Imagine a homeowner who works during the day at an all-consuming job. After they get home and eat dinner, they finally have time to tackle some long-neglected chores. Do the laundry, hire a pest control company, find a lawn care service—you get the idea.
This potential customer is ready and willing to book an appointment with your home services company, but if they can’t reach you until tomorrow morning, you’ve already lost out. By the time you’re finally open, their to-do list is done and the appointment has been made with another company that offers around-the-clock sales support.
You don’t turn off your marketing. Your website, advertising, billboards, word of mouth, trucks, etc. are all still running. Just by simply answering these after-hours calls, you can tap into additional revenue without additional marketing costs.
An after-hours answering service might help that homeowner turn an ordinary evening into an accomplished night, but it could also be the difference between your company gaining or losing a lifelong customer. This is something Matt White, Owner of The Killers, realized early on in the pest control industry. “Normally, after-hours calls would go to voicemail, and customers don’t like to leave voicemails,” White said. “Customers are often thinking, ‘Am I going to get a callback?’ So a 24/7 response has made a big difference for us. If customers can’t get a hold of you, they just go to who’s next in line.”
Benefits of 24/7 Response
Standard business hours ended with the advent of the internet. Today’s consumers expect 24/7 accessibility from businesses large and small. Adding after-hours availability can help elevate your business across the board—ensuring that you’re not missing out on a new opportunity due to timing.
Immediate Brand Boost
Consumers view companies with virtual 24/7 sales reps as better equipped to handle their needs when and how they want. Knowing that you’re always there for them when they may need you most helps build an invaluable trust in your brand. You’re not just their go-to company during the day, but you’re their go-to company always.
Increased Website Traffic
If you want to increase your pest control sales, it helps to never close shop. Take our busy homeowner for example. After their evening Google search, they only visited one website: the exterminator displaying 24/7 business hours. The other companies listing a traditional schedule never even earned a click or a chance to win the customer’s business.
Better Customer Experiences
Nowadays, consumers want friction-free interactions on flexible timeframes. That means they expect businesses to offer streamlined sales and customer service day and night, including the weekends. The expectation is a positive customer experience that never sleeps.
White has found 24/7 response to be necessary in today’s fast-paced world where customer service and experience comes first. “The benefit to having a 24/7 response team is not missing calls because people don’t leave voicemails. It allows us to have that immediate interaction with a client no matter when they call.”
Greater Employee Satisfaction
Employees often experience burnout when asked to work nights and weekends. Earlier on, White was focused on his team getting the down time they needed. So instead, he took the calls he could in the evenings and weekends himself.
This is where engaging a 24/7 call center service can satisfy customer demand, while giving employees the break they need.
Before Slingshot, White found himself answering calls after hours and on the weekends in order to catch more leads. Now he doesn’t have interruptions or worries about missing a lead when he goes offline to recharge. “Slingshot has allowed me to have time off to enjoy my weekends working on my property. . . With any business, the thing you don’t have enough of is time. That’s what Slingshot has given me.”
Limited Hours Mean Limited Opportunities
The bottom line is that you lose business if you don’t offer customers a way to connect with you when your phone lines are busy or you’ve gone home for the night. Consider the fact that
- A quarter of selling opportunities happen outside of traditional business hours
- Customers sent to voicemail rarely buy during a return call
- Contact rates decrease tenfold after just a five-minute wait
- Consumers read business text messages within three minutes
What’s more, according to The Ultimate Guide to Inquiry Response, you can double your conversion rates by responding to inquiries within one minute.
The After-Hours Answering Service that Never Sleeps
Think you can’t afford to work your shop around the clock? Hiring an in-house employee could cost anywhere from $27,000 to over $50,000 annually, but a live answering service offers competitive, flexible pricing plans based on your needs. The real question here is can you afford not to offer 24/7 customer service?
Slingshot’s experienced industry trained sales and support reps engage your customers any time you can’t, including:
- After hours, weekends, and holidays
- When the line is busy during business hours
- During team meetings or system outages
“The longer we’ve been with Slingshot, the more we see the ROI go up.”
— Matt White, Owner of The Killers
Our team handles customer inquiries on the spot and notifies the right person on your team for follow ups, escalations, and dispatching. Best of all, the Slingshot dashboard displays every customer’s conversation for a streamlined communication experience. Request a demo today and learn more about how Slingshot can handle your lawn care or pest control business marketing needs.
