I am a one man shop that is looking to have someone pickup the phone every time some one dials my number. If im doing an inspection, this wont happen. In my market, those inspectors that pickup first sometimes get the business.
Does anyone know of answering service/companies that are for hire and are they good (and how expensive)?
Thanks,
Tim
Most one man shops here answer their own phone .
On the job or out shopping I was available all the time ,Hands free in the car.
Most important is to have a good web site .
Name Phone number and area of inspection on first page .
There are basically two such services for our industry. One is America’s Call Center and one is Nathan’s.
I like Nathan’s. The primary difference is that Nathan’s can answer just the calls you can’t take, then you can go right back to answering your own phone when you want to. Maybe Nathan can jump in here and explain how that works.
America’s Call Center is good too.
Tim,
I have never had a client upset if i take a call on an inspection. I explain it up front, I may have taken their call on someone else’s inspection. I make every effort to answer every call. If I miss it, I call right back. It’s OK to be a one man show, many folks appreciate the personal nature of always getting you.
I will not likely consider an answering service, unless my company grows to have several inspectors.
You might also want to have all your calls professionally answered for a variety of other reasons, one being that it might improve your conversion rate (incoming calls vs. scheduled inspections) if you have a thick African-American or Hispanic accent or if you aren’t proficient in English or if you have a quiet voice or are just not a phone salesperson.
Check this link, Tim. He said there is setup charges and…
http://www.nachi.org/forum/f60/home-inspection-answering-service-80312/#post1020196