The heat of the Australian summer brings with it a surge in air conditioning installation and service requests, leading to increased volumes of phone calls. Effectively managing this spike in demand, to maximise lead capture during the industry’s busiest season, is crucial for business growth … the question for air conditioning company owners is how to do so.
One strategic and cost-effective solution is to outsource call answering to a team of receptionists who work remotely.
The challenge of seasonal demand
More demand and more leads doesn’t always translate into more business. This is the case only if those leads are carefully handled!
During summer, air conditioning businesses can often experience overwhelming call volumes that they’re not equipped to manage. Calls don’t always come at convenient times and customers desperate to have AC installed or urgently seeking repairs will often move straight on to a competitor if the phone rings out. Or even if they go through to voicemail!
Missed calls can lead to lost revenue. As can calls being handled poorly due to your reception team being overwhelmed, or if you’re a small operation and you’re trying to juggle working on the tools and answering the phone.
It’s very common for traditional in-house teams to struggle to handle the influx. Hiring more office staff is not only expensive; it also doesn’t necessarily solve the problem, especially if calls are occurring out of hours as well as during the day.
Consider the missed opportunities arising from:
- Your phone line being busy when a prospective customer calls
- Calls coming in while your receptionist is on a break
- Calls coming in after hours, whether at night, early morning or on the weekend
The key to fully taking advantage of seasonal demand is to cost-effectively enable more calls to be answered – and leads captured – around the clock.
Whether you service residential, commercial or industrial clients, a reliable call answering service such as OfficeHQ can provide an edge over your competitors.
Benefits of outsourcing call answering
- Enhanced customer service: Utilising a professional answering service ensures that phone calls are answered promptly, while providing a consistent and courteous experience. This immediate response can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- 24/7 availability: Round-the-clock answering ensures customers can always speak to someone, even outside of regular business hours. This availability can be a key differentiator and prevent the dreaded voicemail hang-ups that become dead leads.
- Increased lead capture: By ensuring more calls are answered, businesses can increase lead capture, resulting into more quotes and jobs being booked without even increasing your lead-to-sales conversion rate. This is especially critical during high-demand periods when competition is fierce.
- Cost-effective scaling: Outsourcing allows air conditioning companies to scale their call handling capabilities without the overhead costs of hiring and training additional staff. This flexibility ensures that businesses can meet demand without compromising profitability.
Choosing the best answering service for your business
OfficeHQ offers various call answering solutions that can support tradie businesses, including air conditioning companies, in better handling phone calls.
Some of the key features of our services include:
- Swift answering: We pride ourselves on answering calls fast, typically within a few rings.
- Seamless call handling: Our remote-working receptionists answer each call in your business name, with your preferred greeting.
- Helpful interactions: We can answer common questions on your behalf, such as about your service area or call-out fees.
- Job scheduling: We can qualify leads for installation, maintenance or repair jobs, then book them directly into your preferred online calendar.
- Prompt message delivery: We take care in accurately recording details and messages, which are then delivered to you immediately at the end of each call.
- Overflow call management: We can answer only the calls you’re unable to answer in-house, if that’s your preference.
- 24/7 availability: We can help ensure your business is always open to opportunity.
- Escalation of urgent calls: Depending on your requirements, we can route urgent calls – including after-hours emergency repair requests – to you or your on-call technicians.
By outsourcing call answering services, Australian air conditioning companies can effectively manage the seasonal surge in demand, ensuring that a swathe of customer calls don’t go unanswered across the critical summer period. This strategic move not only enhances customer satisfaction but also fuels business growth.
Try out OfficeHQ’s answering services for yourself with a 100% no-obligation, 7-day free trial. You can instantly activate your account (no credit card required) and have us answering your calls within minutes.
