Hello all; I run a small business with my father, a pest control company. We are not a big company just me and him and we just hired another guy. The problem is obviously I am the one doing the work and going out on inspections and doing everything that’s work related plus invoicing proposals, paying bills etc. I used to handle all of the phone like incoming calls, setting up appointments talking with clients or potential clients ect… the problem is I don’t have time to take all these calls anymore and spend 20 to 30 minutes on the phone with each customer when they ask 1 million questions just for us to get out there to do an inspection… I’m either driving or on the roof or in an attic or in a basement I really don’t have time to speak with all of my clients. I tried to hire my girlfriend, but things didn’t work out and was putting a strain on our relationship. Basically she couldn’t handle it. Since then I have contracted with a call answering service… there was an initial set up fee and took time to get everything coordinate with them… I have been using them for like 6 to 8 months now and the bills run between 500 and $1000 a month for the call answering service as they charge per minute and it depends how busy we are… since they are call answering service. They really don’t know much about the business and sometimes I get miss information from them or they say something to a potential client and the client asked me and I’m like no what are you talking about? They don’t set up the schedule all they do is take the name and information and I end up texting the clients if they respond, then great… but some customers I never even get to contact because I am too busy to call them and if they don’t answer my text message I just forget about it… yes, we are that busy… what is the best way to go about this? Answering the phone myself is extremely stressful and I have four kids that I have to take care of after work so I just never get a break and the last thing I want to do is talk with a client for half an hour when I have to make dinner or have four kids running around the house… my max budget is about $750 to pay somebody to do the service for the month. How would you go about addressing the situation?
I got too busy to answer phones all day and it’s a good problem to have so congrats.
I paid $20 a month for Tresta which is online phone system. I set a phone tree” press 1 for parking info, press 5 to speak with our party coordinator”… etc.
I pushed my highest ticket value questions to a certain prompt that pushes to my phone and I try and answer those. Everything else went to voicemail which I was pretty good about calling back each night.
I eventually hired a “party coordinator” who answers the phones 5 days a week and handles voicemails and bookings. Best $1500 a month I ever spent. She is a specialist for my business and does a great job. Game changer for my sanity.
How do i do that
If you’re that busy, why not just hire a receptionist?
You’re already paying $1000 a month to the answering service. A in house receptionist would know your business better, be able to schedule appointments, etc. So you would almost certainly increase your appointments over having an answering service. Which would balance out the increased payroll.
A dedicated virtual assistant is probably the only way to make it work at your budget. Better VAs tend to be based in Philippines, at least in my experience interacting with many large call centers. You’d want someone you can train for inside sales, which is the role you’re trying to fill.
You can empower your VA to add appointments to your calendar. If the prospects require 20-30 minutes of handholding, that’s a sales role. Give the VA explicit instructions how to funnel prospects.
The answering service’s role is to forward you their number and say you will call back. They are doing more than they should but aren’t trained for it.