Four questions and you will know what the misses are costing your shop.
1 of 4
What do you do?
So the numbers use your trade, not an average.
Before anything else
You keep the number that is already on the van and on every invoice you
have ever sent. Nothing gets reprinted.
In a normal week, how many calls go unanswered?
After hours, on a roof, hands full. A rough guess is fine.
While you are here
Most people who reach voicemail on a home service line do not leave a
message. They ring the next shop on the list.
What is an average job worth to you?
The ones that actually matter, not a service call.
It quotes what you taught it
Your ranges, your call out fee, your after hours deposit. Asked something
outside that, it says so and gets you rather than inventing a number.
What happens now when nobody picks up?
There is no wrong answer here.
Last one, then the number
Then we put it on the line answering as your shop, and you decide with your
own ears. That call is the whole decision. Everything before it is arithmetic.
Your shop, your numbers
Going to voicemail every year
$0
Where do we send it?
Next screen has real openings you can take.
We need a name to ask for.
Which business is this for?
We need a number that rings you.
That email address looks wrong.
No card. Takes about twenty seconds.
You are on the list
Take one of these.
Real openings on the calendar. Tap one and it is yours, and we will have Shema
answering as your shop before you join.
Looking at the calendar…
None of these work? Leave it. We will ring
the number you gave us, usually the same day.
No card. Nothing is agreed on the call.
You keep the number on the vanYour line rings you first, every time. Shema only picks up the ones you do not.
It answers as your shopYour business name, your trade, your prices. You hear it live on the call.
We tell you if it is not worth itIf the arithmetic does not work for your shop we say so, and that is the end of it.
The call
Thirty minutes, and you hear your own shop answered.
Reading about an answering service tells you nothing. Neither does a demo of
somebody else's. The only test that counts is your business name, your prices,
your after hours, coming back at you down a phone line.
01
You tell us the shop
Your services, your hours, roughly what things run. Ten minutes of talking,
nothing to prepare and nothing to write down.
02
We put it on the line
Answering as your business, quoting your numbers. Interrupt it, argue with
it, ask it something awkward. It is your shop, so be hard on it.
03
You say yes or no
Nothing is agreed on the call and there is no card. If it would embarrass
you in front of a good customer, you say so and we are done.
Get on the callFour questions, then pick a time. About twenty seconds.
If you cannot wait, there is a
generic version in the browser.
It is the same voice, but it has never heard of your shop.
The three things everybody asks.
Will it sound like a robot?
It breathes. It says "okay, hang on" while it looks something up. It talks over
you a little when you interrupt, and it lets you finish. It has an accent. Callers
tell it about their day. Most of them never ask, and the ones who do ask are
usually halfway through booking. Asked straight out whether it is a person, it
says no and carries on, because a shop that gets caught lying about it has a worse
problem than a missed call. You will hear all of this on the call, answering as
your shop, before anybody asks you for anything.
Do I get a new number?
No. You keep the number that is on the van and on every invoice you have ever
sent. Shema sits behind it and only picks up the calls you do not. You can switch
it off from your phone.
Is this going to be a project?
One call to teach it your services, hours and prices. Recordings come back for
you to correct. It goes on the line when you say it is right, not before. Usually
about a week.