I decided to start a lawn care business as it’s what I really enjoy and just have a passion in looking after my own lawn as you will see from the pictures on my website.
It has taken months to get the proper training and licences to use professional products for treating lawns and making sure it’s safe for homes and pets. Covid-19 slowed down the training which took forever. However, I have now launched and three weeks on its going better than I expected.
Building a website was also challenging as I could not meet the developers so again delayed but we got there in the end. I decided to get a landline number for my business as I didn’t want to look like a fly by night by advertising a mobile number, especially as people will be asking me to go to their homes. To be honest, I never call a mobile number if I am looking for service, so a virtual number provided by telephone answering made perfect sense to me.
I decided to get my number through Telephone Answering as they had already advised it’s my number, and they would never just keep the number as my business would suffer if I had to get another phone number. My fear was that they would say I only rent the number from them and if my business grew and decided to employ my own staff, I would have issues getting the number moved. Some telephone answering services only rent the number to your business so it’s not great if you grow and then get charged exorbitant rental prices to keep your number if they are even willing to transfer the number.
Why did I choose to use a telephone answering service for taking my calls from launch and not wait till I have calls coming in?
I am on my own as people say a one-man band operation. I knew once I start my marketing for the business, I may get many calls, so the best solution is to get a professional company who have a great reputation for customer service to answer my calls. I planned to leaflet my local area with 10,000 leaflets and run a pay per click campaign with Google so if it all went well, I would never be able to answer all the calls myself especially if I was travelling to a job, carrying out treatment or surveying customers gardens. It never looks good to have your phone ringing while you are with customers.
I did talk to other telephone answering services. Some didn’t even respond so why would I persist in trying to contact them. Others would only do a limited service and others just weren’t even bothered to give a more personal service but a call centre type of service where I provide a script and they just follow it like robots. It’s my business and so would like a personal service where the team would know me and something about my business. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a service that can provide this.
Well, three weeks on I can only say the telephone answering service has been fantastic. I never realised how politely and professionally the team at Telephone-Answering.com answer my calls. When I meet prospective clients, they always compliment the person who took the call and how polite and professional they are. In fact, they all ask the same question? Are you a national franchise? My answer is no I just have a team that answer all my calls.
You know what they say in sales is that a person will usually decide to purchase within 3 seconds of meeting you or when you answer the phone.
The sales process usually takes longer in most businesses but for me the process has been very short, as 50% of the sales process has already been done when Telephone-Answering take my calls and then it’s up to me to be as efficient, in following up the enquiry. So when I meet a prospective new client that trust has already been built.
I had never understood the power of a well answered phone call till telephone answering started taking my calls. Honestly, it’s a no brainer for any business small or large. The cost is very minimal compared to the leads and sales I have gained.
Telephone-Answering are now an integral part of my business and honestly couldn’t do without them. I would recommend any company to try Telephone-Answering.com and see what a difference they can make to your business.
3 weeks 30 calls and 30 sales. What more can I ask for?
Try them for a 2-week free trial. Honestly you won’t be disappointed.
