Background
- Location: Lorton, VA
- Founded: 1995
- Qualified Customers Sold in 2020: 107
While attending classes, maintaining his grades, and wrestling at George Mason University, Brandon Rushing was also busy building a business. More than 25 years later Brandon Rushing Lawn and Garden Care is a staple in Lorton, VA where they service residential lawns in the surrounding counties. The company has been featured in Best Pick Reports, an annual national guide featuring only the best, most trusted home service providers, for 6 years running.
Now, after almost 3 decades in business, Brandon still finds excitement in expanding his company to meet current market trends and the ever changing needs of his customers. “I love the business. The challenge of adapting our marketing, customer support, and operational strategies over the years has taught me so much and forced me to think outside the box.”
The Death of Voicemail
One challenge Brandon and his support team faced in trying to respond to every customer call was the necessary evil of voicemail. Every morning when the team would show up to work, there were numerous voicemails from after hours and weekend calls waiting to be addressed. These voicemails had to be listened to, filtered through, and called back making it difficult to answer new calls coming in from customers and prospects.
“Listening to the voicemails, trying to evaluate the need and then trying to reach them felt like an outdated mode of communication,” Brandon explains, “By the time we did reach a caller who’d left a voicemail, many had already found someone else to help them,” he continues, “Voicemail became an aggravation. We didn’t get much out of it for the effort we put in.” At one point they decided it was better to turn voicemail off hoping to encourage customers to call during business hours so needs could be immediately addressed rather than deal with the backlog and lost time blinking messages presented each morning.
After voicing his frustration with voicemail and lost leads to a friend in the lawn care industry, Brandon was referred to Slingshot. A 24/7 sales and customer support service for lawn care professionals, Slingshot offered a solution to the voicemail dilemma. Because their agents are available to answer calls, offer customer support, and sell services after hours and on weekends, Brandon’s team can focus on only the most important tasks saving them time and aggravation. “Now we start fresh in the morning with new calls and only the messages that really need our attention. It’s much more efficient,” he says, “With Slingshot, we start each morning ahead of the game instead of falling behind.”
The 24/7 Advantage
Though Brandon was initially skeptical about the volume of calls that would be coming in after hours and on weekends, he’s been surprised at just how much business is done after quitting time. “It’s amazing how many people call after hours. Utilizing Slingshot has helped us capture more leads after hours and on weekends that we were missing out on previously,” Brandon says, “It also gives us the flexibility to turn calls over when we meet for staff meetings so everyone can join.” Advertising 24/7 availability has presented his customers and prospects with the option to reach out when it’s convenient for them without the need to hire and train additional staff.
Brandon Rushing Lawn and Garden Care has been partnering with Slingshot since April of 2020 and the relationship has paid off. “Slingshot creates an added level of customer service and efficiency in call management,” says Brandon when speaking to the value Slingshot has provided his company in the last year. “They free up my staff to focus on new requests each morning, instead of being bogged down by voicemails and dead leads.” Having found the ultimate solution to the voicemail dilemma, Brandon can continue serving his customers at the highest level while growing his trusted business.
