For skilled trades companies, incoming calls often mean new business and revenue but as customer inquiries swell, small operation owners get trapped trying to juggle office management while simultaneously juggling tools in the field. Missed calls rise along with the risk of missing jobs. Nevertheless, with foresight and the right partners, growing service firms can gracefully handle increasing phone traffic without leaving money on the table.
Prepare Operations
Analyze Call Metrics
Track call volume by day of week and time of day and analyze historical trends and seasonal fluctuations. This allows smart projections around staffing needs and peak periods. No matter the injury emergency, HVAC breakdown or plumbing disaster, you can staff appropriately.
Streamline Routing
Evaluate call distribution procedures across dispatchers and technicians. Refine routing procedures to balance loads and empower admins to handle routine inquiries like status updates, appointments, and payments. Enable field techs to focus on complex troubleshooting and on-site calls.
Meet Demand Projections
Use call analytics to forecast growth. Increase phone lines and devices available to route calls simultaneously as needed. Avoid constant queues and missed calls during hectic times.
Leverage Technology
Smart Numbers
Explore a “smart number” platform which digitally routes each call to the optimal agent or field tech based on caller needs, location or other rules to balance volume. Built-in IVRs also distribute calls.
Cloud-Based Systems
Cloud phone services scale easily to accommodate growth. These systems equip businesses with agile calling solutions minus the hassle of maintaining expensive on-site equipment.
CRM Integration
Integrate phones with field service management CRM. This links caller records across sales, service and billing for complete customer histories and coordinated tech dispatching.
Cross Train Teams
Empower Dispatchers
Dispatchers do far more than transferring calls. Advanced training enables coordinating schedules, processing payments and handling common customer concerns to further improve responsiveness amid increased call volume.
Overlap Coverage
Avoid overreliance on any one staffer. Ensure colleagues can cover when individuals handling large call volumes are absent. Cross training prevents service failures if key team members are not available.
Develop Standards
Outline detailed best practice guidelines and FAQs cataloging institutional knowledge around quotations, inventory, diagnostics, repairs and installations. This allows any employee to deliver consistent excellence.
External Support Capacity
Shared Mailboxes
When call surges hit, activate reserve sales reps and admins by providing temporary account access to central inboxes. This immediately expands the capacity to handle call returns and email replies to keep sales cycles short amid increased volume.
Scalable Call Center
Establish an ongoing relationship with a professional 24/7 call center specializing in the skilled trades. Companies like Apello offer a plumbing answering service with specially trained agents to address customer inquiries, schedule appointments and dispatch on-call technicians for after-hours emergencies from water leaks to sewer line breaks.
Amid rapid scaling, the techniques here help owners coordinate phone systems, staffing models, training protocols and external support partners to never miss another call. Tracking demand early, planning growth proactively and integrating the right mix of talented team members with advanced technology makes handling exponentially larger call volumes achievable. The bottom line stays strong while customer satisfaction remains sky high even during the most explosive growth phases.
Conclusion
No small business dreams of leaving calls unanswered, but many fear it amid steeply rising demand. However, with early planning as outlined above and the right partners, handling exponentially more calls is not the nightmare scenario most owners expect. Instead, it represents an enormous opportunity. Coordinating call routing procedures, cross-training team members extensively, integrating call monitoring software and leveraging call center pros for overflow assistance means entrepreneurs can feel completely confident avoiding missed calls and smiling widely as their phones ring off the hook.