Every missed call is a job for someone else
How many jobs am I losing by missing calls?
They found you. They wanted the job doing. Nobody got back to them in time, so somebody else got it.
Every trade business loses work this way, and almost none of them can tell you how much. That's the problem with a missed enquiry: it doesn't leave a mark. There's no angry phone call, no bad review. Just a customer who went with the next name on the list.
It happens more than you'd think
Fix Radio asked more than 220 tradespeople about it. Over a third (34%) said they lose work by not answering the phone. Six in ten (60%) said they struggle to answer while they're on the tools. And only 22% have a landline number on their website at all.
None of that is a surprise to anyone who's been up a ladder when the phone goes. You can't stop a job to take every call, and by the time you ring back at dinner time, they've often already booked someone.
Speed matters more than anything
Research led by Dr James Oldroyd of MIT found that replying to an online enquiry within five minutes made it around 21 times more likely to turn into a real conversation than waiting half an hour. A separate study, in the Harvard Business Review, found the average business took 42 hours to reply. Neither was a study of trades, but anyone who's waited all week for a tradesperson to ring back knows it holds.
The customer isn't being unreasonable. They've got a problem now, and the first business that actually responds looks like the one that will turn up.
Where a Talking Website fits
A Talking Website catches the enquiry both ways.
- When they ring and you can't answer, they get a text straight away with a link to your website. One tap and they're talking to your agent, instead of ringing the next name on the list.
- When they land on your website, there's no form and no wait. They tap one button and talk. Your agent answers their questions the way you would: what you do, where you cover, how you work, what happens next. Once their questions are answered, your agent books them in straight into your diary.
So when a customer finds you, they can reach you there and then, not whenever you're next free.
What that means for you
- Fewer enquiries that go cold before you've even seen them.
- Customers who already know what you do and how you work, before you've even met them.
- A missed call that turns into a booking instead of a lost job.
- Your day on the tools stays your day on the tools.
Talk to Ollie, and you'll hear exactly what your customers would.