Becoming a successful contractor requires more than just having particular trade skills. Yes, having the plumbing, electrical, or any other trade knowledge is essential to making customers happy, but in order to truly grow as a contractor, you need to treat it like a true business. When first starting out, many entrepreneurs and contractors find that much of their time and effort goes towards everything except their actual “work.” Everything from accounting and general paperwork to speaking with new and existing clients on the phone can take up a significant percentage of a contractor’s time — which is compounded by the fact that this type of work is not billable.
Create more billable time
For a contractor to make as much money as possible, it is imperative that they spend as much time as they can on the billable aspect of their job. However, speaking with existing and potential clients is necessary if a contractor wants work to bill for, in the first place. It can be quite challenging to juggle these priorities simultaneously, and for some contractors this means hiring an office manager to help lighten the load. Of course, hiring an employee is expensive, and can dramatically cut into profit margins while increasing the number of hours a contractor must work to pay the newfound overhead expenses.
A much more cost-effective solution is to utilize a contractor answering service. A contractor answering service can handle all incoming calls — whether they are from existing customers wishing to make an appointment, or from potential customers that want to learn more about your service — all while you, the contractor, can actually take care of business. When something is relevant or urgent for you to hear, the contractor answering service agent can forward the call (or a message) directly to you.
Other benefits of a contractor answering service
Taking calls isn’t the only benefit of an answering service for contractors. One interesting and useful benefit is that it provides customers with a more professional experience, and makes your business look larger than it might actually be. This can be a useful way to differentiate your business from other, similar contractors in the market.
Using an answering service can save times in ways you might not even realize. If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ve probably answered the same set of questions for customers more times than you can count. A high-quality contractor answering service can be trained to provide this information — as well as answer questions — for your customers, all based on your specifications. They can even schedule appointments and ask the detail questions you need to take care of the job. All of this is time you save to do more work with customers.
Chances are, you try to stop taking calls at some point in the day, and you (hopefully) take at least one day off a week. Without an answering service, calls and new business inquiries might otherwise go unanswered. With a professional answering service for contractors, you can still have calls taken on your behalf, and can make sure urgent calls (as you define them) still get brought to your attention in a timely manner.
Finally, if you are fortunate enough to already have office staff or an office manager, having a contractor answering service will free up their time so they can focus on other aspects of the business — and there is always more work that can be done.
To learn more about how contractor answering services work, or to simply learn more about one of the best answering services in the market, contact MAP Communications at 1-888-252-6555.
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