Live answering for service industries
If you’re in the HVAC, plumbing, landscaping or construction industry, you’re incredibly busy. Your phone is constantly ringing off the hook with requests for service, inquiries about your service, quotes and more. You’re busy staffing your business, keeping up with equipment, supplies, contracts, vendors, bills – the list goes on and on.
But are you able to answer every call? You could be missing out on vital business by letting your calls go to voicemail. Most people calling to request your service will just go on to the next business on their list and you’ve just lost out to your competitor.
The cost of missing calls
Missing a few calls here and there doesn’t seem like a big deal, but those calls can add up. If it’s an existing customer looking for service and you don’t answer, they’ll become frustrated. If this is a pattern, they may leave your business for your competitor. And then they leave a negative review online or tell friends and family about their poor experience with your business. Customer experience is the demand now, and if you can’t provide it by answering your calls every time, you may lose business quickly.
For lead capture, answering the phone is critical. Your leads aren’t likely to leave a voicemail. With so many other companies to choose from, leads are just going to call the next business on their list. Consumers are busy and want rapid communication when reaching out to a business.
The cost of additional personnel
Now that you know missing a few calls can really add up quickly, your first consideration may be to hire a full-time employee to man your phone lines. But an in-house receptionist comes with a salary of at least $20,000 – more if you want to hire competitively. And that doesn’t include benefits, sick days and paid time off. What you need is the service of an in-house receptionist but at the fraction of the cost. And your answer is an answering service.
What is an answering service?
An answering service is a team of live operators who will answer your calls for you when you can’t. Simply forward your calls whenever you choose – peak busy times or 100% of the time. The operators will take a message and send the message to you. Then you can prioritize who to call back. That’s the most basic level answering service. If you’re looking for an answering service that’s more like a receptionist, look for services that offer advanced features.
Service industry live answering features
At VoiceNation, we have perfectly tailored features for service industries:
Emergency dispatching. For HVAC and plumbing industries, as well as property managers, emergencies don’t always happen within business hours and need attention immediately. Your answering service should be able to receive a call from your customers and be knowledgeable when to dispatch help.
24/7 answering. To repeat, emergencies happen at all hours. Your calls will still be sent to voicemail if you don’t hire a service that answers calls day and night, including weekends and holidays. Be always available to your customers with 24/7/365 call answering.
On-call scheduling. For emergency, after hours calls, your answering service should be able to update and maintain your on-call schedule, taking this administrative task off your plate.
Mobile app. If an important call come in while you’re out in field, you can view your messages instantly on your smartphone. When you return the call through the app, it uses your VoiceNation number, keeping your personal number private.
Call forwarding. You can tell your answering service which calls need to be sent directly to you. These feature is included in your plan and doesn’t come at an extra cost, like other answering services.
VoiceNation has incredible features and pricing
At VoiceNation, all our features are included in our affordable pricing, with plans starting at $30 a month. Our highly trained, US-based operators will take your messages and send them to you instantly through our mobile app, text and email.
Want to learn more? Give us a call! 877.679.3777.