As an HVAC provider, you know the importance of being on-call to offer quality customer service to your clients. This is especially true during the colder months when heating issues can leave families shivering in the dead of winter.
No matter the season, HVAC emergencies and questions aren’t restricted to business hours — they can crop up 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Your customer service shouldn’t be limited to nine to five, either.
That’s where HVAC answering services come in. An HVAC answering service can handle customer communications for all kinds of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning companies. It can mean the difference between earning a happy, cozy, and loyal customer versus losing a cold and disgruntled one to a competitor.
As we head into the chillier months, it’s time to make sure you’re ready to provide your customers with the service they need to keep their heating running, allowing them to stay comfortable and content through the winter. Hiring 24/7 answering services offers a host of benefits for your HVAC company.
Leave It to the Pros
Research shows that 31% of people feel that the most important customer service element is the ability to speak with a knowledgeable and personable agent promptly. As an HVAC provider, prompt and effective customer service is essential — and dispatching to an HVAC call center is the perfect way to provide reliable customer service to every client, no matter when they call.
Call center professionals are trained to:
- Answer the phone with a comforting tone and helpful information
- Provide communication in your customer’s language preference
- Coordinate efforts between your customer service professionals and your team of technicians
- Offer organized, informative, and friendly service in all situations
Enjoy Comprehensive Service
Beyond being exceptionally personable and reliable, the professionals at a call center typically provide the following services:
- Answering your HVAC phone calls
- Recording accurate messages
- Live-transferring calls
- Providing 24/7/365 availability
- Capturing leads
- Contacting dispatch services
- BPO services, such as recording calls
- Providing HVAC support
- Providing heating support
- Providing air-conditioning support
- Providing ventilation support
Set Your HVAC Business Up for Success
About 50% of people prefer to speak with a live agent on the phone over using email, chat, or asynchronous help desk queries. Hiring an answering service for your HVAC company is the perfect way to guarantee human contact with your customers.
Call center employees are trained to treat your clients with the utmost friendliness, patience, and overall quality customer service, so you can trust that your clients are satisfied with their experience every time.
Furthermore, by outsourcing communications and BPO services for HVAC to an answering service, you are freeing up manpower and assets to your technicians and building additional resources.
Beyond saving your team time and effort, HVAC answering services can set your business up for success by:
- Providing detailed reports: Call service professionals gather detailed reports of service requests and the situation at hand so your team can head into every job informed and prepared.
- Evaluating emergencies: Your answering service professionals are able to evaluate the urgency of middle-of-night emergency calls and send a technician right away — or schedule one for the next morning if the situation is less urgent.
- Assessing potential new clients: Agents can assess the compatibility of potential new clients with the services you offer as well as inform the client of their options with you.
- Recording contact data on leads: A quality answering service compiles thorough data on any new leads they communicate with — giving your company a leg up on acquiring new customers.
Establish Brand Loyalty
Creating brand loyalty is a challenging but worthy effort. Customers are four times more likely to move to another company after experiencing a delay in service or less-than-satisfactory responses than they are when faced with high prices or faulty products.
Avoid customer migration by building loyalty. A customer is more likely to develop a sense of allegiance when you are able to help them when they need it most — when their AC blows out on the hottest day of the year, or their heating fails in the middle of a cold winter night.
Customers tend to develop a deeper sense of commitment when they know they can have even their non-urgent questions answered promptly. An HVAC answering service ensures that your business has the manpower to make sure your customers feel well taken care of — and keep coming back.
Be Ready — Especially When Your Competition Is Not
About 20% of consumers cite a company’s failure to take their call as the most frustrating part of a bad customer service experience. In the HVAC business, failure to handle an emergency call can mean putting your clients in harm’s way or losing them to another provider.
As a provider, you know that responding to emergency calls on nights and weekends is an essential part of the service you offer. If your competition operates on a nine to five basis, utilizing a 24/7 call service will give you an unbeatable edge.
You may even acquire new clients when other HVAC companies fail to come through during the off-hours.
Be an Active Part of Modern Business
In recent times, there has been a drastic rise in the gig economy and the work-from-home force. This new economy means that more people than ever are working unconventional hours in their homes.
To cater to the modern client, using an HVAC answering service can help you prioritize:
- Being responsive at all times, year-round
- Successfully providing service in emergency situations
- Following up with clients after jobs have been fulfilled
- Staying open and responsive — even in times of crisis
Be an active part of the modern economy by being available to your customers at all times. If you’re ready to make the leap to a 24/7 answering service for HVAC and keep your customers warm all winter long, check out the comprehensive services available at Slingshot.
