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Performance Management

4 Crucial Ways to Prepare for a Peak Season in HVAC

June 12, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

[Free Team Meeting Slide Deck Included!]

Don’t wait until the phones are ringing off the hook to keep your heads above water in the office.

How many times have you repeated this same pattern?

You hire great employees, everyone seems to be doing well, and you go about your regular managerial duties and day-to-day operations.

Sometimes you have some fires to put out, but mostly you are on track and internal performance is going well. Since all seems to be running smoothly, you don’t proactively set aside time for any additional training or proactive duties for the future.

Busy periods present unique challenges – for you as an owner and for your team. It’s easy to look down the calendar or just be in an office where phones are ringing nonstop, and feel overwhelmed. Instead of just keeping your head above water, there are ways to prepare and maximize your efforts.

It should go without saying that taking the time to prepare for busy periods can help alleviate problems and improve performance. We understand as owners and leaders in your business, you are already wearing multiple hats. When it comes to managing day to day operations, you deal with the urgent and the important. So how do you cover both? Read on and see how you can prepare for your busy summer season that is fast approaching (or already here!) by:

  • Identifying your business’ constraint points during peak season
  • Utilizing your call tracking reporting to analyze phone traffic and outcomes
  • Implementing actionable analytics to save time and improve performance

 

Identify your peak season(s)

As an HVAC company, you know that warmer months are one of your busy times. The heat comes around, and all of a sudden everyone needs work on their air conditioning, or wants new air conditioning installed in their house!

Summer is one cycle of a peak season in your industry, but the tips you can take away from this article can pertain to any of your other busy seasons as well. Do you truly know when all of the peak times throughout the year are for your company?

Start by reviewing reports provided to you by your call tracking provider. I can confidently say that CallSource reports provide transparency specifically on both your marketing and appointment conversion – both of which you’ll want to take a look at.

For example, if you have peak calls in May, but your conversion dropped, this may be an indication that you were at scheduling capacity or perhaps your team was not able to properly handle the increase in call volume. Additional research will be needed to identify what prevented you from converting appointments. This data will allow you to establish expectations for success for the upcoming peak season.

Plan ahead

planningThe sooner you start to prepare for the influx of volume, the better equipped you’ll be to handle it. Peak season should be viewed as a mini organizational change and treated as such.

Operations are potentially different, and everyone’s attention should be focused on meeting peak demand and achieving success. A business that can understand how their operation and employees are performing against goals via real-time data can be extremely valuable at any time, but especially during peak periods when efficiency becomes so critical.

Talk to your employees about how your team could operate more effectively. It is important that you’re asking the team, “How can we be more efficient?” Contributing to the solution creates team buy-in. You may also uncover great ideas. Set specific KPI’s you’d like to stick to, just as you would during any other time of the year.

As the busy season starts, having the ability to monitor operations will ensure that projected goals are met or that necessary adjustments are made. Reporting and analytics tools (like with your call tracking provider) are essential during these peak periods. Proceeding through peak times without the proper visibility into call volumes, staffing needs, or appointment capacity doesn’t allow your organization to flex and proactively address concerns.

CallSource reporting will help document your efforts and streamline your performance measurement. With the peak season approaching, look for automation opportunities that reduce manual effort.

Many CallSource reports can be set up to be delivered via email. Or, we offer programs that can alert you when a prospect call did not successfully convert into an appointment within hours of the initial call, allowing you to stay ahead of your competitors and make outbound call attempts.

For more information, or to get set up, please reach out to a CallSource representative.

By reviewing metrics, you can identify improvement opportunities and set goals for success. It will be important to also listen to your calls to determine if your potential customers are receiving the ideal experience.

Examine staffing

After you’ve been able to examine data for your company for at least a year, it is important to gather and return to those metrics for the coming year. Organized data collection is essential to understanding results and learning from them.

When peak season has come and gone, it’s important to conduct a thorough review. – Repeat what worked, minimize what didn’t.

If you are not prepared, you may find that you’re short on staff or team members struggle with increased call volume or workloads during busy periods. When it comes to staffing up, don’t just add bodies. Create a plan. A wave of inexperienced staff arriving as volume goes up typically leads to mistakes, excessive demands on managers and potentially lost customers. You want staff to be effective, not just present, when pressure increases.

The best results come from closely evaluating the process to determine how it can be modified to streamline the work. CallSource reporting will provide an analysis of your business’ peak days and times for prospects to help you identify patterns in your call volume.

TIP!

When analyzing your data, think about the following:

  • What day of the week is receiving the most prospect calls? What time?
  • What day/time are we experiencing the most Missed Opportunities?
  • Do I have the appropriate staff on the schedule for these times?

 

Calendar Blocking

Time stressors are some of the most universal sources of pressure in the workplace, and they happen as a result of having too much to do, in too little time. Your workload is already high, and you have many other urgent tasks on your To-Do List. Because of this, you’re anxious, you can’t concentrate, and everything seems to distract you.

You’re probably looking at your calendar and feeling like you couldn’t possibly add one more thing, but you should. Setting aside specific time in your schedule to work on certain tasks will help you manage your workload, especially during a peak season. Knowing exactly what to do and when will help you feel much more in control of your tasks.

Time management means being effective as well as efficient. By blocking time on your calendar, you can clear enough time to do what’s essential for your success. This will maximize your chances of keeping on track, and help you avoid the stress of work becoming more urgent than necessary. This is the way you move from “firefighting” into a position where you can maximize and grow your businesses.

Be sure to block out at least 30 minutes a week to login to CallSource, or your other call tracking provider, to review important metrics. Even with this small amount of time compared to your entire workweek, you are empowered to influence your appointment conversion rate during the course of each month by ensuring required changes are implemented.

(Tip: We also recommend you monitor the impact of your online reviews as a home service business).

It will be important to also invest in frequent team meetings, even during the busiest of times. It is very easy to fall into bad habits when everyone feels pressed for time. You do not want the goals you have set for your business and team to be disregarded because leadership is too busy to monitor and follow up on progress.

Need help deciding what metrics to review during team meetings? Download our team meeting slide deck!

TIP!

  • Create available time slots on your calendar so employees know when they can speak to you, and you can ensure you’ll have the time you need to dedicate to proactive tasks.
  • Arrange regular meeting with those who interrupt you often, so you can deal with all of their issues at once, rather than sporadically throughout the day. You can then concentrate on your important activities for longer.

Get out there and make this your most successful busy season yet – by staying consistent and monitoring your analytics, you are bound to achieve all of the goals you’ve set out, even when things seem nonstop in the office.

Reach out to a CallSource representative today to see how we can help you get through a peak season, and improve in your slow times, too.

Filed Under: CallTrack Tagged With: Call Management, Performance Management

Move Your Callers from “Hello” to “Appointment Set” in Under 5 Minutes

May 31, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

[Download your FREE checklist: “The 6 Perfect Phrases for Every Stage of the Sales Call”]

By knowing how to properly solve for callers’ situations, you can ensure they choose you instead of the competition.

An interested prospect calls your business.

They are interested in a service.

So, you should have no problem getting them to choose your company. Right?

Well, that’s not always the case…

While inbound sales calls should be easier to close, sometimes it’s not that simple. They have questions. They want validation. They need to know that by choosing your company to make the appointment with, they have made the right choice.

How do you do this?

Build Rapport

As soon as you answer the phone, you should have a warm, friendly tone, and be personable with the caller. Besides letting them know that they’ve reached the right business, you should also state your name and ask for their name – while being sure to use it throughout the conversation!

By building rapport right from the beginning, the caller will feel comfortable with you and have a great first impression of your business. And with a great first impression comes trust and connection to your company.

For more tips on building rapport in your calls, check out our previous article – “Why Rapport Building is a Crucial Element of a Successful Sales Call” and download “5 Easy Ways to Build Rapport With Your Callers.”

Make Sure to Meet Their Needs

Don’t simply listen to the caller blab on about their issue – make sure to ask follow-up questions so that they understand that you truly understand their reason for calling, and are informed. Remember, as the call handler; you should stay in control of the conversation. Not only is it your job, but it’ll make the caller feel more at ease as well when you know the right questions to ask and are moving the dialogue into the necessary points.

Do not move them through the conversation by ticking off boxes on a phone script without enthusiasm, but continue to have a real conversation with the caller at the same time.

Reassure

Hand-in-hand with being able to meet their needs is not only expressing your knowledge but reassuring the caller that you will properly help them with the issue or concern they are calling in for.

The caller should have no reason to second-guess if they are choosing the right company to do business with at the end of the call. No matter what objections may arise, properly overcome those objections by reassuring them that you can help and are the best out there for their need.

Ask for the Commitment

Now that you can successfully move your caller through the phases of the phone call with confidence, by the time you ask them to set the appointment at the end of the phone call, it should be no trouble to gain their commitment.

If you do not ask for the appointment, your chances of booking the appointment drop dramatically. Remember, you are in control of the conversation. Do not wait for them to ask you – it is your responsibility to ask them, and to end the call on a positive note with a new customer gained.

Looking for 6 perfect phrases to use during these stages of the sales call? Download the free checklist here and unlock the hidden sentences that are guaranteed to work!

Filed Under: Telephone Performance Analysis Tagged With: Performance Management

The 5 Most Common Reasons for Missed Opportunities in the Home Services Industry and How to Overcome Them to Get the Appointment

May 21, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

[PLUS: Free Missed Opportunity Follow-Up Spreadsheet!]

Stop letting callers’ excuses prohibit you from gaining their commitment to your business.

The phone rings.

You are ready to answer a call from a person who needs something from your business.

They chose you! That’s why the phone is ringing in your office!

So why don’t you always set the appointment?

There are many reasons that someone may call into your business but end up dodging an appointment with you by the end of the call. Sorry, but it is inevitable.

The good news is – although you most likely won’t be able to book 100% of these people into appointments, you can increase the number of callers that will become a customer with you with just a bit more effort.

Below are top excuses or reasons that callers may have to not book an appointment with you during the initial phone call. By overcoming these reasons, you will be well on your way to increasing your appointment conversion rate and earning more lifetime customers instead of potentially losing them to your competition.

1. They need to check with their spouse/significant other/someone.

Oppositions-Single-01

Sure, maybe the caller does need to check or verify with someone else – but that doesn’t mean that you can’t still get them on the calendar.

Suggest in a non-pushy way that you can still get them set up with an appointment for the time being and if they need to change anything they can always call back. Use scarcity as a tactic by letting them know that an appointment day has opened up and may get booked quickly; it is better to set the appointment now rather than having to call back and risking losing that appointment time slot.

2. They are looking for a price quote.

Oppositions-Single-02

It’s tricky to get a caller to commit to your business for their home services needs without a price in mind – but this is where your call handling skills, business and industry knowledge come into play. As the employee, you are the expert. It is your job to demonstrate to the caller that you are the expert as well.

Mention value statements about your company and why it is that you cannot give a price estimate without first coming to the house to see what is needed to do the job correctly. Let the caller know that you do not want to misquote and that no prices are given on the phone to ensure that each customer gets the best service possible since every job is different.

You may even note that this is also because you don’t want to over-quote them. Some less reputable companies may give a higher price quote on the phone, then when the technician arrives at the home, they find out the job is easier than expected and still stick to the higher quote original price given. You want to make sure that the value of your service matches the service(s) needed.

3. They need to check their schedule or have scheduling issues.

Oppositions-Single-03

This is a situation where it might be more difficult to gain the caller’s commitment since they may have trouble knowing a time that can work for them or their schedule does not align with available appointment times that you have.

Still, getting a solid appointment on the calendar is vital to ensure you capture that commitment from the caller and they do not forget about you or try to call another company after you. Offer two different time slots that may work and let them call you back after they are already both on the calendar to see which appointment time they officially want. Or – try to rework your schedule to fit theirs. Could you move some of the technicians’ routes or move someone else’s appointment that has more flexibility in their schedule?

4. They do not want to pay a service trip fee or the price you have laid out.

Oppositions-Single-04

Explaining the reasoning for your service trip fee (if you have one) or your pricing is important when overcoming this opposition. But it is even more important to start explaining the value of your company and the services you provide to derail the caller from focusing so much on price.

You pay for what you get, so make sure that the caller truly understands the value that your company will deliver, and how your pricing works – including the service trip fee and if that rolls into the work they end up getting done. If they really don’t budge, you can always offer to waive the service trip fee if the job sounds like it is worth the time and money for your efforts to acquire them as a customer.

5. Call Handler didn’t ask the caller for an appointment.

Oppositions-Single-05

This is the worst reason for a missed appointment opportunity of all!

Although the prospect called into you for a service, the call handler must still stay in control of the conversation, and that includes asking questions that the caller may not think to ask themselves.

Perhaps the caller wanted further information from you – but who is to say that if you ask when they’d like to schedule an appointment that they would say no? Sure, they wanted information on something, but if you ask to schedule an appointment to come out and help them further, it shows that you are the right company to help them with the job. Don’t let them move on to call the next company to ask the same questions and then have your competitor scoop up your caller as their customer.

In Summary:

  • Try to get the caller to agree to a time on the calendar, even tentatively, when they say that they must check with someone else before scheduling an appointment.
  • Use value statements about your company when overcoming price objections or an objection to setting the appointment because you cannot disclose an exact price quote.
  • Give wiggle room to allow for scheduling one or two appointments on the calendar for those who are unsure of their calendar – getting them on makes it less likely that they will call a competitor afterwards.
  • Explaining the value of your company is also imperative when it comes to objections to any service trip fee. Explain the necessity of the fee and if that cost gets absorbed into any work done.
  • ASK FOR THE APPOINTMENT! If the call handler doesn’t ask, why is it up to the caller to do so?

Want to work on recapturing potential customers that still fell through the cracks despite your best efforts? We applaud you and are here to help! With our Missed Opportunity Follow Up Spreadsheet, you can track your outbound efforts to help determine what works best when attempting to gain a lead’s commitment the second time around.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE FOLLOW-UP WORKSHEET!

In this spreadsheet, you will be able to:

  • Track how many missed opportunities you consistently follow up on
  • See which employee is most successful at gaining the appointment on that second call
  • Figure out which outbound calling tactics work best when regaining a caller’s appointment
  • Make decisions to improve based on data that you are collecting, instead of assumptions

Filed Under: CallTrack Tagged With: Call Management, Performance Management

How Can Your Office Help More Patients During Better Hearing Month?

May 15, 2018 by Stephanie Kurowski Leave a Comment

Use these tips to make your office more efficient and help more people with hearing loss during May.

As you must already know as a hearing professional, May is Better Hearing and Speech Month!

Dating back to 1927, May was designated as Better Hearing and Speech month to provide an opportunity to raise awareness about causes and treatments for communication disorders. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), about 15% of adults experience some type of hearing loss. When people suffer from hearing loss, they can feel disconnected and have reported feeling lonely. That is where you come in to help.

What are you doing in your office to celebrate Better Hearing Month?

Reach out to your community

Now is the perfect opportunity to reach out to your community and let them know you are there to help them and improve their quality of life. Having a community event, holding a Lunch & Learn, running additional mailers during the month, or offering a coupon on devices purchased are all great ways to promote Better Hearing and Speech Month.

Make sure operations run smoothly even at peak capacity

CallSource often sees an increase in prospect calls coming into a practice in May due to Better Hearing Month as a result of additional marketing efforts made throughout the month.

However, it is not uncommon for an office to experience a decrease in the appointment conversion rate. Operations during peak seasons require a different approach to the business.

One of the most vital aspects to examine during a peak season is your employee performance. When phones start to ring more, employees may feel overwhelmed, and they may rush through one patient just to get to the next. As a result, customer service suffers.

Ensuring your staff is prepared for the influx of calls will make all the difference. Conducting coaching on how to handle multiple phone lines ringing and creating a follow-up plan for any missed caller or appointment will be helpful for your team.

Front Office

But why is preparing your team important during peak seasons, especially Better Hearing and Speech Month?

It takes, on average, 7-10 years for a person with moderate to severe hearing loss to pick up the phone and do something about it.

7-10 years of hearing loss before asking for help!

If that person has a bad experience when they call an office or doesn’t book an appointment for another reason, it can then take another 3 years for them to reach back out.

That’s up to 13 years of having hearing issues, 13 years of feeling isolated from friends and family, 13 years of disconnection. So ensuring to set time aside to conduct additional coaching will result in better conversations, help avoid your team sounding rushed, and will allow you to help more patients.

What are you doing to educate your community on Better Hearing Month and to guarantee your office can help more patients than ever? Let us know in the comments below!

Filed Under: Call Coaching, Telephone Performance Analysis Tagged With: Performance Management

The Important Discussion to Have During Your Scheduled One-on-One Call Handler Meetings

May 9, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

[Call Handler Self-Analysis Sheet Included]

Have an effective use of your meeting time using this employee self-analysis.

Setting regular meetings with your call handlers is a best practice that every customer service manager (or whoever manages call handlers at your business) should follow. But what should you regularly be following up on?

Well, you want to help your employees improve and become the best they can be, of course.

While there has to be constructive feedback in these meetings, it helps to have both you as the leader as well as your employee(s) come to the meeting already prepared.

That is why having an employee complete a self-assessment is important so that you can both discuss it during the meeting.

Step 1: Listen to Calls

First, have your employee listen to a few of their recorded phone calls before you meet.

You can choose some calls for them ahead of time that you’d like them to assess, or let them choose. Make sure a variety of calls are included where the caller did or did not book an appointment. This way, both you and the employee can notice things that they do well and places for improvement.

This process of choosing calls to listen to is even simpler if you are using a product like CallSource’s Telephone Performance Analysis Report, where call handler’s scored phone calls are easily accessible.

Step 2: Assess

Prior to the meeting, after choosing about two or three calls to use for the assessment, the employee should start evaluating their calls on a constructive level. You as the manager should do this as well so that once you meet up, you can compare notes and see if you agree or notice things that the other did not.

Feel free to use an outline such as the one below when analyzing these calls. We also have a printable/editable version you can download to use here.

 

Employee Self Analysis

How would you rate your performance over the past month on the phone? (1 lowest, 10 highest)

1    2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10    

Two successful phone habits noticed during the review?


Two items we believe we can change/tweak over the phone?


Action Plan: What specifically will you do to address the items above?


Step 3: Discuss

Be sure that you and your employee have completed steps 1 and 2 before your scheduled meeting time. Then, once you are in your meeting, you can discuss the calls chosen and what each of you wrote on the evaluation.

This is time for a constructive discussion – every comment should have a follow-up action item to go along with it, as outlined in the sheet. It is not helpful to simply say a call was “good” or “bad.” You need to go into further detail. Remember, this is a meeting to not only highlight your employee’s great work but to help them further their skills as well.

Make sure to have these meetings regularly. They are a great check-in to make sure there is time set aside to meet with each employee – whether that be on a monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly basis. You want to make sure these check-ins are more often than just the employee’s yearly evaluation.

Use this call handler self-evaluation sheet to make sure that your employees are staying on top of their own improvement, and that you are regularly communicating with them on their efforts.

Filed Under: Call Coaching, Telephone Performance Analysis Tagged With: Performance Management

3 Ways to SPRING Your Business Forward

May 3, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

[Monthly Team Meeting Slide Deck Download Included]

Time to start that spring cleaning at the office.

Although spring technically started about a month ago, many parts of the country haven’t been feeling that flowery, spring weather quite yet.

But just like April showers bring May flowers, consistent effort at work will bring great, beautiful payoffs later!

It’s time to spring into action in these 3 ways to help move your business into a success. Although it recently started, the second quarter will be over before you know it and that means we’re also halfway through the year!

So how can you ensure that you not only stay on track with but get ahead of your 2018 objectives?

Set & Follow Through with Goals

If you’ve been following the blog, you are no stranger to the importance of goal-setting. Being goal-oriented is a great thing. Without goals, you may be busy day in and day out, but what are you really working towards? Are you truly improving or just getting by?

So, easy first step: SET GOALS! If you are unsure how to set specific, measurable goals, we’ve got you covered here and here.

Now that you have set goals – are you truly following through with them? To follow through, you must sure you are properly communicating your goals, and checking up on progress!

If you aren’t sure if your goals are working well enough, take our quiz!

Need help communicating your goals on a regular basis with employees? Download our team meeting slide deck.

“A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.” -Greg Reid

 

Track Your Success

To accurately communicate your progress towards goals with employees, you must be tracking how well you are doing!

This is why tools like call tracking, digital attribution programs, and aggregate online review platforms are necessary for your business to really improve.

If you don’t know how you are doing, how can you improve? Thinking and knowing are two different things. You must track your goals to truly know if what you’re doing is propelling you towards your goals or if you are falling behind.
 

Repeat What’s Working, Work on What Isn’t

Once you are tracking your efforts and can clearly see if you are on track with, surpassing, or falling behind your goals, you can now take a step back and adjust.

Are there certain marketing pieces that are performing better than others? Re-allocate marketing dollars from under-performing ad sources that aren’t giving you great ROI to advertisements that are bringing in more leads. Don’t spend extra money – use your tracking reports to make better data-driven decisions.

Which call handlers have higher appointment conversion rates than others? See what they are doing well and use that to help train and coach call handlers that aren’t doing as well.

The point is – take a look at the data along the way to see how you’ve been progressing towards your goals, track your efforts, and do more of what’s working well. It’s really not innovative news, but sometimes we all need reminding.

Need help in your efforts? Download our free team meeting slide deck now!

Filed Under: CallTrack, Call Coaching, Telephone Performance Analysis Tagged With: Call Management, Performance Management, Digital Management

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