Do you have someone to answer your phone?

[Rahul Singh]

I have been powerwashing for about a year now and trying to answer my own phone means I miss a lot of calls. Does anyone spend money to have an answering service?

 

[Mark]

Answering service is one option,
you can also use a voice mail system
forward calls to a cell phone etc.

You don't want missed calls, they
might never call back.

Try a Yahoo or Google search for:

Answering Service

Voice Mail

Unified messaging.

Good Luck!

 

[Doug Rucker]

We tried an answering service and didn't work out to well. We are back to answering the phone ourselves and is working much better.

 

[Reider]

We tried an answering service and didn't work out to well. We are back to answering the phone ourselves and is working much better.

What were the major issues that caused you to stop using the answering service? I will be trying one out in 2014.

 

[Doug Rucker]

The service we used changed there software and made some other changes. When the software change was made, all my emails from them started going to my junk mail file with an address I did not recognize. I was deleting them before opening thinking they were spam. Once I found out, after complaining that my phone messages and calls had dropped significantly, there were 23 messages left that had not been deleted yet. In those 23 were several messages for estimates along with one big on, 23 roofs to be cleaned for a retirement community, that they had called twice to let me know I had won the bid. When they never heard back from me it, they awarded to the next company on the list, and they were lower in price. That sale alone cost me 10K$$$. I immediately canceled and went back to answering the phone myself.

I don't think I will ever put my business in the hands of someone else again. I have a part time office manager I can forward calls too when needed now.

 

[Reider]

The service we used changed there software and made some other changes. When the software change was made, all my emails from them started going to my junk mail file with an address I did not recognize. I was deleting them before opening thinking they were spam. Once I found out, after complaining that my phone messages and calls had dropped significantly, there were 23 messages left that had not been deleted yet. In those 23 were several messages for estimates along with one big on, 23 roofs to be cleaned for a retirement community, that they had called twice to let me know I had won the bid. When they never heard back from me it, they awarded to the next company on the list, and they were lower in price. That sale alone cost me 10K$$$. I immediately canceled and went back to answering the phone myself.

I don't think I will ever put my business in the hands of someone else again. I have a part time office manager I can forward calls too when needed now.

That is terrible that you missed numerous opportunities, but it's good to know these things can happen when entrusting others. Thanks for filling me in!