[Paul Trevail]

Hi everyone.

I was talking to a carpet cleaning pal of mine at the weekend, who said he keeps missing calls on his mobile whilst he's busy working. Having recently been laid off from my job where I was involved with telephone sales /call centres, I was thinking it would be a good service if an office was set up, In the UK, to field calls for you guys during the days you are out there grafting!

For a small fee you could have all your calls answered, in your name/company name, and you would never miss a new opportunity again. I could do after sales service calls as well. On the face of it I think it's a real goer. But let me know your thoughts.

Cheers now

Paul.

[supernova77]

Hi Paul,

There are already many many other companies that offer that kind of service.

It's a good idea, but you would have lots and lots of competition.

Andy

[Paul Trevail]

Thanks Andy, I know there are lots of answer services out there but do you know if anyone is specifically targeting the cleaning business, as I would intend to get experience and qualified in carpet cleaning to enable me to service the customers calls with some degree of knowlege of the business.

Thanks look forward to your reply.

Paul.

[carpetguy]

I never miss a call..........

My land line is diverted when working, to my mobile, which has bluetooth.........you don't even have to stop working, or driving, you just talk normally.

The phone rings and goes straight through, you simply talk

robbie

[terrymaloy]

I never miss a call..........

My land line is diverted when working, to my mobile, which has bluetooth.........you don't even have to stop working, or driving, you just talk normally.

The phone rings and goes straight through, you simply talk

robbie

Robbie,

Whats the fee for this service ?

Terry

[Paul Trevail]

Robbie

I take the point about the bluetooth range of services but the technology can be unreliable especillay when the mobile signals are poor. Some peoples skills with technology may not be up to speed etc.

I would say the service I'm thinking about will cover a range of 'office' functions, ok telephone management will be a major role in the service but it would involve all office type services. I'm thionking about £30 to £40 per week. The more that join the lower the cost.

Paul.

[Paul Trevail]

Hello everyone

Hope you all had a good day out in the wide world of carpet cleaning.

Just to share some feed back with you all from my earlier message, the most common question was how much will this all cost. Well thinking about it the more people who sign up the cheaper it will be.

Lets face it  a secretary and office will cost loads more than say £60.00 a month and you'll get almost all your office needs provided. That includes answering the phone, message taking, call filtering, diary management of appointments, and lots of other goodies like service calls to get yet more business for you.

I know there are other companies who offer an answering service but they 're not industry specific and bluetooth is sometimes not all it's cracked up to be.

Lets have some comments so I can take the next step.

Cheers all

[Cleaning Resource]

terry, the call divert from bt cost £1.25 month plus you pay the incoming cost of the call from your landline to your mobile, just phone bt they set it up in minutes you just dial *#yournumber# to turn it on and #41#to turn it off again simple never miss another call again

[Geoff Jewkes]

Same here

[gwrightson]

mimes free   but i do pay for the incoming call   *21*

so sont think £30 to £40 per week would help me in any way

Geoff

[Damian]

Same for me but i add my mobile number to family and friends list so the diverted call costs less! It costs bu**er all really and really pays its way If it didnt-i wouldnt do it

Damian.

[the red carpet]

Theres allready a company doing it called Factotom (dont know if i spelt that right)

But aparantly the girls that answer the phones know about carpet cleaning, and are trained to not give prices over the phone and steer the prospect towards a quote.

The guy who runs it or owns it is a ex safeclean franchisee with a lot of experience in this industry aparantly

[carpetguy]

Being long established in the business, and involved in others, I find the Bluetooth invaluable and there is no technological knowledge required

All you need is a Bluetooth enabled
 mobile, which they virtually all, are, Bluetooth earpiece, which is enabled through the menu.

Call divert, which costs pennies, from BT

Your diverted call, goes straight to the Bluetooth, without having to do anything and you just talk, normally.

Most importantly, the client is talking directly to YOU

ROBBIE

[Cleaning Resource]

Same for me but i add my mobile number to family and friends list so the diverted call costs less! It costs bu**er all really and really pays its way If it didnt-i wouldnt do it

Damian.

good idea i think i`ll add my to friends and family too, nice one

[Kev Loomes]

Yep Dan you spelt it nearly right. Factotum is run by an ex Safeclean franchisee, I used them for a couple of weeks and they were brilliant. Very professional, very friendly, didnt come accross the wrong way and can even arrange appointments and run your diary.

The only thing is they are more expensive than most - but I suppose you get what you pay for (which is what we all tell our custy's  ). http://www.ukfactotum.com/

We use these: http://www.connect-solutions.co.uk/ who give a very good service, and are very happy with them. We used to use Vodafone paging (same thing but they page you with a message to a pager), this was only abot £12.00-15.00 a month but was pretty dire

[Steve_Knight]

Hi All
I have to admit i think Pauls idea is brilliant.I personallyhave between 15 and 25 calls to my mobile a day on average with enquiries and sales calls and sometimes it can be a pain in the butt! Also when weare in a customers house working and your mobile keeps ringing and your in and out to the van to get the diary and book in work dont you think the customer deserves more of our dedicated time and attention than that?
After all they are paying us between £50 to £80 an hour to be working for them
I would be very interested in this service.

Cheers

Steve

[Paul Trevail]

Thanks Steve, its good to get some positive feed back.

Anwering the phone is only one aspect of the serice I have in mind, there would be  add on's like invoicing, marketing advice, service calls to ge feedbck and yet more bookings for you guys, and all office functions. I have had some good comments locally so I'm still working on the project and will let you all now when I have a clearer picture of the service.

The other main feature is that I would ensure that the people anwering the phone would be carpet cleaning experienced, NCCA certificated, so they have some knowledege of the industry they are serving.

Thanks once again for the comments.

Paul

[the red carpet]

If you do it you may want to consider offering a diary service aswell like Factotum,
they can book all your quotes or jobs for you in a online diary, so all you do is go online in the morning and print out your job-sheet for the day.

I would be interested in maybey trialing your service if and when you get it running
if you do let me know theredcarpet@hotmail.co.uk

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys,

Some good points made.

I divert to mobile and sometimes the volume of calls is a pain and I ask my wife to take it off divert , if she is not working.

However the problem with this is that when i come in, I have to start ringing people, who quite often are not in which is also a pain.

Cheers

Doug

[Damian]

Or they have rung someone else and already booked it with them Then its a sale lost and recommendations you wont recieve from their friends.

Damian.