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11thMay2016

10 Reasons Why Your Plumbing Business Needs an After-Hours Answering Service

10 Reasons Why Your Plumbing Business Needs an After-Hours Answering Service

Do plumbers need a receptionist or some sort of administrative help? We think so. If you’re the proud owner of a small plumbing business or work as a mobile plumbing contractor, we want to show you how a virtual receptionist can help grow your plumbing business overnight.

Here are the top 10 ways an after-hours answering service can help you manage your plumbing business.

 Why your plumbing business needs an after-hours answering service

1. Phone Coverage 24/7

When you’re first starting your plumbing business out, it’s important for you to grow your customer base quickly. Since plumbing emergencies account for the majority of your initial service calls, it’s imperative that you provide telephone support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You have two options for offering 24-hour plumbing services; you can have all calls directed to your cell phone or you can hire someone to field after-hour calls for you. The problem with having your plumbing business calls forwarded to your cell phone is the constant disruptions that will occur. You will inevitably lose sleep because of late night telephone calls or you’ll decrease customer satisfaction when you answer your phone while on a service call.   

Don’t have your cell go off at 3 am to answer a caller’s FAQ; you should only be woken up for confirmed service calls. Don’t excuse yourself at a service call to answer a ringing phone; your customer deserves your undivided attention.

Having a virtual receptionist answer your calls all day, every day gives you the freedom to run your plumbing business. With rates as low as $19.95 per month, there’s no reason for you to try and handle it all on your own.

2. Fielding Customers’ FAQs

You own your own business now so it’s imperative that you realize time is money. Allowing someone else to field your customers’ frequently asked questions will allow you to be more productive.

A virtual receptionist can answer a multitude of questions that will assist you in turning a lead into a client. For example, we are able to assist your callers by:

  • • Providing your standard rates and services offered
  • • Letting your callers’ know about your field of expertise
  • • Advising leads of seasonal promotions or first service discounts
  • • Giving them your available appointment times on your calendar
  • • Helping them navigate your website and online resources

We are trained in providing award winning customer service and want to bring our 3 decades of experience to your new plumbing business.

3. Quoting Rates and Locations Serviced

Simply give your new virtual receptionist team your rates and services sheet and we’ll be able to sell service packages to your calling leads. When a homeowner or commercial building manager needs a plumber, chances are, they need quick answers to their basic questions.

We can inform your callers of the locations you service and prequalify your leads before you invest any time on the prospective job. This simple and basic service is going to save you so much time and energy. Think about all the times you have answered your business line only to learn that you couldn’t help that caller.

Our answering service takes the guessing work out of qualifying your leads. When you receive a call from your virtual receptionist you know that a) the customer has agreed to your standard rates; and b) the service location is local to you.

4. Scheduling Service Orders

As a call center that specializes in service professional industries, we know how to schedule your service orders. After we have greeted your caller, asked all prequalifying questions and quoted your standard rates, we can take our services a step further.

With our state of the art equipment and software, we synch up to your calendar and schedule service orders for you in real-time. Think about how great your work week would be if you just had to focus on handling income generating tasks.

Once a new service call has been placed on your calendar we will text, email or call you to notify you of the new customer job.  

5. Dispatching Calls to Service Technicians

Here at A Courteous Communications, we have a special unit within our call center that is dedicated solely to dispatching calls to our on-call technicians and service professionals. Our after-hours answering service takes pride in our speed, accuracy and attention to detail when dispatching live calls or service orders to your technicians.

Click here to watch a demo video showing you how we dispatch your after-hour or emergency service calls.

6. Processing Telephone Payments

Another unique feature of hiring a virtual receptionist is our ability to accept payments over the telephone. We have secure payment processing services that streamline your billing department. Don’t waste time sending out invoices when we can go ahead and accept payment while we have that customer on the line.

If you offer payment plans to your customers, we can even call those customers to remind them of their upcoming payment responsibility. From there, we can take the credit card payment on the phone.

7. Completing Customer Service Questionnaires

After you or your plumber technician leave a job, you can utilize our outbound customer service options for quality assurance purposes. We will call the homeowner or commercial property manager to find out how their service order went.

Our virtual receptionists will walk your customers through a customer service questionnaire and document their responses. After the call is concluded, we will email you the responses received for you review.   

8. Contacting Customers for Annual Inspections

Allow us to reach out to your existing and past customers to offer annual inspections throughout the year. This kind of personal attention wins over new customers while reminding past customers about your plumbing business.

Nurturing your customer base doesn’t have to be a time consuming task. Outsource your annual inspection reminders to our outbound call center and feel confident that you’re offering personal attention to grow your plumbing business.   

9. Connecting Multiple Offices or Technicians

If you have multiple locations and multiple plumbers, an answering service can streamline your communications for extreme efficiency. Give all of your locations a centralized communication hub to decrease errors and confusion.

Our dispatchers will organize all of your service jobs; assign local jobs to the appropriate plumbing contractor; and confirm that your daily jobs were completed. With a dedicated dispatcher unit, you can rest assured that no job falls through the cracks.  

10. Opening Your Market with Multilingual Agents

If you are looking to reach a new market or help customers in their local language, we offer multilingual customer service representatives. Enjoy having the ability to offer your new plumbing services to a multitude of new customers and eliminate any language barriers.

Shoot us a message here to inquire what languages our talented customer service agents can offer your calling customers.   

Start the ConversationCall Our After-Hours Answering Service Today

Want to discuss your plumbing business’s unique after-hours answering serviceneeds? Give us a call now at 1-800-785-6161 to speak with an account specialist about your telecommunication and customer service needs.

With A Courteous Communications, we offer month to month service options with no long-term commitments required. Try us out for a month and see how we help your plumbing business grow. 

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