Running a service or contracting business can keep you hopping, especially once your reputation for high quality work starts to get around.
When your phone starts to ring off the hook, what do you do? Do you stop work right then to answer? Do you let the caller go to voicemail? Do they leave a message most of the time? These are important questions to ask yourself because the truth is that most service contractors can benefit from answering services.
Answering Services: So Much Bigger Than Voicemail
Sure, you’ve got voicemail on your phone plan, but does anyone use it?
The chances are good that you’re losing a lot of leads because people simply aren’t leaving voicemail these days. They’re impatient and they want to know they’ve connected with a real person, even if that person is a go-between like a secretary or even an answering service.
Speaking to a human reassures that caller that someone is working their issue and they’ll soon have a resolution. Voicemail gives no promises that it’ll even be heard, let alone have a solution delivered.
The human factor is huge, but that’s not the only reason to give an answering service a try for your service business, here are a few more:
- Have your own live operator private reception team without the cost. Virtual receptionists are a great value and can give you a more professional polish without having to actually hire or train any new people.You’ll be assigned a small team of receptionists that get to know your callers and your business, even taking direction directly from you for how to handle specific clients, so everyone you deal with feels like you’re giving them the white glove treatment.
- Let someone else book your appointments for a change. When you’re out on a jobsite, it can be hard to keep a good, accurate calendar. Even using the calendar app on your phone can get tricky. That’s why having an answering service with a dedicated appointment setting service just makes sense.You can set your phone to go straight to the answering service or send direct callers to your appointment queue after speaking to them about their project, then your answering service will populate your calendar in real time with the new appointment.
- As you grow your business, your answering service can act as your dispatch team, too! A growing service business adds more layers of work for you or an office manager. Dispatch becomes a huge headache the more trucks you have on the road, but your answering service has your back.With instant communication and great phone skills that help operators to get to the bottom of the problem, your team members will know exactly where to go and what they’ll find when they get there.
No matter if your service company is just starting out or it’s been up and running for years, you can benefit from a relationship with an answering service. There’s so much one can offer your business, from setting appointments to dispatching your team to callers in trouble, that it just makes financial sense to give an answering service a try.
