So I guess you answer your own phones Scott, unless you have hired someone who is well versed in the field and can afford to keep them in the office to answer phones for you instead of, I don’t know, earning income? You are one lucky guy!
Unfortunately, the majority of small contractors who are trying to get office help so they can spend more time where they are most profitable are trying to or have hired a secretary/receptionist to handle many of the office tasks including answering the phones.
Perhaps you have found a well of talent where you can easily hire people that will accept to get paid an average salary (for a CSR) but whose level of talent far surpasses the ones most of our customers employ. From my experience, it’s hard enough to find and afford someone who does a great job in the office and possesses good phone skills. So please Scott, send us a list of available candidates so we can share in your good fortune.
While we wait on that however, it may be a good idea to provide guidelines to that regular CSR to try to improve how they handle those calls that have cost you so much in advertising to generate. And while I agree (see previous post) that “reading a script” may seem transparent, most people, especially the ones under your employ Scott, should have the capacity to understand the “overall message” and make it their own, meaning, incorporating it in their knowledge base.
As an example, when I call your office and hear “Welcome to Scott’s Electrical Company, how may I help you? That sounds scripted but I don’t feel insulted. And when I explain my issue to your CSR and they are able to qualify it in a way that they can relate to the problem while sending the right person with the right tools to take care of it, I don’t really care if they learned that from a trade school or a knowledge source, I would feel like I’m dealing with a professional company that hires qualified people. It may even make me stop calling other shops and accept your services based on the credibility you convey!
I doubt you would want your receptionist or secretary or CSR to handle each call the same way regardless of the topic. I believe that a customer complaint should be handled with a different perspective that a regular service call. When someone asks for a price up front, I hope that you provide them with more than just a price if any price at all, because if you do, that’s all they will have to compare you to the other shop that offers the same service at a cheaper rate. Your potential customer has got to walk away from that call with not only the information they requested, but also a list of reasons why you are the one to resolve their issue, whether you are more cost effective than your competition or not.
It all comes down to perceived value. We all spend more money on certain items because of the reputation the brand name carries or the level of service we can expect after sale. Why is your business any different? And you can honestly tell me that a regular “office guy or gal” has the talent from day one to convey the advantages your company offers specific to the precise reason of the call in the first place? Can anyone really suggest that their call takers are the best they could possibly be?
Unless you want to spend your day coaching your CSR on how they should have dealt with the past call type, hoping they retain that information so that the next time, when the same type of call comes in, they can make use of your exact suggestions, writing it down may be a good idea!
And unless you want your CSR to have to go through an immense amount of paperwork trying to find the one appropriate to the call at hand, implementing those suggestions using technology that allows them to click on a link that brings up the appropriate guidelines instantly may not be a bad idea either!
Most major companies provide resources to their call takers so they are able to better handle and qualify calls, providing the people in the field a better understanding of what to expect while immediately generating confidence from the customer. There is a reason why they do this and unfortunately, the cost involved to provide such readily available resources is prohibitive to the small entrepreneur. We are trying to provide the same tools that the “big wigs” use, which are tried and tested, to our customer to give them an edge over their competition. No one can argue that having someone with a better understanding of customer issues is not going to end up with better results on the short and long term.
Unfortunately, the feedback received thus far, with one exception, has been focused on discrediting an idea instead of trying to shape it so that it works for how you do business and the reality of your day to day activities. That sort of thinking is quite rampant with micromanaging business owners who feel threatened by thoughts that don’t fall within the scope of their own existing business practices. Having worked with many of the members of this forum in the past, I know that most of you are here to try to learn from one and other and generate ideas that might improve your bottom line. It’s to those that I address this thread since this effort is obviously not aimed at those contractors that already “have it all figured out”.
I very much look forward to comments that are aimed at converting an idea to a solution that suits your true business reality. When I hear contractor comments about dispatching, flat rate or Numbers Crunching solutions out there, I usually hear about what’s missing or what they would change to better suit their needs. This thread is designed to preempt that constructive criticism allowing you to help shape a business tool that may provide distinct improvements from day 1. I hope we can all take advantage of our common experiences to come up with something that will truly make a difference, as opposed to just saying it will.
And by the way, electure, I understand that the scope of this bulletin board is for members helping members, I was just trying to convey that I’m very thankful to anyone that provides feedback and I’m willing to go above and beyond what they expect by addressing each question with the same fervor as we put in for our regular consulting customers. Quid pro quo Clarice, that was my point.
Marc
