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| Ek's Home | Forum | Chat | Electrical Links | |
| Subject - CSR scripts | |
| John A. Peters |
I wonder if any one has a sample script used by the customer receptionist? So far our script sounds something like this. Brookline Electric (customer talks) May I have your name and phone number. May I have the job addresses and cross street please. What needs to be done? In what room is the work needed? (She looks at the schedule and picks out a time) For example - Do you have time on Thursday between 2 and 3 PM? The electricians will call you before he comes over. Please be sure you can hear the phone because if you don't answer the phone the technician will be worried and he may wait for your return call. My preference would be to substitute the following line for the bold one above.. Are you available Thursday in the afternoon? If the customer says yes, I think we should leave it alone at that point. The customer asks for the more precise time we can offer the customer the first call of the day further on in the week and therefore be able to guarantee a much smaller window of start time. This follows the same way we use with respect to quoting the price. That is the customer asks, then we tell the price, but if the customer does not ask then we let the technician handle it on the job. We have found that this gives us a better result because in the past some clients have changed their mind after hearing the price. What do you think 
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| MONOLITH | quote: I disagree with 'leaving it alone at that point' as far as pinning down an appointment time, unless I'm misunderstanding you. You can't just leave it at 'afternoon'. Surely, anyone would want a more defined time. I agree with leaving the cost announcement for the tech once he's in the house. Giving the price over the phone is wrong because; 1. You haven't actually seen the job, and as a homeowner myself, if you price it without even seeing it, that makes me wonder... 2. Giving the price once the tech is already onsite gives you more chance of getting the job, than if you're just a phone voice the homeowner can disregard for another estimate. |
| kbsparky | quote: I used to try to do that. Not any more!  That is the most you will get from either the phone or cable companies. "Morning" or "afternoon" is better than missing your "appointment" by a couple of hours, due to unforseen problems arising on the previous job. There are exceptions, of course, like when a specific customer requests a specific time enough ahead of time that you can work everything else around. But those are the exceptions.  |
| nfsus | I use this method. When is best for you? Sometimes their best and my best do not match, so then we try to arrange a better time. Always call if you are not able to be there even if it is 5 min or so. And when someone says, and they always do, whenever you can get here, I always try to nail it down to a better time frame. Emergencies have to be taken care of when you get the call. Sometimes you can go 'temp' fix the emergency then return to another job till a better time. It depends on what is going on. I find that here it does not matter how good the work is that you do or if you even have a licence, but showing up and showing up when you say. |
| Romex Racer | JAP, Do you charge for estimates? If you do, I don't see where that business appears in the script. If you don't charge for estimates, do you get no-shows and low conversion rates? Cheers.........Richard |
| MONOLITH | quote: I just think leaving it 'sometime in the afternoon' is not quite what the average person waiting is looking for. Maybe at least a 2 hour window? "I'll be there between 2 and 4". If someone told me 'monday afternoon', I would surely think 'So, I'm supposed to wonder the entire afternoon'? And yes, the cable and phone companies do abuse their power and monopolies and get away with it. But we are not them, and your competition maybe giving a more apreciated time window. |
| John A. Peters | quote: We play it by ear. If they ask, we quote a monetary amount of 1-1/4 hour minimum. (Use your own labor rate X 1.25) This is for 15 minutes travel and the first hour of work. Materials are extra if needed and the second hour is only (Use your labor rate) per hour. [Service calls We used to make it a point to quote this rate since my old boss, John Brookman, long ago said that you would never have a problem with a client who would not pay, as long as you quote the price on the phone before you go there. However our service-call technician requested that we not quote the rate as some clients were calling around for a better rate and then canceling us before he could get to the job site. He feels comfortable getting an ok for our rates in person, when he gets there. We use an invoice that has our rates printed on it. We ask the client to "Please sign my work order so I can start work". 99.9% of the time they sign it willingly. So now we do not quote the rate unless they ask. Most of them that ask, do give us the ok. I can't remember the last time any one backed out at that point, so we think this is ok. Estimates I do all of these. I play it by ear. I find out what their goal and or what is the name of the room in which the work is needed. I ask them what day is good to have me come over for the estimate. If the conversation is going well I let them know that I have a small retainer fee to draw up a contract. If they say ok "or" "um-hum" during this exchange then I move on. If they are silent I let then know that it is a good deal for them and that I give out a 16 page booklet titled "Dealing with Contractors" and that I will provide an itemized estimate from their wish list, where each item will have its own individual time and price. Sometimes the retainer fee does not come up in the initial phone conversation. In this case I bring it up at the end of my room by room walk through of the home where the work is needed. If they are still not going along with the idea of paying for me to type up the detailed line item estimate and contract, even before I give them a price, I then switch modes and find out if they are getting multiple bids. I if so, I commensurate with them about how they can not pay each of 3 or 4 estimators, it would be too much. If they say yes I am getting 4 or 5 bids, or some thing like that, then I let them know that we do not win our bids by price, but rather by being better (in various ways, dada yada) If they are undecided, I tell them the check encourages me more than the value of the money, and that it makes the real and that I staple it to the notes I took and I do not cash it until the bid is emailed out. Also I mention the check helps us correctly spell the names and some times it shows the owner to be a trust or home owners association. |
| wilkie | If someone wants to book a certain time.... As our technicians are required to complete each job before moving on to anything else, we can only guarantee on time for our first call each day, which is 8 or 9am. If you need someone in the afternoon, we can schedule the technician within a two hour window, and then we can call you thirty minutes before the technician will arrive at your door. So, is tomorrow at 8 am, or tomorrow between 1&3pm more convenient for you? After they book the call.............(but before they hang up) Our technicians are also required to collect at the conclusion of each call. Should I tell him to expect cash, check, or credit card? Then if you are flat rate......... Make sure to ask your technician about one of our service agreements, as it could save you a considerable amount of money today. Thanks, and we look forward to serving you. |
| Romex Racer | I love this site. I learn *so* much. |
| kbsparky | quote: Not really. My competition consists of no-shows, no returned calls, and even not answering the phone in the first place ! They pay high $$$ for advertising, only to leave the customers hanging. Eventually, I get calls and thanks for just answering the phone with a real, live voice  I've found that for the most part, customers appreciate it that you're even willing to show up in the "morning" or "afternoon" considering what they have put up with 
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| MONOLITH | What's amazing, is how much I hear the very same thing in my area. It's easy to compete when the competition doesn't even want to play.
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| John A. Peters | Those big bucks yellow page ads bring in so many calls, most of the time, that the CSR can take the cream of the crop customers and leave the others hanging. In my area I have been told by more than one client that they had been given a time slot by the CSR and told a technician would be there, but then after waiting an hour or two, they got a phone call saying that the technicians were too busy and they would not be able to make it! Of course they were very happy that I could come right away. We each have our own way of doing business. Some of us are proud of never having to advertise, due to good work, low rates and plenty of referrals to local jobs. Others are proud of their full page advertising and they think nothing of dispatching their trucks fifty or more miles to go to a job. This happens more in the companies where the men have to provide their own trucks. What ever method we are using or the size of the company we are running, I think the ESI plan and the book The E-myth, are on the right track when they say we should standardize and document our systems and improve them as if we were prototyping the first model of a franchise. The idea is to have documentation to make it easier to train a new man or replace any one in the company without as much of the loss of efficiency that impacts a company for days and weeks when they hire a new man. I dispute the school of thought that a company is either growing or dying. You can have a good, profitable business that stays the same relatively comfortable size for a life time. If you can keep your electricians for a long time like ten or twelve years then you do not have to train a new man very often, so there is not much need to document your procedures, saving time and keeping you efficient. It takes a good man to be a business owner, estimator, electrician, meanwhile juggling a cell phone and a tool belt. |