Who uses....

That would depend on the going rate for admin work in your area. Possibly around $8-10/hr plus payroll burden. I would think that you could contact the HRDC office to discuss that. You could propose a split shift to cover those hours.

Calls coming in at 11:30 pm would be rare and the chances of your competitors handling those calls would be remote as well. That could go to voice mail to be dealt with first thing in the morning. Do you advertise emergency service? Are you connected with an insurance adjuster? If so then certainly a pager would be warranted.

While sales of some sort are involved in any discussion between 2 people it is the conscious competent that will guide the conversation not the unconscious competent. Be aware of the point of what your saying in terms of the benefit to the other person. The other element of sales that so many miss or just plain avoid is the use of cold calling or direct or targeted marketing. This is generating leads vs. waiting for it to come in. Larger companies are accustomed to having sales people call and unless it is a planned tender or emergency work will not generally go looking for someone. If they do then they'll be calling at least 3 for competitive quotes.
 
I understand as a business grows it is difficult to be "Johnny on the spot" with answering and returning phone calls. Not to mention, we all have a conflict with time between family, business, recreation, etc...

However, I think there is something valuable when you (the owner of a small tree service) returns the call to schedule an estimate. When you do, you begin the process of "interface." They first hear your voice over the phone, they hear and see you at the estimate, and if you get the job they see you are worthy to follow through with your word.--Interface. This will keep your customers calling you back.

I used to try to answer every phone call, but I felt it was not fair to answer a phone call on someone else's time. Besides, you are not productive doing tree work and answering a phone.
bangtard.gif
--Stating the obvious.

I don't know what is like (yet) to run a large tree service with multiple crews. But, I imagine what I said above is totally not applicable. Simply because the volume of phone calls would be great and the role as a business owner may change into purely an administrative role.--No longer the climber.

So WTF am I saying?
thinking.gif
I don't know. You can interpret it any way you'd like. I'm tired.
wink.gif
 
Hey Jamin, while it's important to establish that rapport with clients in the early days it's also key to have them connect with others in the company to allow growth. This relates to the "Goodwill" in the business. (def., Goodwill - that intangible asset arising as a result of name, reputation, customer loyalty, location,
products, and similar factors not separately identified). How much of this is directly related to the owner themself can be a negative aspect of the value of the business.

When a company grows it is the inability of the owner to recognize this and delegate that is often the downfall of the business. If what you do best is climb then delegate admin and sales responsibilities. It is an interdependent team that makes the company successful, right from the climber and the ground crew to the back office and sales.

Mangoes needs to delegate this task to a carefully selected administrator who will reflect his company's attitude. Secondly, make sure that whatever that person says will be done is done!

Mangoes, the best place for you to start is by defining the role in terms of duties, hours, interactions with clients and staff, and your expectations. From this you can then define the attributes and skills the person will require to perform job effectively and to those expectations.
 
I've been using the Answering Service since Nov. It works really well. They are a reception service only.
"Name
Msg
Contact info
Someone will return your call today or early tomorrow."

Still need someone in the "back room" as an admin, but not financially feasible right now.
 
2 Professionals; a designer (actually a software programmer prof@u of t) and a writer. She (the writer) is working on the last pages of material.

The professor is Romanian and has a business in Romania, for development, design, software solutions etc. All my work was done over there for a third of what any local company quoted.
 
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