As a sole trader or small business owner in the electrical industry, handling phone admin tasks can significantly detract from your productive workday.
Let’s explore how integrating simple automation tools, including innovative solutions like OnSilent, can help you, as a sparkie, handle calls more efficiently, leaving you more time for the hands-on work that drives your business.
Challenges Faced by Sparkies
1. Time Consumption: Scheduling appointments, providing estimates, and fielding general inquiries can eat up hours that you could otherwise spend on site.
2. Missed Opportunities: Every missed call could mean a missed business opportunity. It’s not always possible to answer every call when you’re busy wiring a new build or troubleshooting an electrical fault.
3. Customer Service: Providing timely and informative responses is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and securing repeat business. Delayed or missed callbacks can harm your reputation and customer relationships.
4. Dealing with Unwanted Calls: Unwanted calls, such as spam calls, can be a nuisance and waste valuable time. Filtering out these calls adds an extra layer of complexity to managing your phone communications.
5. Work-Life Balance: Handling calls after hours can intrude on personal time, making it hard to disconnect and relax, which is essential for your well-being.
Solutions to consider
Automated Systems: Leveraging technology can significantly reduce the burden of phone-related tasks.
Here are a few tools that can help:
1. Online Scheduling Tools:
Allow customers to book their own appointments based on your real-time availability. This reduces scheduling calls and lets you focus more on your current job.
2. Voicemail to Email Services:
Software like OnSilent can automatically convert your voicemails to emails.
This feature enables you to quickly scan through messages with summarised voicemails and pre-made SMS replies, allowing you to prioritise which calls to return first directly from your inbox.
Plus, you receive text notifications of any urgent missed calls to ensure they are processed as a priority.
3. Automated Text Responses:
OnSilent offers customisable text responses tailored for your trade and specific workflows.
For example, these can be set to send automated replies that inform your clients when you’ll return their call or provide other relevant information.
Another scenario involves gathering information: Sometimes, voicemails may not provide all the necessary details required to fully understand the client’s issue or needs. An auto-reply can be sent to the client to gather additional information (such as details about a job opportunity) before returning their call.
4. Efficient Call Management:
Using call management software to prioritise and organise missed calls with automatic notifications and auto-replies ensures you never miss a business opportunity, helping you manage your time and responses more effectively.
5. Auto Referral to Business Partners:
OnSilent also includes a feature that automatically refers calls to preferred business partners when you are unavailable or if the job is outside your scope of work.
This not only helps maintain client satisfaction by ensuring their needs are addressed but also strengthens your network and professional relationships within the industry.
Estimated Time Savings
Implementing these automated solutions can result in significant time savings:
Weekly Savings: On average, sparkies might spend 5 to 10 hours per week on phone-related tasks.
Automation can potentially cut this time by up to 50-70%, saving you about 2.5 to 7 hours per week.
Monthly Savings:
These weekly savings add up to about 10 to 28 hours per month. This is time that can be redirected towards more productive or profitable activities, or simply enjoying well-deserved personal time.
Benefits of Automation
1. Increased Productivity:
With reduced time spent on the phone, you can focus more on the technical aspects of your work or on scaling your business.
2. Improved Customer Satisfaction:
Quick and professional responses, even automated ones, can improve customer relations and increase the likelihood of repeat business.
3. Enhanced Professional Image:
An organised approach to managing calls and appointments can enhance your business’s image and help establish you as a reliable service provider.
4. Better Work-Life Balance:
Cutting down on those after-hours calls and admin hassles means you get more time to chill and do your thing, both on and off the job.
Create Time for What Matters
In the fast-paced world of trades, every minute counts.
By streamlining your phone calls with modern technology, you can free up valuable time, allowing for more billable hours or quality time with family and friends.
Don’t let administrative tasks hold you back. Embrace the tools that can help you manage your calls efficiently and reclaim your time.
Ready to make a change?
Start leveraging the latest technology to optimise your workflow and create time for what truly matters.