As the owner of an HVAC company, what can you do to capitalize on the current strong economic environment and help your businesses grow? There are a number of different ways that HVAC companies can differentiate themselves from their competitors, from updating the design or graphics on work trucks to re-doing or creating a high ranking website. But there is one fundamental mistake most business owners make; any marketing effort is really pointless if a person in need of service does not receive a prompt and professional response when they call in.
Centratel Answering Service has come up with 4 strategies that HVAC professionals should use to realize the full potential value of every call and increase their market share.
Assume that Every Call is a Service Call.
You only get one chance to make a first impression and in the HVAC business your prospective clients will base their decision whether or not to use your company on a single phone call. If a caller gets a phone tree or voicemail, hears a busy signal or endless ringing when they need your service it is almost a sure bet that they will contact another company. Using an answering service like Centratel creates an assurance policy that your callers always receive prompt and professional phone service any time, day or night.
Call Forwarding.
Your local phone company offers a service called “No Answer Call Forwarding”. This service allows a business to program phone lines to ring to another number, typically either a cell phone or to an answering service if the call is not answered a t the office within a pre-determined number of rings. This allows you and your staff to work uninterrupted or field other calls without worrying about missing new calls coming in. This service also provides a built-in backup plan for answering calls in the case of an unexpected power outage or natural disaster where onsite phone lines could be affected.
Don’t Rely on Your Cell Phone.
Technology has certainly made our lives easier, but we’ve all experienced times when it has failed us too. If phone lines are forwarded to a cell phone, what happens if you are in a dead zone, have another caller on the line or the battery goes dead? The result of any one of these scenarios is a lost business opportunity. Forwarding to an answering service like Centratel ensures that your forwarded calls are always answered and instantly captured by a real person 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, including holidays. Send your calls to an answering service without the risk of a lost business opportunity.
Have an Escalation Protocol.
If there is an emergency situation our Telephone Service Representatives (TSRs) will choose your “E relay” in which they follow a series of 1-2-3 steps to reach you directly. The “E relay” is custom designed for your account. For instance, the first step might be send your on-call person a text message on his or her cell phone. If there is no response within 15 minutes, the second step may be to try that individual’s cell number, a third step might be to send a page to another member of your staff. The fourth step may be to call that person’s home number, etc. In any case, the relay sequence is up to you and can be adjusted per your authorization. With E relays, our TSRs tenaciously follow the established answering service relay protocol until the goal of delivering the message has been accomplished. Protocols are set up so that no message goes undelivered. If there should ever be a problem delivering a message, we work with the client to instantly change the message relay format to one that works more effectively.
Utilizing a high quality answering service is a great and simple business strategy that any business owner can quickly and easily implement. It is also an affordable assurance policy for phone coverage and capturing new business to help any business grow.
