Missed calls

[Steve]

How many phone calls do you miss a day that you have to later return?

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Too many....on average 5 or 6. p.s. Are you in the office tonight to talk?

[Steve]

Can you tell with caller-id if they are new customers or not?

If so what % seem to be new?

What percentage of them when you call back say they have found someone else?

Or in other words how many jobs do you feel you lose because of that?

Well, probably half of the callers actually leave a message, while others don't. Then I would say probably less than 10% have found someone else time I call back.

I say that I probably lose around 25% of sales because I don't have someone live answering the phone.

[Steve]

How much money do you think that equals, in lost revenue per week or month?

hard to say. I am guessing probably between $300 a week, $1200 a month. I am basing this on 2 calls a day lost in sales, 5 days a week, based on $30 each call.

[kc2006]

I have my mother answering the phone for me while I'm out, it seems people are always more open to women when first talking. When she answered the phone she always gets small talk going on with potential clients, then when I get there they always compliment on how nice the person was that answerd the phone. I'm trying to find out how or if its possible to have the calls forwarded to my cell phone after X amount of rings. I've heard of others doing that, not sure if all companies do it though.

That could be a good way to save your lost sales Troy.

I tried the whole forwarding calls to my cell phone before and it drove me nutz. It seemed like I could never get work done. It was really bad.

[Steve]

Troy I realy think you should consider getting someone to answer your calls. Someone maybe like a stay at home mother. Someone in the area or not. Where you pay them per day possibly.

We need to streamline all this more and more in your business and take the stress off you. You could then call in to who ever is taking your calls, during the day when you are freed up from what you are doing. Then you can decide who needs a returned call and the priority of it.

I think not having this is going to hold back your growth. Because when people are reaching out to you for your services, it's too easy for them to just call someone else. Having someone answer your phone will give you a competitive advantage.

Well, I am hoping that perhaps my wife can start doing it. She is transfering to another hospital here soon, and for the first month or two she will only be working 24hrs a week. So I will throw her into doing it for a while.