Reducing time on the phone can increase your available time to work on growing your business and increasing profits. This might sound odd, telling you to reduce your time on the phone to increase your business. You will still need to use your phone because it's a necessary tool, but only when you need to use it and not when beckoned by others.
Your receptionist's phone should be the only phone in your business that rings, as it is usually money calling. Try to picture money coming in when the receptionist's phone rings and money leaving when your phone rings. If you make notes about the calls you receive, it will probably be a 50-50 mix between customers and vendors. We all likely will agree that the customer is the most important caller.
The key to slowing customer calls is to establish a process to provide information to customers at regular intervals by phone, using management system contact tools and third-party communicators.
Establishing a process to inform your customers regularly is quite simple. When your customers drop off their vehicle, present them with a form outlining your communication options: phone, e-mail or text.
If they want to be called, find out what number is best, who should be contacted, what is the best time to call and how often they want to be contacted. The same applies to e-mail and text messaging.
Using your phone procedures allows you to establish a time that fits your schedule to contact customers. Using the form the customers completed at drop-off allows you to plan time to meet the customer's needs while minimizing the impact on your schedule. By scheduling your phone calls you minimize interruptions to your day, allowing you to stay more focused on your business.
In addition to keeping up with your customers by phone, many management systems allow you to notify customers as their vehicle moves through the production process. Using production indicators, the management system will automatically send your customer an e-mail or text message updating the repair status. Having this happen as you update your management system eliminates the need for an additional step to keep your customer informed.
Your management system also can be configured to update rental car companies and CSI providers eliminating those annoying callbacks.
The increased availability of data pumps and third-party communication systems has improved a collision center's ability to keep its customer informed. The systems that impress me the most are the ones that push information to the customer. There are some systems that will inform customers when they ask for information by allowing them to log into a program to review repair progress, however that requires the customer to search for information you should be providing. With CSI high on every manager's mind, systems that provide customers with information automatically appear to be the best since a highly regarded survey question is "Did the shop keep you adequately informed?" not "Did the shop make the information available to you?"
But what about other things that cause your phone to ring? How many of you allow your phone to go to voicemail if you don't recognize the number or if you know it is a sales call? I recommend it. Sales calls are one of the biggest interruptions to a collision center's owner or manager's day. I promise you a sales caller will leave a message, you can listen to it at your leisure and if necessary you can call them back when it's convenient for you.
Most customers want more time. By controlling when your phone rings you will open up time you never knew existed. This time can be used to become involved in parts of your business you have been neglecting because your phone was holding you hostage.
Imagine what you could do with an extra 30 or 60 minutes a day. Scheduling your phone time will give that to you. We have all heard the adage, "Do more with less." You can get more done by spending less time on the phone.
