How do you answer your phone? My wife does it right now, but she's probably going to find a full time job so I'm stuck answering it myself...The thing is, is that i'm an owner / operator, so how do you guys in the same boat as i'm in do it? There was one day I had to clean & answer the phone - it was miserable! Got interupted too many times while cleaning...

Thanks for the help...

Joe

First off Joe, be thankful your phone is ringing that much. I am a believer in a warm female voice answering the phones. Maybe sombody in your family, like a aunt, grandmother or a stay at home neighbor. We have had a live person answering our phone for 21 years. You don't have to tell your customer who it is unless they ask. I get a lot of compliments about how our phones are handled. I often hear That girl you have answering you phones is so nice, how long has she been with your company. I always say "21 years, and thanks for the compliment" Keep it on a professional level.

Hello, HH Carpet Cleaners, how may I hekp you?

OR

Thank You for calling HH Carpet Cleaners, how may I help you?

A little trick here, replace the word calling with "Choosing".

1)  They did make a choice to call you.

2)  It sets the stage for them to "Choose" you again- for them to have valuable carpet care and you to make money.

When I was a Supervisor at AOL we had surveys and studies that showed dramatic increases in customer satisfaction and customer loyalty with small techniques like that.

Make you own luck,

Del Scrivner
Owner/Operator
Cowboy's Carpet Care

Del, thats a great tip. there are so many little things like that we can do to help ourselves.

I try to answer every call, however, thank God for call display as there are some after hour [10.00pm] calls I allow to go to my message system.

Dont let them know you are the owner when you answer, i get tons of solicitations, maybe 4 or 5 a day...always want the owner. I pretend to be the secretary and screen them out. I believe it would be valuable to have some one answer the phone live instead of a machine. I get a lot of "hang ups" on my voicemail.

Case in point: I called an oil company the other day to bring oil to my new place. An answering machine picked up and I called the next guy. Thats when I realized that people calling me probably do the same exact thing.

Either me or my dad answer the phone 24/7. We have done it that way for 7 years. Our office phone rings to my cell phone and if I miss it, then my cell phone rings to my dad's.

One day I will be able to get a secretary, I hope.