Your Receptionist Has A Lot More To Do With Your Success
(Or Lack Thereof) Than You Might Ever Imagine…

Written by Rich Harshaw.

Victory goes to the one with superior forces at the point of contact. – Chinese Proverb

Remodeling companies spend a huge amount of money on advertising and marketing. And beautiful home improvement websites. And SEO. And jobsite signs… and colorfully wrapped trucks and trailers. And a hundred other expensive, well-orchestrated things designed to get the phone to ring.

On top of that they also spend a veritable fortune recruiting great salespeople; then paying their salaries, commissions, and expenses… and training them to become closing machines.

But in the middle of those two things—marketing and sales—there’s a little thing called “THE PHONE CALL.” And in my vast experience working with both interior and exterior remodeling companies, I see a boatload of cash falling through the cracks here.

Some of the problems are fairly easy to spot, and reasonably easy to fix:

No Answer: If you don’t have a live person answering the phone during regular business hours (and even extended hours, if at all possible), you’re losing money. When people call a roofer and get an answering machine, they take that as an omen of future responsiveness. They move on without a second thought. If that’s you, bite the bullet and hire a receptionist. Seriously.

Not Friendly: About 50% of receptionists sound like they’re being imposed upon to have to take a phone call. Discourtesy can be communicated in what’s said, what’s NOT said, and in the tone of voice in which it’s said. This sounds obvious—but if I were you, I’d call my own phone number at least 3 or 4 times a month and fake like you’re somebody else just to make sure.

Not Calling Back Quickly Enough: I covered this in detail a while back… so I won’t spend too much time here. Other than to emphasize that if you don’t call your web leads back within ten seconds, you’re dead meat.

But the real problem I want to address here today isn’t all that simple to spot—and it’s not that easy to fix. It’s a matter of using your receptionist to set proper expectations with the prospect on the very first call.

Give Yourself A $150,000 Cash Raise This Year By Implementing This Procedure

Most business owners look at the prospects’ first phone call in as a strictly transactional situation. The person calling in wants to set an appointment… and you’ve got a person on your end of the phone to handle the logistics of setting that appointment. They typically gather normal contact information, confirm a time for the meeting, and hang up.

Opportunity lost.

You need to remember that the vast majority of your prospects are scared to death when they call you. They’ve just taken a huge risk to call an unknown company in an industry with a bad reputation to come to their house for an obvious selling situation. You need to read that sentence again and really appreciate the trepidation that often accompanies that phone call.

That being said, your receptionist’s job is not to simply be an appointment setter; his job is to put the client at ease, reinforce the idea that they called the right company, and set expectations about what is going to happen in the meeting.

Setting Them At Ease: First, be friendly—that’s obvious, per above.

Second, be conversational. Like talking to a friend about replacing their windows. Not like a robot reading something off a card about replacing their windows.

Third, use SOFT language. Soft language isn’t threatening because it doesn’t sound like it’s trying to sell anything. Soft language says “when were you thinking you might want to replace your windows” instead of “when are going to replace your windows?” The difference is subtle, but tangible. Soft language says “did you have a budget range in mind?” instead of “what’s your budget?” Less abruptness; more smoothness.

My suggestion: hire naturally friendly people with a warm, inviting voices. You don’t want to have to train this into people.

Reassuring The Prospect: The next thing you want to do is make them feel confident that calling you was the right choice. The easiest way to do this is by having and communicating a powerful, precise IDENTITY. Write a little script that your receptionist will READ (i.e., not ad lib) that lets people know who you are, why you’re different and better than others, and what they can expect when doing business with you.

Here’s a sample:

You: How much do you know about Revive Remodeling?

Prospect: Uh, not a lot, really. I just found you on the Internet.

You: Okay, great—then you must have seen the photo of our owner, Don Isaacson… and how it says “if you’re persnickety, fussy, demanding, and hard to please… then we’re the right remodeler for you.” Do you remember seeing that?

Prospect: (laughs a little) Yea, actually I did see that. That’s why I called!

You: Well it’s true. When it comes to remodeling, it’s all about the details—and we’re obsessed with them. We go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that everything is always done exactly right every time… with no exceptions. We’re basically OCD. We’re not the fastest remodeler around… and we’re not the cheapest. But according to our clients… they say we’re the best.

Every company should have their own identity—don’t just lift that one from above. You’ve got to find yours… then put it into all your contractor marketing. From your ads to your website to your brochures, and everything else. Including this little phone script.

When you give that phone script, the client sighs a little breath of relief. They feel like they’re talking to somebody special; somebody who cares; somebody who will take care of them. They don’t feel like you’re “just another remodeler.” This is the beginning of increasing your closing ratios.

Setting Expectations: Finally, you’ve got to let them know what’s going to happen in the appointment. More specifically, I recommend setting a clear expectation that you WILL NOT be putting any sales pressure on them. I also recommend setting time expectations. Here’s a little script:

You: Mrs. Johnson, I sure appreciate you calling Revive Remodeling today; we’re really looking forward to seeing you on Thursday at 7. I want to be clear, right up front: When we come to your home, we’re coming to help you make the best remodeling decision possible for your situation. If you end up going with us, we’d be honored to have your business. But even if we discover that it’s not a great fit—that’s okay, too. We’re not into high pressure sales. We don’t twist arms. Our meetings typically run about 1 hour 15 to 1 hour 30 minutes depending on how many questions you have. At the end of that time together, it will be completely up to you what you want to do next. Our only goal is to help you make the right choice for YOU.

Some people read all these scripts and think that they’ll take too long; or your receptionist won’t read them… or won’t have time because there are too many calls coming in. Nonsense. Don’t let the 5% of the time you’re too busy to handle calls this way be an excuse to NOT do it the other 95% of the time. And if you’re truly overwhelmed, then I suggest getting a second person to handle overflow. Training and role playing will get your people up to speed in a matter of just a day or two… and I’ve found that small rewards such as restaurant gift cards can be very effective in gaining employee compliance.

Don’t discount this small adjustment out of hand. Once you recognize that the moment of truth—the most important point of contact—is the initial phone call, you’ll be able to capitalize by following these simple suggestions.

© 2014 – 2016, Rich Harshaw. All rights reserved.