protection opinion. Internal owners should review the final workflow before publication or implementation.
