Managing Incoming Calls

[nge]

So it's a problem that is good to have but some days our phone rings off the hook while we have a waiting room full of customers and a few people at the counter waiting to drop off or pickup. It is days like this that it is very overwhelming for our 1 service writer. The issue here is that we are not consistently this busy to need to hire another service writer.

 

My question here is what do you all have in place to catch the calls that aren't able to be answered? I am thinking about getting voicemail added to our line through TWC Biz Class. Not sure how beneficial this will be so wanted to get some ideas here.

 

Also, I was reading an article recently that said that you should setup some sort of after hours answering service (ie call forwarding or voicemail) so that you are always available to the customer. Are any of you doing this?

 

Lastly, what is your policy while a service advisor is working on a phone estimate? What I mean here is do you require your advisor to put the customer on hold? We record the calls that come in from our website and I have heard various recordings where the service writer is having to answer a customer question or talk to a tech while working on the estimate and to me it sounds like the caller doesn't have your full attention so I am wondering if I should just have her put the calls on hold while the estimate is being worked up?

 

Any thoughts here?

[xrac]

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[Dee1234]

I agree with xrac. Getting cust info and question and call them right back with quote. But ALWAYS answer the phone! Maybe if manager helps out during busy hours. Or if you have a swing person that has personable voice and get be good service advisor when needs to step in (if have such a person that isn't your tech).