How To Answer Your Phone Like A Professional

Michelle Jeppesen From Jills Office https://www.pressurewashhelp.com/jills For A discount

I want to talk about one of, probably the most important thing to do and not to sound like somebody that is not very smart. And this is probably probably what I see can be the hardest for a lot of people getting started in the pressure washing world, getting starting into the world of pressure, washing any service business. And that is how do I talk on the phone and not sound stupid? How can I answer the phone? What are the importance of answering the phone? You know, how many times I've called businesses and I don't get no answer and you know what I do, I go right on to the next person. And most people do that. And so tonight I have what I would call an expert on the phone of, this is what they do. This is a service they offer. Yes, it's a service they're offered, but we're going to talk a little bit about script.

You know, I've heard people come in and I've listened to phone calls before and they'll be like, yeah, I'm like, yeah, who's yeah. What am I calling for? What am I doing? The important of this stuff? You know? And then the next thing is, they'll say, yeah, I knew that I need your name, number, email, address, phone number, driveway, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's not how we want to sound professional. And so that's what I want to really focus on is how do we sound professional on the phone? Things that we need to say, things that we don't need to say and all of those great things. So now I know I just went over a lot and that's what we're going to go over. Michelle. We've had some issues getting on, so we didn't even have time to talk much. And so I talked to her and I met her in person last year and I've talked to her and she's very good at answering the phone and the script side of things. And so Michelle, tell me a little bit about who you are, like kind of where you're from and if you've got kids and all of that kind of stuff.

Absolutely. Well, Jason, thanks for having me on today. I'm excited, you know, the way we're starting, where, you know, there's not a lot of prep that actually the best training, probably talk on the phone because you have to know enough in your head before that anything that people throw at you, you're gonna be able to handle it, you know, prompt you it's all. So it will be well, these shine in today. But yeah, so I work with Jill's office. We're a virtual receptionist for, we answered calls for a variety of small businesses, primarily in the home service industry. So have a lot of fun. We talk on the phone all day. So we do know a little bit about what works and what doesn't. But yeah, I love working there. I've been there about five years now. I've got four little monkeys at home.

There are lots of fun and two boys, two girls. So we love to go out, explore. We love nature. We were basically, we were living in Utah, so we love the mountains. Love to go play outside as it started snowing there yet. You know, it got like a little drift a few weeks ago, but nothing, it doesn't look like Christmas yet, which I'm, I'm fine with snow till January, and then I'm ready. I'm ready to get out there in the sun again. I love kayaking. So I just like winter for a little bit, but yeah, it will come. It will come. Awesome.

So let's start off at the beginning. Why is it important to answer our phones in the beginning?

Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's it's, as you mentioned, Jason, it's, it's kind of a make or break type of relationship, especially if it's a new customer. You know, if you're putting out Google ads or you've got Facebook ads or you're doing any kind of marketing or advertising, you're spending money to get that Capone to rink. And if you don't pick up that phone, you are, it's like you're throwing away, you know, 200, 300, 400, 500, what's your average job. You're throwing that down, down the toilet because they're most likely going to call someone else. They very rarely will leave a voicemail, but at end, even if they do, they're probably still going to call until they can talk to someone live. And you'll be amazed how many times we've had people who call in and you know, we answer a lot of overflow.

So, you know, if, if our partners can't answer the phone right away, it comes over to us and then we kind of pick up whatever they might miss. And how many times we'll get a caller, just say, you're the first person that picked up, I've called five different people. And I've even heard them say, you know, you're actually more expensive than I wanted to pay, but I want to do business with someone that I know is going to be responsive. And so the fact that you picked back, you picked up the phone and these other people won't, I want to do business with you. It's a real thing because you want to know if, if someone's, I mean, I can say it from my own end, you know, when I'm calling around, I, I needed a plumber the other day and I called around, couldn't get anyone. And so the one I finally answered, I thought, well, I want them to answer if I can have a problem. So if they're not answering, when I'm trying to pay them, are they going to answer after I paid them and I need them to come back and fix what they did. So I mean, people pay attention to that stuff. Absolutely.

And that's something that, you know, when we talk and even when Bobby Walker talks about this, the little things answering your phone is just the start of the little thing. You know, when we answer our phone, that is probably the first interaction besides our website that we're having with this customer. And if we don't answer the phone, when we're doing that again, what are you going to do when they call in a they're calling in they're, you know, giving you down the road because you did crappy work or something at that point, they're not going to want to use you. You're going to get a bad review, all of that kind of thing. So answering the phone, I agreed 100% is, is is somebody wrote me and she talks fast and, and that's probably not going to be a good conversation cause I get excited and I get talking fast too. So, so, but what about, is that a good thing to talk fast on the phone? Or is it a better thing? Do you know what the ratio of is on talking on the phone? Is, is it better to talk fast, better to talk slow, listen to your customers, see how they are. All of that kind of thing.

I think, I think a lot is matching so much of conversation is just, you want to match their personality. You want to match their pace. Tone of voice. It's a lot of just, okay, are they very straight to the point? Do they want to get this job booked right away? I'm not going to diddle that easy. And you know, she, the breeze with them, I just want to get it done. Then there's other people who, you know, they kind of want to talk more about, I want to tell you about, you know, why I need you to come in and clean my carpet. It's how my kid, you know, spilled Gogol over the floor. And I want to tell you this story. So it's, it's a lot just matching what they're doing. I think the biggest thing is too, is just your tone in, in in how you sound, just like the inflections in your voice.

You actually can hear a smile. It's amazing. They've done actual scientific research that you really can hear a smile on someone's voice. And our brains actually think in pictures. So when we hear something, we picture it. So if you hear a smile, you actually picked your a smile. It produces those endorphins. They've actually found, it's just like eating a piece of chocolate. It can be as effective as being a piece of chocolate. When you hear someone smell on the phone that it's actually sending those endorphins over the phone to the color. So I mean little things like that make a difference. But yeah, definitely.

So you mean, I got a smile when I'm answering the phone and nobody's actually watching me.

It makes a difference. It really does. We actually have a mirror in front of all our reception desks just to remind them, Hey, smile on the phone. You want to, I mean, it's, it's like you were saying, it's all about that positive first impression. And so, you know, when you it's like if you were had an actual physical store and you were having someone sit in the front of the store to greet people coming in, you'd want them to smile. You want them to feel welcoming. We're so glad you called. And so those little things like smiling and things like that actually do make a difference.

So talking about when we first call in, what is one of, what are some, what are some of the key things that we want to do in the very beginning of our conversation?

It's the, first of all, you know, say your company name. I know that's a basic thing, but like you said, Jason, sometimes people should be like, Hey, hello. Yeah. You know, make sure they know they called who they're trying to call, call, you know, it was pressure cleaner, make sure they know this is a pressure cleaning company that I'm calling. So right from the beginning, say your company name that you're, you know, they're grateful. They called in, how can I help you today? Just something pleasant like that. It's pretty standard. But at the same time, some people don't think to do it.

So too. Is it good to put our first name in there also when or when we're answering that first in that very beginning? Absolutely. So

Two keys to the beginning of any call are number one. Well, actually I should say three, say your company name, say your name so that, you know, they're, they're starting to form that relationship and then get their name. Humans, favorite word in the universe is their own name. It just, again, it just builds that it actually instantly builds that connection and that relationship when you hear someone say your name and so get what they get, what their name is, and then use that name throughout the call, actually say their name again. That's going to help create that bond. And you're trying to create a relationship with this customer that you're hopefully going to have for years.

Now. That's a good point because a lot of times that might be hard to do, especially if we're not used to getting their name and saying that name. And I understand, I see what you're saying, because it does make sense to, you know, when I say this person's name, then it's, then, then it's becoming again. It's about the little things, you know, if they make we're building that relationship from the get-go, you know? And so that's awesome. And so after we get their name, obviously, and we're going to first tell them our name and that kind of thing, and we're going to let them know what services are, we're going to ask what their problem is. Correct. Cause we need to see if we can obviously do that. Is that kind of that important thing then?

Oh, absolutely. Yep. So yeah, after you, you give out your name, your intro, get their name yeah. Find out what, what the problem is. They'll probably want to tell you that before they give you any contact information, just because again, they want your, it takes trust for them to give any part of personal information away. So first they want to make sure, Hey, is this something you can help with? This is what I'm needing. And even if you don't want to get too far in depth of what, you know, the details of their service, yet at least letting them relay what they're needing help with and then say, yeah, I'd be happy to help you out with that. Let me just get some information from you so we can get that started for you, whether it's an estimate or whatever.

That's a good thing too, to say too, is yes, we can help you with that. You know that that's again, we are going down the road of asking those questions. Correct. And most of the time when we're asking these questions, we're asking yes. Questions, is that correct?

Yes. You want them? I mean, it's a basic sales tactic. You know, you want people to be agreeing with you. You want them to say yes as many times as possible. But starting out with you want, you want to be really conscious of positive phrasing throughout the call. Because it, again, it's so much so much of being on the phone, it really is basic sales and it's really psychology to get people to become emotionally committed to your company. And also just to feel like they're making a good decision by doing business with you. And so lots of yeses, lots of positive language really helps with that

Because when we get them saying yes, if we do give them a price, what do they generally say? That, that point, right?

They're just used to saying yes. Now they're not going to say no anymore vocabulary.

And that's the beauty of doing sales and knowing sales. And again, this is why, you know, we don't have to do a lot of sales on here. You know, obviously we'll, we're going to talk a little bit later of how we don't even, you know, even if you're doing an answering service and you're sending it through housecall pro or responsibility, we don't even have to ask them that press, press, and our, I can't even talk, we don't even have to ask them the question about pricing at that point. Cause we're just going to get their information. So talking about getting their information what, what information do we have to usually get for us to be successful at the end of the day?

Well, hopefully you've gathered their name already, obviously, and you're using that in the conversation. Then you obviously need, I always, we always verify their phone number just because you want to make sure you got it correct. Maybe there's a better number to reach them. Maybe they're calling from work and you want to make sure you have their cell. So make sure you grab her at least verify their phone number and then obviously you need their address, make sure it's within your service area. If people are hesitant to give you their full address at first, you know, at least getting, you know, zip code, whatever they are comfortable giving, but if they are, you know, if you're moving along that you're trying to get them a price or you're trying to book them a job, then they, at that point, they should have no problem giving you their full address.

And then email. That's always a fun one. So the secret with getting email is you need to give them a reason that you're asking for it. People sometimes will guard their email, like as close as their social security, just because they don't want to get spanned. And so some people are fine with it, but some can be a little more hesitant. And so just an easy way to you know, to disarm any hesitation is just give them a reason. So we'll, we'll just say something like, you know, can we grab your email to send you the estimate or, you know, give them a reason to get it. And then usually it's like, they aren't even thinking about, Oh, I shouldn't give it. It's just part of the protocol.

So somebody asked here, question, George did, our catchphrase is good to use

Catchphrase. So what instance I'm trying to think of you saying like, just as you're gathering the information just in a way I'm trying to understand what exactly is that.

I don't get that one, but somebody else asks a question and I think it was kind of what you were on the line of, of what are some good, positive phrases that we can be talking about or what are some good positive phrases? Cause obviously we want to be talking positive on the phone. We don't want to be talking negative. So what are some good positive phrases that we could use?

Sure. So we call it a wow freeze. So I'm Jill's office. So all of our receptionists it's like, okay, so the phone calls like a sandwich, right? So at the beginning of the phone call, you've got your bread and you want to make sure you always have some kind of wow positive phrase, right at the beginning of the call and then the meats where you're getting all their information, giving out pricing, maybe scheduling. And at the end, you also always want to have a wow positive phrase, kind of like make this beautiful sandwich. So it make it delicious to eat. Right. So at the beginning what's a good, positive, wow. Phrase. You want to just thank them for calling, thank them for choosing you think you know, you made it reassured them. They made a great choice that they called in. So even just, you know, you answer the phone, hello, thank you for calling pressure, washing USA. How can I help you today? They say what they're needing. I say, Oh great. Yeah, we'd be happy to help you with that. I'm so glad you call it in just something that you're reassuring them. They made a good decision and that we're so grateful they called it in. So it's really simple. You don't have to go in some long thing, but just something positive to get started off on the right foot and make them feel good that they called you, that you made a good choice.

So when we go asking for all their information, their name, phone number, do we just want to go, Hey, can I have your name, address, email phone number? Or how do we want to break that down?

Sure. Yeah. So, I mean, you want to flow naturally. Everyone has kind of their own way to say things. So I mean, I, with scripts, I'm always a firm believer and give guidelines, but as far as like word for word, find your own lingo because you want to make it sound natural. So, I mean, typically just, you know, can I have your phone number just in case we get disconnected? Or let me just verify, I have the right phone number, you know, can we text this, asking things like that. And then where, where are you needing to get this service? What's your address and things like that. And then what's the best email to send the estimate to. So you just kind of, you know, kindly not yet, what's your address, what's your name? You know, just kind of guide kindly and smoothly guide the call through the information and think them in between. Okay, thanks so much, Mary, you know, and use their first name again. And then what's a good email where we can send the estimate. So just make it really natural thinking them along the way and make sure you verify as you're getting that information that you, you know, you heard the email spelling, correct. One little letter can make such a difference. And then you're like, shoot, I can't get my emails bouncing.

What is a good way? So the way we make sure, just to make sure that we don't get the wrong email, do we want to read it back to them? Is that a good habit to do? Or are we just gonna guesstimate? Because I would say this is probably the number one reason why people won't get your email. Is that correct?

Right. Absolutely. I would always repeat it back. Just the spelling to make sure, I mean, even like a simple name, they could spell Jason, J a Y S O N. I mean, you never know, so make sure that you spell it back to them. And then make sure even with like B's and D's and F and S that you use those phonetics. I mean, you can make up your own on the fly, you know, is that F as in Frank, D as in dog, just you to make sure you get it right, because you know, the whole process of being able to stay in touch with your customers and send them the information you got to make sure you got a good email. So definitely take the time to verify that really you should verify repeat back all the information, but absolutely. I would always say that email is just because you want to make sure you got that right

Now. What are some what are some ways to help us get this phone to, or I guess let's go back a little bit important. How important is it to answer our phone on every phone?

Oh gosh. A hundred percent. You'll be amazed. We called out to a hundred window cleaners pressure washers across the U S just random. We took, like, we went on Google, found a hundred window cleaning pressure washing companies from out East out West. And we just called them just to see what would happen only. Oh gosh, I actually, yeah, I was going to say, what are you going to guess? That's that used to say 45% actually answered?

No, I said 25%, actually

25. Whoa, you're close. It's 27%. Pretty close. Only 27. Okay guys. 27%. That's ridiculous. So if you called 10 pressure washing companies, maybe three answered out of those 10, maybe three. Okay. So what does that say? If you're answering the phone, you're ahead of 70% of the other pressure washers out there, and you're going to beat your competition because you're going to take their leads.

You're all leave. Now did you all leave a message and see if they would call you back?

Did only one who won go back

A hundred, a hundred.

So we left 73 messages. Yeah. One call back is ridiculous. And only the ones that answered, you know, we were talking about name only 3% of the mass for a name like that. Again, I'm like really, and I think only one asked for an email like that.

Why I have you on here tonight? Because I don't have you on here because this is something I know a lot of people struggle with. And, and, and this is probably the number one basic thing you have to do, because if you don't first off answer your phone and then if you don't return a phone call, then what's the deal of leaving, starting a business at the end of the day, because you're going to go out of business at the end of the day, that's, what's going to happen to you because if you won't answer it, you're going out of business. And I understand that is hard. Sometimes they answer the phone. I understand that, you know, I understand it. And it's hard as I'm washing a house, it's more important. So you're telling me washing that house is more important than getting that 10,000, $20,000 job that you just away down to the road because you didn't answer the phone.

And so this is definitely something that you have to do. Jason always says, pick up your phone and you're exactly right. Pressure washing up there because if you don't pick up your phone, it does us. No good it. And just like Michelle said earlier, you could be paying. I mean, I was talking about my zoom call. He paid $2,000 this past month. So you're willing to pay $2,000 in a month and not answer your phone. What, what's the purpose at the end of the day? So answering your phone is very important. Not only answering it, but being, knowing what to talk about on the phone too. And that's kind of where we're headed. So when, when I asked for there, you know, like I said, the one that I did, it would be like, I need your name, no phone number, address, email. And, you know, I always tell people, and this is M you might correct me if I'm wrong, but it's kind of like a date. You know, it's kinda like a date. You know, we're getting to know the person we're getting to do this, you know, on the first date, when I first meet the person I'm not going in for a French kiss, that's not what I'm doing, what I want to do when I go, I want your name, address thing that you might as well. Cause how many people out there are really going to give that information at that point,

Right? No, it's exactly true. It's all about, you got to build the relationship and it starts by just being friendly, putting your best impression foot forward, gathering that information, but not asking for too much too soon.

Right. And so what are some other good tactics on the phone of, obviously we had talked a little bit about matching the tone and stuff like that. What are some other good tactics to do with?

Yeah, absolutely. So we talked about, you know, gathering all their information, verifying to make sure you got spelled right positive tone of voice. Can, you know, being really grateful. They called in. And then you know, getting, obviously then at that point, you're ready to get more information about the job. And this is kind of where, depending on how you typically handle a call you know, we do everything from just taking a message gathering information to, Hey, let's give you a price over the phone. You know, if you're using responsive bid or something that you can just give them a quote, right over the phone for their, for their job or with whatever software you're using, you know, go for it. Or if it's to schedule a, you know, an in-person estimate or if it's, Hey, I've got to do, you know Google earth map it out.

And then we'll, we'll give you a call back to give that to you. So you want that next part is again, the meat of it, where you're going to really find out exactly what they're needing. If you can get pricing over the phone, you know, do that. And then as you do that, I really explained what sets you apart and a great thing to do with that. Especially if you've got some low baller competition, is you tell them what the other people aren't including and what price, what price points they're not telling you about. You know, this is all inclusive you're and we're not to come out there and we're going to add on, you know, all these extra little things. That's really your time to shine and really sell yourself as a company. And what makes you different, maybe how your processes are different, maybe use different types of products.

And again, don't make it too salesy, try to make it just like a conversation and just say, you know, just so you're aware, this is how we do it. This is our normal process. And again, I wouldn't go too long in depth in case you can tell in case, unless they ask a lot of questions and then if they are, you don't go more in depth, but just prepare like a 32nd to a minute explanation on what your process is and what kind of makes you different than your competition and cause that's your, that's your opportunity to really sell them.

So what is a good average phone, phone call?

So it kind of depends on what you can do on the phone call. Like if you can do everything from, you know, get their information to get them booked. I say, when we, we, I know at our receptionist placed with, if someone's using responsive, we can usually do that really well. It has to go pro to a lot of the systems but with pressure washing particular response, but it works really well that we you know, can do everything from gathering their information, getting them pricing, asking some more questions about their home to get them that appropriate pricing, let them know about the different packages and get them booked. You're looking at, Oh gosh, anywhere between seven to 10 minutes, honestly, for that call again, it depends how in depth you are, how many questions you have about the home. How many prices packages you have. If it's more just I'm gathering information, you can get off in less than, you know, three to five minutes, you can get what you need. So it just depends on how in depth you can get on the call. And then it also depends on how many questions they have obviously, but I would plan, you know, for a good quality call to get everything you need. I mean, it should take probably at least three minutes minimum just to gather everything you need and to give basic information out to them about why they should do business with you.

So is it good to try to schedule a time on our phone call before giving them a pricing quote,

Just schedule a job or schedule?

I talked to somebody not too long ago. And he said, and I've actually had some other people, had some good success with it. You know, while I'm looking this up, you know, we have next Wednesday is our next date, you know, w in, in kind of setting that scarcity of, Hey, we're booked out to here. So if you want to, and then that way, when you give the price, then they can just say yes to everything, or what's your thought behind that? Yeah.

I think that that works for you. It's a great approach. It's that again, it's, it's just like that naturally can flow for you to do that, getting some sort of commitment from them. And again, when you communicate something like that about scarcity, it also lets them know, Hey, we're a good company because we're booked. And so let's make sure we grab you a spot before we run out. So I think approach like that can be great. Some people might be hesitant. So again, you can try that. And then if they're hesitant then, okay, well, let's look at the pricing first and then get you booked. But no matter what you do, you always want to have a call to action sometime by the end of the call, meaning you need to have some way you're progressing the relationship, whether it's scheduling actual job, that's ideal.

Or if it's just scheduling an estimate. So you're getting some commitment from them that they're going to do. They're going to remove the relationship along with you. If you're not able to schedule those are the ideal situations, then at least, you know, letting them know, okay, I'm going to send you some more information. I'm going to send you a bid. Let them know what you're going to do next to progress the relationship, and then what you're waiting from them. You know, let it give us a call back, let them know the next to do so. They, you know, know again, it's, it's, it's a dating relationship. What's, let's set up the next date. Let's make sure that we're progressing this.

I, I, I liked that a lot and I want to hit on that hard because that is a good point of, you know, not only telling them our service, but telling what's going to happen. You know, if we're scheduling in person, we're going to say, Jason is coming out to we'll meet you tomorrow. We'll walk around the house and let them know what you are doing. Or if you're going to give them a bit over line online, all right, after I get all this information, I will give you this. I will send you an email on that email. We'll have a quote. If you have a follow-up system, which I would highly recommend you have a follow-up system. And if that follow-up system is saying tomorrow, I will give you a call to make sure you get that bid. Because what I had found in my own personal business was three out of 10, never got their bid.

Rather I spelled it wrong. It went into the spam folder, or, you know, they didn't know it was for me. So out of 10 quotes, seven God open three bit. And so by saying that tomorrow, I will give you a call or tomorrow, you know, or even, even if you need to, you know, make sure you check the spam and it will be coming from ABC pressure washing or, you know, mine was actually pro served. So that's why a lot of times it didn't know it was coming from me because who's pro serve. I thought you were pressured by Cincinnati. And so these are some important things to remember, to make sure that your emails are getting open. And again, it comes down to the little things and the little things make big things.

Yup. That's so true. It's so true. Everything with the phone. But I really liked what you had on there. Jason, I would always give, you know a time that is so important of whatever that next step in the relationship is. Put a time to it so that they know what to expect. And then I love the part too, about putting a name to it, if possible. So again, it makes it personable. If, if you're telling the next steps to, you know, actually coming out and doing the job, let them know, you know, there'll be wearing uniforms. It comes in this truck, like, you know, let them know a few things again, to make them feel comfortable because they're inviting a stranger to their home. You want them, you want to feel like family to them. So let them, you know, let them know what's going to happen.

With that situation. I think another great thing, right, during this, this current pandemic is maybe give them a little heads up about your COVID practices. Maybe to, to ease any concerns that might be there. You know, we wear masks just so you are aware, you know, give them some heads up about that as well. You know, all our techs take their temperature before they come out to the job, make sure we're safe. Cause again, that's going to build that trust, to know that you really care about them, their family and their health is important to you as much as, you know, cleaning their home.

And that's a good point too, because even this business is we are a, could be considered a touchless business because you don't even need to come out at this point, if you're scared that if you, you know, if they're so scared, they don't, we don't even need to talk to them at the end of the day, you know, here it is, we're done. Here's your bills signed you and a sign aura, you know, and we go on it

Right. And explain that process to them. You know, you won't even need to come out at all. We come out, we'll be out this day. At this time, we'll get the job done. We'll be somewhere within this window. And then, you know, however, your payment process is after the job. Again, that's just going to make it all easier for them. But if you do have any questions and you want to ask the tech something like by all means, you're welcome to, but if you prefer just to make it, you know, no touch that. So yeah, no problem. We can definitely take care of that for you.

And talking about the Tova thing is the other thing is, is we are using bleach and it is we're using, we are a little over what the recommendation thing is. So everything will be sanitized when it's all done. So that's a beautiful thing about having your house. It's not only clean, but it is sanitized and just little things like that can make a big difference, right?

Yeah. And, and again, that goes back to reassuring them. They're making a good choice. That's another great way, you know, that end of the sandwich way to congratulate them again for calling them. And Hey, you made a great choice. You know, I'm so glad you're making this decision. There's so many families that are so glad, cause not only is their home clean, but they know it's more sanitized and safe, especially during times like these. So we're so glad you called in today and we're so happy to get out there and get that taken care of for you. So again, reassure them that you're grateful. They called you. Can't wait to get the job done for them and work more with them. And that you're grateful to be able to do this for their home and for their family or their business or whatever it is to make it even a safer place.

And that's a good thing to a pointing out of being positive, being, you know, again, you had that smile on your face and people can tell that at the end of the day, you know, I know we talked about it in the beginning, but how to have that positive reinforced smile on your face goes a long way, right?

It does. And it goes a long way for referrals too, because if they, you know, it's all about building that relationship. So if they have that positive relationship with you from the minute, first impression, when they call in and then, you know, when the texts come out and there's that positive impression, they're going to refer you to your friends more likely because it was just lots of positivity through the whole experience. And if something goes wrong, that's when you load the positivity on even more to make sure that you make up whatever might've gone wrong to again, leave that positive impression that if something does go wrong, this is what we do to fix it.

Awesome. Awesome. So what about following up? What, what, how important is it to follow up with people on a phone call?

So, I mean, Jason, you already hit on one a little bit ago where, you know, some of the email, the estimates they might end up in spam, maybe you did get a letter wrong. You'll be amazed. How many times do you verify people verify their email wrong? It does happen. So, you know, making sure that if they don't book, you know, right after you call them, call them within a few days, especially with something like pressure washing, you want to see on them. Cause they're going to probably make a decision pretty soon. So you want to stay on them, make sure they got the, the email, even if it's just a call to confirm, you know, did you receive the estimate? Did you have any questions about it? You know, make sure that they know that there's someone to talk to and that can answer those questions.

I guarantee your competition is not doing follow up most likely at probably any stage. And there are so many important stages to do it. So again, it's just going to give you that competitive edge call, make sure they get the followups. I can't tell you how many jobs we book off that call. It's amazing. And this is why this is what happens. So, okay. So the why calls in typically, sometimes it's the husband, but I'm just giving like a typical scenario, power washing. Okay. So the wife calls in, she's trying to get some quotes. We give her a quote on the phone. She says, okay. You know, and sometimes it's it's, sometimes it's usually is actually legitimate. Let me talk to my husband about we'll get back to you. Cause you know, if it's a higher price tag, they want to make sure. So, you know, you say, Oh, absolutely, yeah, we'll get that email over to you just so you can go through it and you have any questions, give us a call back.

They usually don't always call back. So if we call back a day or two later and we talked to her, she'd say, Oh, I'm so glad you called. I actually had a few other questions. Or my husband had questions. The fact that you're the one calling instead of those other three people, she got quotes by. You're going to close that deal. Because again, you're building that trust. You cared enough to follow up with her. You cared enough to see if she has any other questions. And it's just easy. Even if you were priced a little higher, she's talked to you. You've now had two conversations that relationships that much further progressed along. You've built that trust. She's proud of the job and that's what you usually have. I'm so glad you called. I had a few more questions. You answered the questions. Boom. It gets booked.

So that's a really important time to do it. It's just right after you give an estimate. But then it's important to call, you know, after you do the job and make sure that they were satisfied before you send them a review, make sure that they were happy with the experience. If there was any problems with the tech make, you know, that everything got taken care of well. And then if it did, you know, ask them, would you be okay if we, you know, send you a thing to leave a review? Again, it's building that relationship that we care enough to check in and make sure we did good work. And if something did go wrong, fix it. So you, you can, you know, it'll either faster, there's two types of customers. They're either not going to say anything and there's going to be bugged and never call you again and never refer you. Or you have the ones that are going to make a big fuss about it and leave you a bad review. So either way you want to make sure that if there you're following up to that so that if there is a problem, you're fixing it as soon as possible. And then the next stage is just every quarter, every six months, every year, whatever it may be, make those follow-up calls to.

Well, I mean, you're supposed to call your, why don't you, you're supposed to call your contact list every year or your past customers or every six months. Why would I want to do that for it?

Right. I know, you know, it's amazing how much we book off those faults. Cause again, it's incredible because people aren't always, it's not always fresh on their mind that it's, I'm due. It's like the dentist. I know I'm supposed to go every six months, but usually it takes them sending me a postcard or calling me to remind me I'm due for my claim. Oh yeah, I got to go do that. Well, same thing with their home, it's due for their next cleaning. You're just doing a courtesy. You're helping them by saying, Hey, you're due for your next cleaning. When would you like us to get scheduled for that? So again, you're actually helping them by rebooking them. So keep your fresh on their mind. You know, emails are important. Texts are important, get that full up going. But sometimes a phone call is what can really seal the deal to actually get them on the calendar because you're right there. You're actually making the effort to call them. It's easy for them to just book it right then.

Awesome. Awesome. All right. So we've been talking for 37 minutes, I guess we'll get off here now. Cause we got a lot of people asking other questions about what, what services and that we'll get to that. I promise you we'll get there. I wanted to give you all good information from an expert cause I, I mean, I, that's one thing I, you can, I can barely talk on here, let alone on a phone, you know, and that, isn't a good thing. Now I know we're going to have a little bit of difference on this cause we had a little bit of difference, but on my side of things, I've seen it work really good. So what is better a man answering the phone or a female answering the phone?

Oh man, you get what you're charged with this question? You know, it's funny because we actually just did a, our own live on this the other day because it's, we used to, well, we still do, people will call it and say, you know, is it all girls who answer your phones? And for a long time, it was just because that's who applied. But we actually have recently hired some male receptionists. I, it doesn't matter the gender. It honestly doesn't, I've talked to people who said, I need a woman because people want a woman answering the phone that so you're going to trust some people are in that mindset. I personally don't think that's true. I think it's just all about what they sound like on their phone is tone of voice. It's how positive they sound, whether you're male or female, if you, as long as you have a good phone voice.

And if you don't hire someone, I mean, there's, you know, if you don't have that phone voice, it's not, it's okay to hire that out, you know, whatever your weekend delegate that out. But just make sure they've got a great positive voice that there's not going to be a lot of distractions in the background, loud noises, things like that. So it can sound professional. And so it can sound that you're actually focused when you're talking to them, but as far as gender, I really don't think it matters as long as they've got the good phone skills.

I agree with the good phone skills, but on the other hand, I've got a lot of guys that have been like, my wife can close 10 times more than I can and make our money and close 10 times as much as I can. So I know I haven't seen one of the guys on here. He's on shift tonight, but I know Jason and a couple other people have said, my wife can close way better than I can. And I noticed, and even in my own personal business, the female did a lot better than when the male was on there. But I understand what you're coming at of how they, you know, the phone script and all of that kind of things. So let's talk a little bit about what, what, what all jewel services can do for somebody who is Jill let's first talk, who would Jill services be a good fit with?

Sure. So you know, there's a few different stages that we can really help. One is, you know, if you're a fairly new business, you maybe don't have the funds yet to hire an in-person receptionist or any kind of, you know, personal admin where you're going to have to pay him, you know, 12 to 15 bucks an hour. It's a nice Jill's office is a nice, nice gap filler gap filler. I shouldn't say that more clearly because we can just help take that overflow. So again, if you're, you know, if you're good on the phone, you don't, you like talking to your customers, absolutely let them come to you first. I mean, you know, your business answer those calls but where we, we serve you really well is let's take that overflow. Let's make sure that none of those fish, you know, escape out of the net, we're just that extra net behind, you know, you answering the phone to make sure no call gets missed.

So what a lot of our, the majority of business owners will do is the calls come to them first. And then we just answer if they don't pick up after a few rings that way, if, when you're with another customer, you don't have to be rude because you know, which customer is more important, the one you're with or the one calling in, well, they're both important. So make sure you serve as both of them, you take care of that customer you're with, and then let us take that overflow. So we're great with that. And then growing with you in, in doing that, we also work with a lot of companies who actually have an office admin, but what happens is they usually the office admin gets so busy, she starts missing calls herself because she's doing so many other things or what happens when she's on a call, you know, where does the call go?

What happens when she's on lunch? What happens when she sick? What happens when she takes a vacation? What happens on holidays? What happens before or after hours? So again, even if you have an office admin, it's often helpful to have a service like Jill's office, again, just to cover that, that overflow that you might be missing. And I mean, with as low as 99 bucks a month, it's kind of a no-brainer to, you know, to have that backup, that one job pays for it. And then we also work with companies that just get so many calls that it's impossible for one person to take them all. So, I mean, it takes, it requires a team of our receptionists. You know, one of our, one of our bigger clients, you know, literally gets hundreds of calls a day. So I mean, it really, we can grow with you at whatever stage you're in and whatever as much or little as you need us, or we're there for you.

So let's talk a little bit about if, if Jill's office, what all sir. So I know you can answer the phone and obviously we talked about that and getting through the script and all that. So I know you work with responsibility in housecall pro and a couple other ones, my working through that one, all service can. So basically if, if somebody calls, they could go all the way through from answering the phone, giving a quote and you never even touch in, is that correct?

Absolutely. Yeah. So we can take care of the whole call for you. We're more than just a glorified answering machine. We actually, we can give beds. We can schedule jobs, we can schedule estimates and then we can even help with overflow or excuse me, follow-up calls. There, we do work with several systems as you talked about there's a few others we work with as well. If, if you are, we can work with any online booking link. So if you got a link on your website, we can work with that and get them booked. A lot just depends on how comfortable you are with delegating certain parts. I know with some people, Hey, I just want you to start by taking my phones. I'm not sure if I want you to do pricing or scheduling. Absolutely. I mean, having a live person answer is the most important thing. So we really can do as much or little as you feel comfortable with, or depending on what system you're using and how complicated your pricing and scheduling is you know, anywhere from taking a message to all the way, let's get the whole thing booked.

So somebody, I know I'm jumping around because I'm getting some questions here from the other side, we've got almost a hundred people on here. So how does Jill's office handle spam calls billing wise?

Oh yeah, that's a great question. So I mean,

How many, how many Google, my business calls, the, you all are Google. Yeah. How many Google? My business calls that you all get?

Gosh, or Jill's are like experts in snow actually are pretty good. So I mean, we, we do answer every call that comes in. You can't always tell but if any calls are under 25 seconds, we do not charge for them. And our receptionist are pretty good about telling right away. Some of them have gotten pretty tricky. So if we're not a hundred percent sure it isn't a sales call, you know, she'll still gather a message, but usually you can tell, you hear all the noise in the background. They probably have an accent, you know, like that they're asking for the business owner. So if, if there are certain things that they're saying, the Joel, just say, you know, we're not interested. Please take us off the list and then get off that call. So it doesn't hopefully incur any charge. But you know, the nice thing is not having to, again, yourself, be interrupted when it's just that silly sales call or you not knowing if it's a sales call or a real call, just to make sure that all those calls get answered and then we can help filter those out.

So you're not having to call anyone back. That was just the sales. But yeah, no church running calls under 25 seconds.

So I'm going to ask him questions cause I'm getting some rapid fire ones in here. So and we'll go deeper in a little bit, but how does Jill's office deal with answering home advisor? The ones that say you have a lead, not the actual customer calling.

Yeah, sure. So w home advisors, you can either forward the calls over to us, or you can send the emails either way. We'll either do an outbound call with an email, or if it's an inbound call with that home advisor call the Jill receptionist, she'll listen to the message. She'll gather the information and then push, I can't remember is one or three to connect and then try to connect with that customer and get them booked. Okay,

Good. All right. So we, so obviously how with the side of respond to bid or that other, the bidding side of things, responsibility, obviously I can do by square footage, will they look, will the Jill look up the square footage and then put that in there as on how that works?

I mean, they'll, we typically go by what the customer says. Sometimes they'll Google it a little bit, but usually they'll just go by what they say to gather that information, whatever questions you have there in response to bid, and we can work with you to make sure, you know, the questions will work well with, with our receptionists, but there's pressure washing there. Usually isn't a lot of problems. Most people know their square footage or roughly around it. If they're not a hundred percent sure she'll Google it a little bit. And then also she can in the message that she sends to you, she can let you know, they weren't a hundred percent sure about this. Just so that if you need to adjust a little bit, you can, but usually it isn't too far off based off what they say.

Awesome. Awesome. So with Jill's office I know I'm kind of giving you a bunch but what, what, what is the advantage of using Jill's office? If, if say, if we're not answering our phone a hundred percent, what what's, what's the real reason why we want to do it for them?

Oh, sure. Well, easy math. Okay. So Jason, what would you say is the average price of a pressure washing job? It was

400 $5,500.

All right. So the average business owner misses two and a half calls a day. So if those were, and obviously some of them are, might be sales. So if you just take two calls a day on average that you might miss, that's a thousand bucks a day, you take that over the week, you're looking at a $5,000 a week of potential loss business, a month, 20 grand a year. You're looking at almost a quarter million dollars over five years, over a million dollars just by being average and missing a couple of calls a day. So it's just that safety net of knowing that every single call that comes in we'll get an answer. And Jason, the other thing I think is the amount of stress that we see like decrease in business owners. I mean, kudos to you guys. I just like how much pressure you're under no pun intended with the pressure washing, you know, how many hats you're wearing.

It's incredible. I mean, it looks Sunday, Sunday night and you're, you're doing business, you know, you're trying to learn kudos you, but it's like, it's so much pressure. So just knowing that, Hey, if I miss this call, it's going to be okay, it's going to cost me a few bucks, but that customer is going to get debt taken care of. And it might book a $500 job from that five buck call. I mean, just it's worth it just for the stress alone. We joke all the time too, that we're in the, actually in the business of saving marriages, because like the fact that you can actually turn your phone off, take your wife to lunch, or, you know, when you get home, spend that time with your kids, go to that soccer game, whatever it may be. And again, know that your calls are taken care of, go on vacation and actually take a vacation, actually turn your phone off for a day.

The amount of like, you know, mental space and the, how much better you can do your job when you come back, because you had a little bit of a break from thinking about it, 24 seven is incredible. So, I mean, obviously it's going to make you more money. We're going to book you more jobs, but it's also going to decrease your stress level because you that's one less glass ball that you got to keep in the air that, you know, Hey, someone else is going to help me juggle that. And so just the relief is huge.

So somebody is in here and she's making sure you're doing well Branson here. So

[Inaudible]

Says Jill's office does have a sales call blocker built into our system as well. So

It's true. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up brands. So with the phone system that we use, it does any kind of registered Teleperformance kind of sales company will get blocked from the system. It gets rid of about 10% of any sales call. So it definitely helps it's it's not a hundred percent just because, you know, those sales companies are so tricky and they keep re-registering new numbers, but it does help eliminate a lot of them. And so that, that helps with that as well.

So obviously we can do on inbound calls, you said you will also do follow-up calls too, correct? If you set up that system, right.

That's right. So, and that's honestly, that's probably, that's kind of like the secret weapon of Jill's office. I've actually had business owners call that like Jill's office is my secret weapon because we take care of that outbound. I guaranteed you that nine gosh, 90. I don't even know I'm making up this number, but I want to say higher than 95% of business owners do not make fault calls. It's you, you're putting out fires all day. You don't have time to do that. It's the last thing it gets pushed to the bottom. It doesn't get done. So again, that's an amazing thing to delegate. Last month we did outbound calls. There was for a roof cleaner. So their, their price tag, Ooh, gosh, I want to say it was around like $7,800 per job. But we cost 140 bucks. We went through this list and we booked over $9,000 worth of jobs. And that was just from doing follow-ups. Those are probably jobs that wouldn't have got booked if we hadn't called. So again, it's just putting extra money in your pocket, doing something that you should be doing that I guarantee you probably aren't and one less thing you don't have to worry about, but it's going to make you more money by doing it a little bit, to get a lot more.

If I have Jill's office and I'm using responsive bid, can it automatically the email that, cause I always had an email that went to my assistant. Can I make that assistant go straight to that assistance so that they could make that phone call? Is that how that could work?

Right. Yeah. Response was magical with that and we love responsibility for so many reasons, but especially for that purpose is that you can automate the follow-up. So you don't even have to worry about it. You just set it up and respond to bid that a copy of that email will come to Jill and she just makes those calls and you decide, Hey, I want to follow up if I send an estimate and they didn't call back and get booked I want to follow up this many months later. I want to follow up after the job. I, you know, just you determine the stages that you want. Those follow-ups done. It automatically sends an alert to us and we call and our outbound Jill's there. They're actually some of our very best deals just because it takes even a higher skill set to be able to, to make that proactive, outbound call. And they're phenomenal about closing those jobs.

So what do you have to do to be a Jill?

You have to be amazing. We're actually really picky about who we hire. Just because we understand it's the front door of your business and it's the first impression. We're all, US-based where it we're based out of Utah. So we don't hire overseas at all. You're not going to have someone with a thick accent. You're not going to have someone that, you know, doesn't know what they're talking about. We all the things that we talked about today, making sure they've got, you know, good tone of voice, making sure that they sound intelligent on the phone and they sound professional that they're super friendly. We do tons of customer service training. All those things are just really important to us. And so we are very picky about who we hire and then we do find the right person. We train like crazy I'm in customer service in your system that you're using in how to talk about pressure washing. So we, yeah, we, we do a lot of training and are very picky about who we hire.

What about if they called will how does the screen come up to make sure that it's my business? I don't want you saying somebody else's business. How does that happen?

So it's, it's amazing how technology works. So all it is, all you have to know is that you get a Jill phone number. You can use it directly if you want for marketing, but most people already have their number. So they'll just forward their calls over to that number. That number, when it comes into our system, your company pops up, that's all, that's there for the Jill. She sees all of your scripts, all your call, instructions, all your pricing, all your scheduling info. And so she can, she can handle that call and the way that we set up with you, the best way to proceed. So she knows it's your call. And we have a way that she can greet them. And then she can go through a whole call flow of how to handle that call. It's just, all you have to do is for the number over and it gets to us.

So how much does it get called? How much does it cost? Does it cost by the minute? Does it cost by the call? The flat rate? Logan asked that question.

Yeah, sure. Good question. So we do do it off minutes. We have minutes packages. One really nice thing about our service. And again, it's kind of a perk over hiring someone in house is you just use us as much as you need month by month. So if you've got some months, I know a lot of pressure washing company they're slowing down, you know, in December and things. You know, you might want to move down to one of our lower packages, but spring hits move up to our higher one. So you can bump up and down packages month by month, as much as you need. And so it's as low as $99 a month for 44 minutes, you know, all the way up to a 500 minute package. And we even have, you know, packages past that if you need it. But it's just, yeah, just a permanent rate.

And we also kept our calls. So as I mentioned, we don't charge for any calls under 25 seconds. And if you have any of those chatty Cathy's that won't get off the phone, we, we actually train our deals. It's I call it the how gosh was the exact term. It is triangle of efficiency because there's three things that Jill has to pay attention to is number one, customer service. You want to make sure that you're being friendly, professional number two accuracy. So you want to make sure that you're verifying, you're getting the information that they, you know, our clients need them to get. And then the third thing is efficiency. So we do want our deals to be friendly and professional and accurate, but move the call along. So we do training on how to move the call along so that you're not, you know, we don't want them staying on the phone because we want them answering the next call that's coming in.

And so we really train on all those three things. We audit our deals that making sure they're doing all those things and we track, you know, their minutes and their efficiency, their average call time, all those things we're tracking because we know that's important to our clients too. And we want to make sure Jill's are top notch. So that was a long explanation, but we do, if you do get someone that just won't get off the phone, we do cap it at seven minutes just because, you know, we don't want it's happened before that someone, you know, 30 minutes later, you know, all about, you know, the grantees, dog and her grandson and everything, you know, her whole life story and you just can't get her off the phone. We're only going to charge you for seven minute call for that. We just eat the rest.

So even at 500 bucks, seven minute calls, that's a lot of calls that you're not going to be able to pay a receptionist to answer that many calls for 500 bucks at the end of the day. Right? Yeah. Receptionist.

You're looking to pay him, you know, with when you think of wage plus taxes, plus if you're doing benefits, but you know, all of their social security, all the things, you know, you're looking at about three to $4,000 a month that you've got to pay someone probably around, you know, 40 to 50,000 a year, which sounds ridiculous. But when you add in taxes and everything like that, and you know, it does equal to that. Whereas, you know, paying a receptionist 500 bucks a month, it's much more economical.

Let me see some of my answer. Let me see what it was. Can they answer number barn and Google voice? I'm sure you, I mean, I'm sure they can just forward it.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually not from, I'll have to look up number and I haven't heard of that one before, but yeah, we have a lot of clients that use Google voice. I haven't run into the only one that I know of that doesn't work at the slide line, but it's only because it doesn't port numbers period. So as long as your phone system can forward a number, it works fine. Cell phones were great. Most VoIP systems, you know, everything pretty much works cause you just have to forward a call over to our number.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Awesome. Awesome. Somebody put on here, Jason has a Jill, my youngest daughter is a Jillian, so

Really, I didn't know that day. So that makes me like even more, it's awesome to work with them for us. And a few years she gets old enough.

She's a little on, I don't know. So she's got a little, she's got that youngest meanness, I guess. I don't know. So. Awesome. Awesome. So if they want to, I just put the main thing down in there. Is there any specials that will be coming out or anything along those lines for people that are looking for that either to start now or in the spring or anything like that?

Sure. So, I mean, right now we, we, we price as low as we possibly can just because we know it's hard to run a small business. So w w what we've got there is kind of a price, but we are going to do a special any one that signs up you know, from, from our conversation tonight through the end of January, we'll give you an extra $50 off your first month with us. So that will kind of help get you started. Just say that you came from, you know, Jason Geiman show and we'll give you that 50 bucks off. Awesome. Awesome.

Are the Jill employee set up with the same company call list or are they random? Like if my customer calls and asking for the last caller, can they get, can they, I guess what he's at? I see what he's saying. So if he calls the day and I answer, and then if he calls the tomorrow, will it come back to me if I'm open or will it go, does it just get randomized?

So it's going to go to whichever Jill's available, just because we want to make sure it gets answered promptly, but what's nice about our system. We've got an app where, you know, you get messages after every call to know exactly what happened on the call, on the Jill's end. She has an activity log, so she can see what happened on the previous call when that new call comes in. So if you know, if Susan's calling in again and she called yesterday today, she's ready to book. The Jill can see the notes that the previous deal, if it wasn't the same one took the previous day to know exactly what happened. So usually it flows really easily because we, you know, we sound like we work for your actual company. In fact, we get mistaken to be the wife all the time, like, because they, you know, we sound like we actually work with you. And then if, if they did talk to someone else, they can easily see what happened in the previous call. So it flows really, really well. There's not usually a lot of choppiness.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, we've been on here for an hour and it's been a fun hour. I've gotten to hope somebody learned something outta here. So again, Michelle, what is the number one thing that people need to do to have a successful business,

Answer your phone, answer your phone, whatever it is, you don't get your daughter to answer whatever it is, just make sure those calls are getting answered and then make sure you're smiling on the phone and being happy and positive. And you know, you are going to, again, that simple little thing, Jason, of just picking up your phone, you're seeing the little things that's going to propel your business in 2021. You know, people they, they want to, especially with this whole COVID year, you know, we're hungry for connection. We want to, you know, there's so much automation going out there there's so much, you know, where you don't have to talk to anyone. You can just get things done. So, but people still are hungry for that personal connection. So if they're taking, making the effort to call, they want to actually talk to someone. So give that, give that good impression, give them what they're looking for and have a real person live there to answer. And, and it's going to, and that alone, that simple thing will help propel your business.

Absolutely. 100%. Well, Michelle, thank you for coming on here and giving some great information and I appreciate it. And we're going to.