Speed to lead
Updated
Speed to lead is the time between a request arriving and its first reply. It is the step after the form, and the ad and the page can't fix it.
A 2011 Harvard Business Review study looked at 1.25 million leads at 42 US firms. Firms that tried to reply within an hour were "nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead" as firms that tried an hour later. The data is old and not from travel (figures quoted by SmartCompany, Jul 2011).
Travel has its own sign. In September 2022, CM.com sent customer questions to 25 of the UK's top tour operators, and 48% got no answer. CM.com sells messaging software. Example: a tour operator gets a quote request at 9 p.m. If the first reply comes two days later, the traveler has had two days to ask someone else.
Related: cost per inquiry · click-to-booking rate · micro-conversion