Advancements in communication platforms have given businesses and their customers a multitude of ways of connecting. Whether through chat bots, text messaging, or even social media platforms, there is no shortage of ways businesses can leverage technologies to engage customers and have more meaningful conversations.
But when it comes to local home improvement companies, the phone remains king. It’s not hard to see why. If your toilet is leaking, you need help and the quickest way to get help is to pick up the phone and call someone. So, for local home improvement companies, it isn’t a stretch to say their phone is the lifeblood of their business.
Yet despite the importance of phone calls, a recent study by Service Direct found some alarming trends amongst these types of companies when it comes to how often they answer the phone.
There is a huge perception gap when it comes to phone habits.
When it comes to servicing customers that are in need of help and calling these businesses directly, the first thing that must be done is obviously answering the phone. When surveyed, local home service companies estimated they answered their phone 97% of the time. If only that were the case! Instead, what the study found was that, on average, they only answered 66% of their calls.
That is a massive perception gap between what they think is happening and what actually happens. According to a Forbes study, 80% of callers don’t leave a message because they do not think it will ever be heard. So for industries where you offer an urgent service, like plumbing or HVAC, there is a high cost when it comes to missing a call.
Consistently answering calls could grow revenue by as much as 54%.
Our research indicates local home improvement companies could increase their top line revenue by as much as 54% by simply answering all of their inbound phone calls – without making any other changes! That’s a lot of money, especially for small businesses that don’t have massive marketing budgets to throw at their business.
On that same note, it’s just as important that these businesses consistently and accurately track these critical performance metrics including Call Answer Rate, Lead Capture Rate and Booked Appointment Rate. By fully understanding these metrics, companies can make better and more informed marketing and operational decisions.
Agile telephone platforms can improve answer rates and call insights without breaking the bank.
Oftentimes business owners see software solutions as a cost-center. But, as the study suggests, that may be because they have a problem that they aren’t aware of because they don’t have the call tracking and analytics in place to bring it to attention.
It is critical for business owners to modernize their telephony system to take advantage of features that will help track, quantify and improve phone habits including call forwarding, call routing, call recording and voice transcription.
If these businesses understood how much revenue they were leaving on the table, they would see telephone systems as lucrative profit-centers for their business.
