You see their trucks everywhere. They always seem to be hiring. Meanwhile, you're doing great work — maybe even better work — but the phone isn't ringing as much as it should.
It's frustrating. And it's easy to assume they've got some unfair advantage. Maybe they've been around longer. Maybe they know someone. Maybe they're just luckier.
But here's the truth: it's almost never about luck, connections, or even quality of work. The businesses that get more calls do three specific things better than everyone else. And once you understand what those things are, you can start closing the gap immediately.
Reason #1: They Show Up First on Google
When a homeowner needs a plumber, HVAC tech, or electrician, what do they do? They grab their phone and search. And here's the critical part: most people call one of the first three businesses they see.
Google's Local Pack — that map with three business listings at the top of search results — captures the vast majority of clicks and calls. If you're not in those top three spots, you're essentially invisible to most potential customers.
So how does your competitor stay in those top spots? It's not magic. It comes down to a few specific factors:
They have more Google reviews than you. This is the biggest one. Google's local algorithm heavily weights review quantity, quality, and recency. A business with 180 reviews and a 4.7 rating will almost always outrank a business with 30 reviews and a 4.9 rating. Volume matters.
Look at your competitor's Google listing right now. Count their reviews. Then count yours. If there's a significant gap, you've found a major reason they're getting more calls.
Their Google Business Profile is fully optimized. They have complete business hours, a detailed service list, recent photos of their work, and they post updates regularly. Google rewards profiles that are active and complete.
They have consistent NAP data. NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number. If your business name, address, and phone number are slightly different across various directories (Yelp, BBB, Yellow Pages, your website), Google gets confused and ranks you lower. Your competitor probably has consistent information everywhere.
What to Do About It
Start a review generation system this week. The fastest way to close the review gap is to ask every single customer for a review, automatically. If you complete 10 jobs per week and even 30% leave a review, that's 12 new reviews per month — 144 per year. Within 6-12 months, you'll be competitive with anyone in your market.
Optimize your Google Business Profile today. This takes 30 minutes. Add all your services, update your hours, upload 10-15 photos of recent work, and write a clear business description. Then commit to posting an update at least once per week.
Audit your NAP consistency. Search for your business on Google, Yelp, BBB, and any other directory. Make sure your business name, address, and phone number are identical everywhere.
Reason #2: They Respond Faster Than You
This one is painful because it's so simple, but it's probably the biggest gap between busy companies and struggling ones.
The data is clear: the first business to respond to a lead wins the job 78% of the time. Not the cheapest. Not the most experienced. The fastest.
Your competitor might not even do better work than you. But if they respond to inquiries in 30 seconds and you respond in 30 minutes, they're winning the majority of head-to-head situations.
Think about what happens when a homeowner is searching for help. They typically call 2-3 businesses. The first one to actually talk to them (or text them) gets the job. The others are backups — and most of the time, the backup never gets called.
Here's how this plays out in real scenarios:
Scenario A: No response system. Customer calls at 2pm. You're on a job and can't answer. They leave a voicemail (maybe). You call back at 5pm. They don't answer. You try again tomorrow. They never call back because they already booked with someone who answered at 2:05pm.
Scenario B: Automated text-back. Customer calls at 2pm. You can't answer. Within 10 seconds, they receive a text: "Hey, sorry we missed your call! We're helping another customer right now. How can we help you?" The customer texts back with their issue. You read it between jobs and call them. They book with you because you were responsive and professional.
Same missed call. Completely different outcome.
What to Do About It
Set up automated text-back for missed calls. This is the single highest-ROI change you can make. When you can't answer a call, an immediate text keeps the customer engaged and gives you time to follow up properly.
Establish a response time goal. For your business, set a standard: every inbound lead gets a response within 5 minutes during business hours. Train your team on this. Track it. Make it a non-negotiable.
Check your voicemail message. If your voicemail says "leave a message and we'll call you back," most people won't. Consider changing it to mention that you'll text them right back, so they know to watch for it.
Reason #3: They Track and Optimize Their Marketing
Your competitor isn't just spending money on marketing — they know exactly which marketing dollars produce results and which don't. That means over time, their marketing gets more efficient while yours stays the same (or gets worse).
Here's what this looks like in practice:
They know their cost per customer from each channel. They can tell you that Google Ads costs them $300 per new customer while Yelp costs them $100. So they put more budget into Yelp and optimize their Google Ads to improve conversion.
They cut what doesn't work. Because they're tracking results, they notice when a channel stops performing. That $500/month Facebook ad campaign that generated zero booked jobs last quarter? They cut it and redirected the budget to what's working.
They double down on what does work. When they see that their Google Business Profile is generating 15 leads per month for free, they invest more time in getting reviews and posting updates to keep that channel growing.
You, on the other hand, might be guessing. If you don't track where your leads come from and how much revenue each channel produces, you're making marketing decisions in the dark. You might be spending $2,000/month on a channel that produces nothing while ignoring the one that could double your business.
What to Do About It
Start tracking lead sources today. Use dedicated tracking phone numbers for each marketing channel (Google Ads, Google Business Profile, Yelp, etc.). When a call comes in, you'll know exactly which channel produced it.
Track revenue, not just calls. Calls are nice, but revenue is what matters. Track which leads turn into booked jobs and how much those jobs are worth. Then calculate your cost per acquisition for each channel.
Review your numbers monthly. Set aside 30 minutes on the first of each month to look at your marketing dashboard. How many leads from each source? How many booked? How much revenue? This habit alone will make you a smarter marketer than 90% of your competitors.
The Compound Effect: Why the Gap Gets Wider Over Time
Here's the part that should motivate you to act now rather than later: the three advantages above don't just add up — they compound.
More reviews → higher Google ranking → more visibility → more calls → more customers → more reviews. The review flywheel spins faster the more reviews you have.
Faster response → more booked jobs → more revenue → more budget for marketing → more leads → more opportunities to respond fast. Speed creates a virtuous cycle.
Better tracking → smarter spending → higher ROI → more budget → better results → even smarter decisions. Data compounds over time.
Your competitor who started these systems six months ago is already in the flywheel. Every month, their advantages get a little bigger. Every month, the gap between you and them gets a little wider.
But here's the good news: the flywheel works just as well for you. And starting today puts you six months ahead of the version of you that keeps putting it off.
Your Action Plan: Close the Gap Starting This Week
You don't need to overhaul your entire business. You just need to start. Here's a realistic plan for the next 30 days:
- Week 1: Fix your Google presence.
- Fully optimize your Google Business Profile (30 minutes)
- Set up automated review requests for every completed job
- Ask your 5 most recent happy customers for a review personally
- Week 2: Fix your response time.
- Set up automated text-back for missed calls
- Set a team standard: all leads get a response within 5 minutes
- Update your voicemail message
- Week 3: Start tracking.
- Set up tracking numbers for your top 2-3 marketing channels
- Start logging which leads came from which source
- Track which leads turn into booked jobs
- Week 4: Review and adjust.
- Look at your first month of data
- Identify your best-performing channel
- Identify any obvious waste
- Make one budget adjustment based on the data
That's it. Four weeks. Each step builds on the last. By the end of the month, you'll have systems in place that most of your competitors don't.
It's Not About Working Harder
The competitor who's getting more calls than you probably doesn't work harder than you. They don't necessarily do better work. They might not even have been in business as long as you.
What they have is systems. Systems that make them visible (reviews), systems that make them responsive (automated follow-up), and systems that make them smart (tracking and analytics).
The good news is that none of this is complicated. It's not expensive. And you can start today.
Tools like FlowLine bring all three of these systems together — tracking numbers for source attribution, automated text-back for missed calls, automated review requests, and a dashboard that shows you exactly what's working. But even if you build these systems piece by piece on your own, the important thing is that you start.
Your competitor didn't get ahead overnight. And you won't catch up overnight either. But every day you wait is another day the gap gets wider. Start this week, stay consistent, and six months from now you'll be the one your competitors are wondering about.