I’m trying to help grow the family plumbing business with my dad and we are in need of an answering and dispatcher service. We’ve tried a few so far but none seem to live up to the quality we seek. If anyone has any leads for us I’d be super grateful!
(We are located in Los Angeles if that makes any difference.)
Thanks!!!
My experience with a call service was a disaster. And for how expensive it was, it was easier to hire in house.
I ran a medical clinic. You will not find what you seek. The concept of an answering service slash appointment setting service seems so simple, but it’s not. I suggest you ask people to text you, that’s what customers want these days. You can get a business texting service like eVoice where it’s more sophisticated than Google voice and way more sophisticated than one guy with ‘The’ cell phone.
HVAC here. Finding a good answering service these days is very challenging, and even if you do, they will not have the skill to do dispatch. Best to hire that in house. It can likely be done from home, so finding someone local should not be too much of a challenge.
Your best bet is to train your own csr’s (customer service representatives) don’t do temps or services. Concentrate on your workflow. Put priority customers first these are the people who have the most serious needs and who coincidentally will also make you the most money. People that need work on their toilets probably are not a priority unless this is their only toilet. Someone with an out water heater or whose house is flooding take priority. Train your service people on priority and customer service. Have one person directing the techs on their day to day have them focused on the job they are on they don’t need to know they have 4 or 5 calls in front of them. Which brings me to my final point. Overbook you can always reschedule small jobs onto the next day compensate them for doing so and if they cancel you lost a small job not a big one.
This is great advice. Thank you!!
As the others have said, they all over-promise and under-deliver.
Dispatching, forget about it, they can’t handle that.
What you’re going to get is someone to answer your phone, screen out hang ups and wrong numbers, take a name and number and then they’ll call or text you. They’ll also confirm the caller is in your service area and ask them what the problem is, if you make that part of the script.
I’ve got my own answering calls service they work 10-12 hours a day. Even weekends. We pay em $4-7$ per hour. Best bag for you buck. They schedule jobs, do all the intake, and even handle all the customer service.