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All four channels, in one table instead of each off in its own corner

By the end of this lesson, you'll have a weekly table with WhatsApp, search, social, and word of mouth side by side, ready to compare at a glance.

By Yodai · Published September 6, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026

4 min read

Monday morning you open the business WhatsApp and see eight new conversations. Then you check Instagram and there are three comments asking for pricing. In your Google Business Profile performance you see forty people viewed it this week. On top of that, two customers told you, "So-and-so told me about you." Four screens, four separate stories, and none of them tells you where the customer who actually pays is coming from.

The problem isn't that you're missing data. The problem is that each channel lives in its own app, and you never sit down for half an hour to pull them all into one place. Without that table, you decide from memory: "Instagram was strong this week," when maybe it was the same three people who always write in.

The four channels, using the same names your customers use

There's no need to invent fancy categories. There are four, and each one has a place you can check without paying for any new tool.

WhatsApp is anyone who messages you after already deciding to talk to you: count the new chats for the week, not the stray messages. Search is Google: how many people viewed your listing or visited your site from Google. The first number comes from the performance section of your Google Business Profile; the second, from your site's visit stats. Social is Instagram or Facebook: comments and direct messages, not likes. Word of mouth is what never leaves a click anywhere: the customer who shows up because someone else told them, and it only counts if you ask, "How did you hear about us?" and write it down somewhere.

How to build the table, the same day every week
  1. 1Pick a fixed day
    Friday at five, for example. If you leave it for "whenever you have a spare moment," you'll never do it.
  2. 2Count what came in through each channel
    New WhatsApp chats, comments and messages on social media, search visits. This is the "came in" column.
  3. 3Write down who paid, not just who asked
    Of those contacts, how many turned into a confirmed appointment or a sale. This second column is the one that really matters.
  4. 4Ask about word of mouth when you confirm the appointment
    "How did you hear about us?" If they name another customer, add one to that row even if they never left a digital trace.
What a typical week's table looks like
Channel, came in, paid WhatsApp, 40 new chats, 5 Search (Google), 90 visits, 2 Social (Instagram), 12 comments and messages, 1 Word of mouth, 8 referred, 6
The expensive mistake: confusing visits with customers
Looking only at the "came in" column and deciding from there is the most expensive mistake in this table. A channel bringing in more visits doesn't mean it's the one that pays off most: in the example table, search brings 90 visits and 2 customers, while word of mouth brings 6 customers without a single visit. You avoid this by always writing both columns together, came in and paid, in the same row. A table that only counts visits isn't a channel table, it's a curiosity counter.
What you'll walk away with
  • One fixed day each week to bring WhatsApp, search, social media, and word of mouth together in a single table
  • Two columns per channel: who came in and who paid
  • Word of mouth counts if you ask about it when you confirm the appointment, even though it never leaves a click
  • Next week, that same table will tell you whether the channel with the most visits is really the one that's best for you
NextRank your channels by customers, not by visits