The four points where enquiries are lost
Between arriving on a website and sending an enquiry, a visitor has to do four things: understand what the business does, trust that it can do it well, decide what to do next and complete the enquiry. A website can lose people at any of the four, and each loss has a different cause. Redesigning the whole site without knowing which one is the problem often changes the look while leaving the loss in place.
They cannot tell what you do
Visitors decide quickly. Jakob Nielsen’s research at the Nielsen Norman Group found that users often leave web pages within 10 to 20 seconds, and that a page needs to communicate its value within about 10 seconds to hold attention. It is common for an established business to open its website with a general slogan and a stock image, because the website was written when the business did different work or served different clients.
The fix is an opening that states plainly what the business does best, for whom, and where, followed by the work that proves it.
| Question | Likely cause | First fix |
|---|---|---|
| Visitors leave the home page quickly | The opening does not say what you do and for whom | Rewrite the opening around your best work and clients |
| Visitors browse but rarely enquire | Too little proof, or no clear next step | Add comparable projects, reviews and one clear call to action |
| Enquiries are the wrong kind | The site attracts the work you want less of | Lead with the services and clients you want more of |
| Enquiries arrive but go quiet | Replies are slow or quotes take days | Review the workflow after the enquiry |
They do not see enough proof
Once visitors understand the offer, they look for evidence. Comparable projects, recent reviews, the people who do the work, licences and certifications all help a stranger trust a business they have never dealt with. Google’s guidance on helpful, people-first content puts it directly: of experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, trust is the most important.
They cannot find the next step
Many websites end each page without a clear action, or offer several competing ones. One consistent next step, such as a short enquiry form or a phone number, repeated where a decision is likely, gives visitors who are ready a simple way to act.
The enquiry is slow or awkward
Some visitors decide to enquire and still leave: the form asks for too much, the page loads slowly on a phone, or nothing confirms the enquiry arrived. Speed matters more than many owners expect. Google’s web.dev cites the BBC finding that it lost an additional 10 per cent of users for every extra second its site took to load.
What happens after the enquiry matters too. A reply that takes days loses people who were ready to proceed, which is where workflow automation can help. Zelexis reviews the website and the workflow behind it together, because a clearer website that brings more enquiries is only useful if each one is answered well.
A useful next step
Something to try this week.
Open your website on a phone and time yourself. In ten seconds, can you tell what the business does, who it serves and what to do next? Then fill in your own enquiry form and note every field that is not essential. Those two checks find most of the problems on this page.