Do People Leave Voicemails With Trade Businesses?

It’s a fast-paced world out there, especially when it comes to trade services. If you’re in a trade — an electrician, a plumber, a handyman, or any other field — you know that when a potential customer calls you, it’s often urgent. They have a repair that needs to be handled asap. Their expectation is an immediate response. And because this is the customer expectation, it has really become the norm among trade businesses. If you can’t get back to a potential customer right away, you lose their business.

With all of this in mind, is it any wonder that people don’t leave voicemails anymore? They’re not going to wait around for you to get back to them if their plumbing is backed up or their air conditioner is on the fritz.

Because of this, missing a call can mean missing a customer for a trade business. That’s lost revenue, not to mention a strike against your brand reputation. To avoid this problem, you want to ensure every call is addressed promptly, even when you’re not available to answer the phone yourself. 

The Reality of Missed Calls in Trade Businesses

Imagine the scenario where you’re an HVAC repair company and your potential customer has an urgent need: It’s a sweltering hot Saturday and their air conditioner breaks. They can’t wait until Monday to see whether you have any availability. These kinds of urgent repairs don’t wait for business hours.

When customers face emergencies, they expect immediate assistance, so instead of leaving a voicemail, they’ll hang up and call your competitor. Statistics show that 80% of callers do not leave voicemails on business calls, and this number is likely higher for trade businesses due to the urgency of their needs.

If you’re relying on voicemail to catch your potential customers, you’re likely losing a significant part of your business.

You Need an Answering Service

Is it any wonder that so many businesses — but especially trade businesses — rely on an answering service, which will ensure every call is answered every time? These services provide a seamless experience by allowing calls to be answered by your staff when available and by the service during off-hours or when the staff is occupied.

Think of the scenario previously described where a customer had an emergency over the weekend. If you took every call that came in over the weekend, or even in the middle of the night, you’d never get a chance to relax and find some balance in life. An answering service can screen calls, manage emergency fee explanations, and ensure that only qualified emergencies reach you or your staff, thus maintaining your work-life balance while still capturing valuable business opportunities.

Even a one-person operation can gain immense efficiencies by partnering with an answering service. When you have an answering service, you can manage your time better and ensure important calls are prioritized while less critical ones are handled appropriately.

Additionally, an answering service can route calls that come in during business hours to ensure they get to the right person. If somebody calls about accounting, the answering service can patch that call through to the proper department, thus alleviating somebody who wouldn’t be able to help the caller properly. 

Answering Services Do More Than Just Message-Taking 

Answering services do more than just take messages. They can book appointments using your scheduling website, process payments through a web portal, and determine if an emergency is genuine before contacting you at inconvenient times.

Plus, they can integrate with business management systems and CRMs. When you do this, the answering services can relay information via email, call, text, or fax. They can use APIs or tools like Zapier to integrate directly with your systems. This helps in creating tickets, updating customer records, and more, ensuring smooth and efficient business operations.

The most important thing about an answering service is the way it can help you focus on what matters: Providing the service you promise your customers. If you’re constantly answering the phone, you aren’t able to serve your customers properly. This can significantly improve productivity and operational efficiency.

One important factor to keep in mind: You want to work with an answering service that is bilingual, so you can accommodate the most potential customers you can. An answering service that answers in both English and Spanish opens up the potential to serve a broader audience, including Spanish-speaking customers, which might otherwise be unreachable for businesses with limited language capabilities.

It’s safe to say that if you’re a trade business, an answering service is an essential part of what you do. An answering service is what tells your customer that you are reliable and their need is important to you. You’re available even outside of business hours (though, of course, you’re still able to vet these calls). 

If you’re looking to make your trade business more efficient and serve your customers better, let’s discuss some of your options for answer services. Contact Office Phone Plus at (410) 834-4900.