Three Reasons Plumbers Should Let An Answering Service Handle Their Dispatch
Let’s be real: plumbing is a messy job. But there’s the mess that’s part of the actual plumbing work, and then there’s the mess that’s part of running a plumbing business. You probably have years of experience dealing with the first kind of mess, but running a business will always be a lot like having a rewarding series of headaches.
Between overseeing marketing, recruiting, scheduling, and training, you have a lot on your plate. One of the biggest of those headaches can be sorting out a dispatch system. For plumbers, there are a lot of options. You could go through the process of hiring a dispatcher, then making sure they’re a good fit and integrated with your business. Or you could purchase complicated dispatching software and rebuild your schedule around it.
Luckily this is one of the few parts of running a business that has a simple solution. By letting an answering service like Ring Savvy handle your dispatch, you’ll find yourself free of all those headaches in no time. Don’t believe us? Here are three reasons why plumbers should let an answering service handle their dispatch.
1 - You Don’t Have to Change Your Business
Hiring a dispatcher is a complex process. It’s not exactly the same as hiring a receptionist or a plumber, but it’s not entirely different either. After finding the right fit, no matter how experienced they are, you then have to train them up on your protocols. You can skip all that by letting an answering service dispatch your technicians.
The first thing we need from you is your on-call schedule and the contact information for all your technicians. That’s right, our schedule is totally compatible with yours. You won’t have to change anything, but if you need to, you can let us know and we can adjust your information accordingly.
Next, we need to know what you want our virtual receptionists to tell customers while they attempt to dispatch a technician to resolve their problem. This can be as simple as gathering contact information and then giving an estimated arrival time, or as complex as asking for gate codes and giving pricing schedules.
That’s it! Really. Setting up with our service is easy and will start paying dividends quickly. You can see it in action with an example:
Say you hire Ring Savvy to handle your dispatch. It’s 2 PM on a Wednesday, and Alice calls your office and reaches one of our virtual receptionists. After supplying her contact information, Alice says she has a burst pipe and needs a plumber immediately. The virtual receptionist checks your schedule and sees that your technician Shaun is on call on Wednesday afternoons. Then they call Shaun and give him all the information he needs: Alice’s name, phone number, address, and any other information you script. Shaun heads to the customer’s place, performs the service, collects payment, then heads to the next job!
2 - We Can Help You Answer After-Hours Calls
Now imagine that instead of 2 PM on a Wednesday, Alice’s call comes in at 2 AM. How does your plumbing business handle emergencies? If you currently offer 24/7 service, maybe you have a message on your voicemail that tells callers to call an emergency number, or else the number of the technician on call. But how many emergency calls do you miss out on from customers who reach your voicemail and hang up because they’re looking for an answer?
If you offer 24/7 service, you are leaving money on the table if you’re relying on voicemail. By letting Ring Savvy handle your dispatch, you’ll make sure to get the most of your after-hours availability. Your customers will be grateful to talk to a person, and extremely happy with your response time. And if you don’t offer 24/7 service, our dispatch service will make it easy for you to make the leap if you ever decide to start taking advantage of those after-hours fees.
3 - We Can Handle Other Calls Too
An answering service like Ring Savvy can soothe your dispatch headaches. But what if Alice doesn’t have an emergency? Instead, she wants to schedule maintenance. You might think that, if you’re paying for dispatch, an answering service would send scheduling calls to you.
Well, the bonus to using Ring Savvy to handle your dispatching is that we can schedule for you too. If Alice’s call isn’t an emergency, then there’s no reason to call the on-call plumber. Instead, our virtual receptionists can put Alice onto your schedule. We’ll never double-book you, because we only schedule appointments in blocks that you approve ahead of time.
If you’re relying on voicemail, you’ve surely returned a call to a new customer as soon as possible, only for them to say they already hired one of your competitors. By using an answering service, you get to snag those customers the first time they call. Once they’re in your calendar, customers are much less likely to move on to another plumber.
We’re Not Just a Dispatch Service
Ring Savvy can handle your dispatch, but we also offer other services. Our 100-percent U.S. based virtual receptionists will be your first line of defense against those pesky spam calls. We have bilingual virtual receptionists, so we can help you reach the Spanish-language market.
We offer call transferring, so if the caller is an already-established customer, a family friend, or a big corporate account, our virtual receptionists can patch them through to your phone so you can handle it personally. And, if you already have someone answering your phones, our overflow call handling will send any calls your receptionist can’t answer to our virtual receptionists so you never miss a call.
Ready to stop fiddling with your dispatch protocol and hire an answering service to handle it? Click here or call 631-363-1000 for our free trial today. For a limited time, we’re offering businesses that sign up their first 400 minutes free.