What your greeting and missed-call text say
Thanks for calling. I am with a customer right now and I call every message back within the hour. Leave your address and what is going on, and I will call you with a time.
Leave a message after the tone.
Sorry I missed you, I am on a job. I will call you back within the hour. If anything is leaking, sparking or smells of gas, reply URGENT.
No text at all, so the caller just keeps dialing.
Sorry I missed your call, I was with a customer. You mentioned the water heater. Is it leaking, or just not heating?
Who is this? You called me?
The return-call rhythm that keeps the promise
- Pick a promise you can keep every day, then put it on the greeting. An hour you always hit beats fifteen minutes you usually miss.
- Check messages at the van between every job, before you drive to the next one.
- Return calls in the order they came in, anything urgent first.
- If the promise is about to slip, send a text before it does.
- Note the address and the problem before you call back, so the callback can end in a booking.
When you do pick up mid-job
I am with a customer right now. I will call you back by half past with a time for you.
Yeah, go ahead, I am listening.
Is anything leaking or sparking right now? If not, I will call you straight after this job.
Can you just call back later?
The three ways this goes wrong
- Answering every call mid-job. The customer you are standing in front of is paying for your attention.
- A greeting with no time in it. 'I will get back to you' gives the caller no reason to wait.
- Saving every return call for the evening. By then the morning's callers have had all day to call someone else.
You cannot answer every call and do good work at the same time. You can make every caller a promise and keep it, and that is what they remember.
I answer the phones for contractors, so the tech keeps their hands on the job and every caller still gets an answer. callbobai.com