From house cleaning to gardening to painting and appliance repair, home service businesses make their living by making living a bit easier for the rest of us.
No one who works a 9 to 5 wants to come home to a litany of home improvements that have been put on the backburner. Home improvement businesses take those “when I get a chance” projects and pair them with expertise and efficiency to get the job done right (and right away).
Maintenance crews keep the carpets clean, the closets organized, and the pools leaf and algae-free (among other niches). Handymen fix the furnace, the roof, and the home appliances. And renovators redo patios, windows, decks, and more. You get the picture.
But the big picture for many home service businesses is that it can be a colossal challenge to keep paying projects in line and still field incoming calls when you’re knee-deep in soil or sludge or a Frigidaire that just unfrosted. Many home service businesses don’t have a receptionist, so it often falls on the business owner or a team member to juggle customer service with home improvement.
Outsourcing calls to a professional telephone answering service can help home service businesses in several ways:
- Fielding after-hour phone calls: Let’s say your home service business only offers services from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. But a cranky customer’s water heater breaks at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night. Met with a ringing phone and no answer, he leaves a grouchy voicemail (and maybe a nasty online review). Now you have a customer service issue on top of the next day’s repairs. But with a virtual receptionist, your customers can speak to a compassionate and knowledgeable agent, leave a detailed message, and receive a callback during business hours when it’s more convenient for both parties. Better yet, you set the criteria for what constitutes an emergency, and on-call team members can be dispatched if and when they are needed.
- Making appointments: Home service businesses that outsource their phone calls to a telephone answering service can take advantage of various administrative features like appointment scheduling. No longer do your team members have to waste time trying to schedule an appointment with a potential customer who is only available via email or text message. Your virtual receptionist can handle it all quickly, easily, and politely, freeing up critical time for your on-call crew.
- Conquering cancellations: Cancelled appointments are always a pain, but they’re particularly inconvenient for home service businesses since they can mean lost revenue. But with a virtual receptionist, a telephone answering service agent can quickly reschedule the job without having to interrupt your workday – or your bottom line.
Owning a home is rife with repair and improvement needs. Washers and dryers are going to go on the fritz, toilets are too, and landscaping will always need some extra TLC from professionals with a green thumb. Home service businesses are the calvary that keeps things looking and working great. But even they need help from time to time.
Focus Answering Service can help your home service company put its best foot forward. Call 1-800-886-6696 to chat with one of our agents and learn more.