Track lead sources, campaigns and attributed repair revenue

01

1. Understand the two records

Customer acquisition source describes how the relationship originally began. Visit attribution describes why a particular appointment or repair visit happened. A customer might originally find the shop through Google, then return six months later because of an oil-change reminder. VMOTEK preserves Google as the acquisition source and records the reminder campaign on the later appointment. Estimates, work orders and finalized invoice evidence inherit the visit attribution so staff do not enter it repeatedly.

• Acquisition source belongs to the customer relationship.
• Visit source and campaign belong to the current appointment and repair lifecycle.
• Finalized reporting retains the historical label even if an administrator later renames or archives a source.

02

2. Configure company-wide lead sources

Select the Settings gear, open Business Basics, then choose Lead Sources & Campaigns. Create a short internal name, stable code and customer-facing label. The internal name can be precise, such as Customer referral; the public label can be Friend or customer referral. Choose a category for reporting and decide whether the choice should appear on the public booking page. Sources are company-wide master data. Leave Available shops empty when every location can use the source, or select particular shops when a local partnership or channel applies only to those locations.

• Recommended starting sources: Google, customer referral, drive-by, existing customer, fleet referral, social media and Unknown.
• Keep Unknown active as a review state, not as a permanent answer.
• Archive or deactivate an obsolete source instead of changing its meaning.

03

3. Create a campaign

In the same screen, select the parent lead source and create a campaign name and tracking code. For example, Google is the source and Summer Brake Special is the campaign, with code BRAKE2026. Add start and end dates so expired promotions stop appearing in current entry screens. Campaign cost is optional; enter it only when the amount represents the spend you intend to compare. Select participating shops or leave the scope empty for all locations.

• Use one stable code in booking links, QR codes and printed material.
• A campaign belongs to one source so reporting cannot combine contradictory labels.
• VMOTEK reports attributed revenue; it does not claim that one campaign was the customer's only influence.

04

4. Capture web, phone and walk-in demand

A campaign-specific public booking link can include the campaign code, such as /book/{companyId}/{shopId}?campaign=BRAKE2026. VMOTEK records the campaign without asking the customer to recognize an internal marketing name. On a general booking page, the How did you hear about us list contains only active, customer-visible sources available to that shop. For telephone and walk-in appointments, the advisor selects a source and optional campaign. When the answer is genuinely unknown, the advisor selects Unknown rather than guessing.

05

5. Carry attribution through the repair

The appointment is the usual visit-attribution starting point, but it is not required. When staff create an estimate or work order from an appointment, VMOTEK carries the source, campaign and detail forward so the advisor does not enter it again. When a shop creates an estimate or work order directly—for example, for a walk-in that was never scheduled—the creation screen provides an optional How did this visit originate section. Select the visit source first, then a campaign belonging to that source, and add a useful detail such as the referring customer's name or printed offer code. The resulting invoice retains attribution evidence for reporting. An authorized correction should record a reason rather than silently rewriting the visit history.

06

6. Review missing attribution

Open Settings → Lead Sources & Campaigns and use the attribution review queue to find new customers and appointments without a source. Resolve recent Unknown or blank records while the context is still available. A manager can review the queue by shop and ask advisors to correct process gaps. Do not force staff to invent an answer merely to clear the queue.

07

7. Read the report

Open Reports → Marketing Attribution. Filter the date range and shop. Review appointments, distinct customers, work orders and attributed invoiced revenue by source and campaign. Compare first visits separately from repeat visits so retention campaigns are not mistaken for new-customer acquisition. For a campaign with cost, VMOTEK can show cost per acquired customer and attributed revenue-to-cost ratio. Treat these as operational indicators, not audited multi-touch marketing ROI.

• Example: $1,500 campaign cost, 20 new customers and $8,000 attributed revenue equals $75 per acquired customer and a 5.3× revenue-to-cost ratio.
• Compare participating shops rather than assuming one location's outcome applies everywhere.
• Investigate high appointment volume with low estimate approval or low completed revenue.

08

8. Multi-shop controls

The source and campaign definitions are created once for the company. Shop availability prevents a location from selecting a campaign it did not run. Transactions and revenue retain the shop that performed the work, so administrators can compare the same campaign across locations. Shop-scoped users see and update attribution only for their authorized locations.

09

9. Know the initial boundary

VMOTEK Phase 5 records attribution and measures operational outcomes. It does not buy Google or Facebook advertisements, send bulk promotional campaigns, import advertising spend automatically or claim precise multi-touch attribution. Those functions require separate provider integrations. The initial workflow gives repair businesses a reliable, explainable answer to how a customer found them and which promotions created appointments, work and revenue.

10

10. Test before rollout

Create a test source and campaign limited to one shop. Open its campaign booking URL, submit an appointment, and verify the source and campaign appear on the appointment. Continue it into an estimate and work order, finalize a test invoice and confirm the attribution report counts the correct shop. Change the campaign name afterward and confirm finalized historical evidence remains intact. Finally, verify another shop cannot select the restricted campaign and that an authorized override requires a reason.