[neil 47]

How Many calls do you miss when you are out working ?

I have noticed if i leave a message saying i finish at three and will get back to them before 5 about i think half leave a message .

if there is no message then they don't .

is there any cost effective Method that stops you from missing calls.

Neil

[wayne zabel]

Divert all calls to your mobile.

[davep]

And leave message saying will call back in 10 mins

[david@zap-clean]

Divert all calls to your mobile.

Snap - but I still miss calls, e.g. when I'm chatting with the customer, or the extraction machine is running close by.

I've thought about call handling companies, but as a one-man-band I just have to accept I can't answer them all. If I miss a call I do try to call them back, if it was a recent miss. Some withhold their phone number though.

Don't get me started on answering cold sales callers when I'm working!

[John Kelly]

I ring carpet cleaners everyday. I get through to about half. Of the ones I don't some even just have the generic answerphone message such as "welcome to orange answerphone". If I'd been a customer then that is a job lost. A lot have answering services which to a customer sounds very professional. Good morning such and suchs office, he's busy at the moment but give me your details and I'll get him to call you straight back. At least you have a chance with this even though a percentage will just ring the next carpet cleaner.
This applies to new customers as regulars will usually wait.

[Phillip Mold]

Call divert
BT charge £1.70pm.
Landline calls forwarded to my mobile.

[Neil Jones]

£2.50 per month on sky, divert to mobile.

It's funny because on Sunday I got an email at around 1pm about some hard floor cleaning, it was my only day off last week and I was relaxing and doing bits in the house that needed doing so I said to myself I'll ring them Monday morning. I rung once Monday morning and once at dinner, no answer. I then got a voicemail at about 4.45pm saying that they sent me an email but no response, I was on the phone when they rang so didn't see it. Anyway I rung him at 5.15pm when I'd finished on the phone and got the biggest lecture off the guy about not getting back to people, that he had been given one quote now so he will just accept that. I tried explaining but obviously I was the irresponsible business owner. Idiot!

[JandS]

Call divert......let it ring off then ring back straight away and cost is peanuts.

[M W.]

Call divert. loudest ring tone possible. Vibrate  . do catch majority of calls. had an issue of late wi this EE thing with t mobile. custys maling me saying phone line was dead. Hate returning a missed call to find custy has being sorted elswhere.

[Hilton]

Call divert is not the answer,

In answer to the question, yes there are cost effective ways to capture all calls, which can either be relayed to you by text or email, there are a whole bunch of companies that will do this for you in one form or another, I think one even advertises on here, just get the service that suits you and your pocket..

The question should be can you afford NOT to have such a service, the answer is obvious.

I am astounded with all the modern technology available to people today that calls are still missed,

If you fail to implement services to capture all your calls good and bad then you have no to blame but yourself.

[david@zap-clean]

Call divert is not the answer,

In answer to the question, yes there are cost effective ways to capture all calls, which can either be relayed to you by text or email, there are a whole bunch of companies that will do this for you in one form or another, I think one even advertises on here, just get the service that suits you and your pocket..

The question should be can you afford NOT to have such a service, the answer is obvious.

I am astounded with all the modern technology available to people today that calls are still missed,

If you fail to implement services to capture all your calls good and bad then you have no to blame but yourself.

How much, and what service level?  I looked into this a year ago (start-up).
I'm really glad I didn't go for it at the time... but maybe now is the time for me to review that decision.

[Steve Chapman]

The question is, do your customers want to speak to you or an answering service ?

Most probably you !

Carpet cleaning is a quick turnaround business, I dont think most will be wanting to leave details and wait for a ring back or whatever.

We've had call divert for about 10 years and try and answer most calls, when I do the I book most jobs straight away.

Plus the fact most customers want advice & help with carpet problems stains / emergencies which cant be dealt by an answering service.

In the past I've phoned electricians and their wife answers, knows nothing about the business and says will get him to call me when he gets home ?   -  No thanks, i want answers straight away, I phone around for someone I can talk to properly.

Thats the culture we live in now !

I think If you value your customers & business you need to answer the calls yourself, or have a knowledgeable employee who can deal properly with the enquiries.

Regards
Steve

[wayne zabel]

Call divert is not the answer,

In answer to the question, yes there are cost effective ways to capture all calls, which can either be relayed to you by text or email, there are a whole bunch of companies that will do this for you in one form or another, I think one even advertises on here, just get the service that suits you and your pocket..

The question should be can you afford NOT to have such a service, the answer is obvious.

I am astounded with all the modern technology available to people today that calls are still missed,

If you fail to implement services to capture all your calls good and bad then you have no to blame but yourself.

So why is call divert not the answer?Someone calls your landline and it diverts to your mobile and you answer it.

Am I missing something here?

[Teddycare]

I thoroughly agree, in our advertising we say speak to a real person not a machine, this gets us a lot of work because nobody wants to talk to a machine, we divert all calls to our mobile, this is with BT which use Vodafone, all diverts our free as long as you are a BT customer.
Unfortunately Vodafone have not the best coverage in our area, so if we are going somewhere where we know we are going to be there for some time and the signal is not good we will divert to a different network (orange) so although these calls will cost us more we don't actually miss any.
I have run this business for 33 years before the advent of the mobile phone, for the last 20 years I have been diverting all calls to my mobile, yes I suppose I have missed a few but then again so what I'm still here

[Craigp]

I don't mind missing calls, they're a blo*dy nuisance anyway, ringing me with their blo*dy problems.
 

[John Kelly]

Thinking back when I first set up my fire & flood company I needed an electrician.I think I phoned 3 before I eventually managed to speak to someone. He did the job, is a great bloke and made thousands over the following years working for us and others in the industry. Just shows how important a phone call can be.

[Craigp]

True John but the opposite can be true as well, many call wanting a 20min chat about their cat wee on the 4th floor with no lift.

[derek west]

my wife answers most of our calls and is good at selling, if shes out then we divert to mobile and i use bluetooth so never miss a call, plantronics is the best, get one, job done.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

As we all know call diversion has its limitations as some calls end up in the ether you still can't beat a land line to land line discussion but sat at home waiting for the phone to ring means you aren't working.

I'm at a job now where I have a turbo drying finishing off a carpet and I'm calling people back who have left messages unsuccessfully as theyre out and on the t'interweb but I would be home having my tea if I'd have no phone calls to handle especially bloody telesales!

Shaun

Ps I'm looking forward to my bread and jam we always get a posh tea on Tuesdays.

[Craigp]

I got one of these in the van, bluetooth stereo, comes over the van speakers, answers automatically after two rings, cuts in over the music, saves getting caught using the mobile, highly recommend it;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALPINE-Bluetooth-CD-Tuner-CDE-114BTI-/261195815312?_trksid=p2054897.l4275