How Are You Answering Your Potential Customer Calls? Part I

I’m sure that you have heard that if you smile while answering or speaking on the phone, the customer can tell. Really, it’s about your attitude. Smiling makes it almost impossible to be grumpy when answering the phone and yet, most business is lost due to how the phone is answered.

While this should be a basic concept, you would be surprised at how much revenue is lost due to a phone call. If you are the only one answering your calls, then this responsibility lays squarely on your shoulders. Do some checking around and call collision repair shops to see how the phone is answered and critique it. Could they have been friendlier? Did they make you feel as though you were an interruption to their day? Or, did they make you feel that everything you said was heard and a solution to your problem was given?

You have to be careful to have phone etiquette when answering your phone. Your phone is one of the largest selling points and should be used to greet each customer in a friendly yet informative way. Look at it this way, if an average repair order is $800, your gross profit is usually between $400-$600, because you don’t have the overhead that a shop typically has and you have the ability to set your own rates. Thereby, increasing your profit margin. Can you really afford to lose this potential business because you’re in a bad mood?

You have to keep in mind that whoever is on the other end of the phone will get their work done with you or someone else. On average, phone calls last about three minutes. This means that you have three minutes to capture the sell.