A new enquiry sits in the chat. The customer mentions a recommendation, and you are about to credit it with bringing in the work. Pause there: how the customer found you and what prompted them to act now are different questions. Writing down “recommendation” leaves the second unanswered.
For the next enquiry, separate the need, the channel and the trigger. The need describes what is required. The channel records where the customer found your business. The trigger concerns what changed before they contacted you. Look for the point at which waiting may have become more costly or inconvenient. Treat that as a question to investigate, not a ready-made explanation for every purchase.
Google Analytics documentation describes an attribution model as determining how credit is assigned to touchpoints on the path to an important user action. That helps you read an attribution report for what it addresses: the allocation of credit along that path. The cited definition does not establish why the customer enquired today. Nor does it prove that advertising merely helps people find a provider. Keep the channel attribution separate from the customer’s explanation of the timing.
Hypothetical example
Before: A ceramics workshop asks for new product photos and mentions a friend’s recommendation. Your initial note says only: “New photos, referral.”
Decision: Ask what changed before the enquiry, and record the answer separately from the need and the channel. In this hypothetical example, the workshop names its confirmed participation in a market.
After: The note now reads: need — better product photos; channel — recommendation; trigger — confirmed participation in a market, for which the old images are no longer suitable. The next question becomes specific: which images are needed for that market? What changed is the enquiry record and the starting point for a proposal.
Keep the customer’s wording. Put your interpretation beside it and label it as an inference. If the answer is only “urgent”, ask about the specific change instead of supplying a deadline or a threatened loss yourself. This keeps what the customer actually said distinct from what you still need to check.
If you already have an explanation in mind, ask openly: “What had become different for you before the enquiry?” Keep your proposed trigger out of the question so the customer can describe the change in their own terms.
Before turning this into website copy, compare separate conversations and retain the differences between their situations. Treat a possible pattern as a working hypothesis and limit your message to what those conversations support. The practical boundary: use this assessment to guide the next question and make a more precise record; it establishes neither a cause for all customers nor business success.
What should you check next?
Choose your situation to see the next step.
Do not guess — ask one question
The reason behind ‘today’ is still unknown. Return to the real conversation.
Check the inference without leading
Do not turn your version into a fact about the customer.
This is a candidate recurring pattern
Keep the separate examples and their differences before writing one shared message.
The trigger can be recorded
Save the need, channel and event in three separate fields.
Choose the next step for the conversation. Consider what changed before the enquiry: a date or event, a solution that stopped working, a new opportunity, or a change in the offer, team or workload. Also record whether the customer said it directly, whether you inferred it, or whether similar accounts appeared in separate conversations.
Read the following cases in order and use the first that applies.
- The change is unknown: Ask: “What changed before you decided to deal with this now?” Leave the trigger unresolved until you have clarified it.
- Otherwise, if the change is your inference: Ask openly: “What had become different for you before the enquiry?” Keep the answer separate from your interpretation.
- Otherwise, if similar accounts appeared in separate conversations: Record a possible pattern. Keep the individual examples and their differences before writing a shared message.
- In all remaining cases: Record the need, channel and possible trigger separately: “Need: [what is required]. Channel: [where the contact originated]. Trigger according to the customer: [what changed].” Preserve the customer's wording and treat the record as a provisional account.
In your next customer conversation, ask: “What changed before you decided to deal with this now?” Record the answer alongside the need and the channel. Label your own interpretation separately. If the trigger remains unresolved, leave it unresolved.