With the constant rise in the cost of energy and environmental pollution concerns, many households and companies are opting for solar energy because it’s affordable and environmentally friendly. As a solar installation company, your services and those of your competitors are in high demand.
When it comes to being a step ahead or setting yourself apart from competitors, customer service is paramount. You will need a solar energy answering service to provide customer support. That way, you don’t have to pause solar installation or cost estimation to respond to a ringing phone.
What Does a Typical Day for a Solar Installation Company Entail?
Your typical day as a solar panel installation company involves moving from one job site to another. With most of your time spent in the field, you will have little or no time for responding to ringing phones. Maybe you have a full-time receptionist that handles your phone calls when you are not around. Although it’s a good thing, the receptionist can only answer the calls during working hours, but won’t be available after-hours. You will miss some of your phone calls, which translate to lost jobs.
Perhaps you expect clients who ring the company after hours to leave a voicemail. Unfortunately, many people will hand up the moment they are directed to voicemail. So, automated call services might do more harm than good to your firm.
People interested in installing solar energy or estimating the installation cost want to talk to a live person with solar panels knowledge. A live operator will ensure your customers receive bespoke customer services. That way, even when you are away from the office and phone, you will have peace of mind knowing that all callers are being handled the right way.
Benefits of Utilizing an Answering Service for Your Solar Installation Company
With the typical day in your industry, utilizing a solar energy answering service can make all the company’s difference. You will have professional call agents handling inquiries and schedule appointments for individuals and companies intending to install solar energy. Some of the benefits you can enjoy from using an answering service include:
1. You Create Ample Time for Solar Panel Installation, Repairs, and giving Estimates
As a solar panel installer, most of your time should be spent performing solar panel installations, repairs, or giving customers quotations. It is the main reason you ventured into this business in the first place. However, when you have to juggle between responding to the ringing phone and concentrating on the company’s core objective, you start causing delays in projects. Your projects begin to experience delays because every now on then, you are over the phone.
An answering service will have professional operators handle all the calls you could have otherwise received in person, creating ample time to focus on essential, keeping timelines, and delivering quality solar energy installations and overhauls.
Using a customized script, live operators will address questions your customers might have regarding solar installations and the project’s total cost, making clients feel as if they are speaking to one of your employees. These virtual receptionists will also free up your employees to don’t feel overwhelmed by the calls and the solar installation projects they need to finish. With all your staff solely focusing on solar panel projects, you will witness an increase in productivity.
2. Your Solar Installation Company and the Customers Seeking Your Services Will Experience Unmatched Convenience
One thing that a solar energy answering service will bring to your company is unmatched convenience, not just for you and your employees, but your customers too. 24 hour live operators will expand your business operating hours. This means that any of your customers experiencing an electrical emergency with their solar energy system will be confident that they can reach you, regardless of the emergency time.
If any of your existing customer calls, even in the middle of the night, they will be sure someone will answer their call and that they don’t spend the night in the dark or danger of electrocution. An operator will forward the urgent phone call to you or one of your electrical technicians so that they can visit the site and perform repairs if the emergency can’t wait until morning.
Many people go through their utility bills after work when they have time. Suppose a homeowner realizes that their electricity bills are very high to keep up with. In that case, they will contact a solar installation company to inquire about installing the energy system and how much it can cost. If such a prospect rings your company, they will enjoy the unmatched convenience of having their phone answered and their inquiries addressed.
As a company, you will experience great convenience because you don’t have to stay awake at night awaiting emergency calls. There will be operators available to patch the phone calls to your personal number, enabling you to maintain strong relationships with your customers during emergencies. Besides, the fact that it’s a piece of cake to integrate the call answering service with your solar installation business creates unmatched convenience.
Another convenience that you experience after partnering with an answering service, is providing a call screening feature. Utilizing a customized script, the operators can differentiate solar installation emergency calls from those that are not. When a phone is forwarded to your number, you can be sure responding to it is not a waste of time because you will be dealing with an actual emergency. Generally, an answering service will streamline your solar installation company’s workflow and reduce hassle.
3. You Provide Solar Energy Technical Support to Your Customers
An individual or company that has installed a solar energy system is likely to experience technical issues. Some of the technical problems a customer might encounter with these systems include:
- Internal corrosion caused by moisture making its way into the panel
- Faulty wiring
- Lose connection or oxidation that interferes with electricity production
Suppose a customer begins to experience an electricity problem because of these issues. In that case, they don’t know what to do, and they are likely to reach out to your company for technical support. When your business is open, and your staff is free, they can respond to these phone calls and provide the necessary technical support. However, what happens when no one is around the office at the time of the ring?
Your client will not get the help they need and will consider your company unreliable. However, what if every time they phone your company, including in the middle of the night, a live operator is available to offer technical assistance? Customers will be satisfied since they can count on you.
An answering service will deliver that because they will train their staff on common technical issues with solar panels and handle them every time you call them precisely. You will also provide them with a customized script developed by your team of electrical technicians in collaboration with the call agents. The virtual receptionists will utilize these scripts to provide the best technical assistance.
4. People Seeking to Utilize Your Company for Solar Installation Can Speak Any Language They are Comfortable With
Many of the individuals interested in installing solar energy systems in their homes don’t understand or speak English. If your employees or receptionists fail to understand the caller’s language, there will be a language barrier that might deny you business opportunities and taint your reputation.
However, partnering with answering services will provide your company with bilingual operators. These professionals can make all the difference because if your clients are Spanish speakers and don’t understand or speak English, fluent bilingual call agents will be available to help.
The operators will have a conversation with the client and deliver the information to your preferred language’s solar installation company. Doing this will significantly expand your customer base because the customer who doesn’t understand English will feel that your company values them. In turn, these happy customers will spread word of mouth about your solar installation services resulting in more prospects coming seeking solar installation from your company.
5. You Will Charge Reasonable Fees for Solar Installation
Hiring in-house operators is an excellent move, although it increases your expenses. These receptionists will require monthly salaries, and employee benefits mean you will be parting with vast amounts of money. To sustain the ballooning wage bill, you will need to increase the cost of solar installation or consultation fees.
Keeping in mind that this industry is highly competitive, having your rates higher than your competitors might discourage people from considering your company for solar energy systems.
However, if you outsource an answering service, they will deliver outstanding customer service without incurring huge costs. You pay the call operators when you need their assistance and only for the number of calls they pick. An answering service will cost you a fraction of what you could have to spend recruiting and training in-house call agents. Another company hires these operators, so you never have to shoulder the costs associated with permanent employees like sick days, salaries, and insurance.
If the costs of operating your business drop because of utilizing an answering service for your solar installation company, you can lower the cost of solar energy systems without affecting your profit margins. That way, you can provide quality services at pocket-friendly prices, which will attract more clients to your company and give you a competitive edge in a highly competitive market.
6. Your Solar Energy Installation Employees Become More Efficient
Your employees or staff are a critical resource to the success of your business. When you use the talent you have, your solar installation company will experience more growth than your competitors. What if, instead of your employees using their talent to perform repairs or solar panel installation, they are focused on answering phone calls? They are likely to feel less motivated because they didn’t undergo the technical training to be answering calls.
An answering service will free up your talented employees by taking up handling calls and only forwarding the staff’s critical ones. That way, there will be no call distraction, which means these full-time employees will focus on using their talent to keep your company a step ahead of other solar installers in the market.
7. Phone Calls from Individuals and Organizations Seeking Solar Installation Services Will Get Immediate Response
Utilizing your full-time receptionists to answer phone calls means existing and potential customers will be put on hold and prolonged wait time. This often causes frustration, and callers are forced to hang up. The long waits are because your in-house receptionists have other things to do in the company apart from answering phone calls.
However, being busy is not an excuse to frustrate customers. They will hang up and ring your competitor. A frustrated customer might also spread bad word about your poor customer service, which might discourage other people who were considering utilizing your solar installation services from getting in touch.
Live operators from an answering service will eliminate the wait time by answering phone calls immediately. There will be no more frustration for your clients, and this will go a long way in building your reputation and expanding your customer base. Elimination of wait times means all callers get answers to the questions they have regarding solar installation.
The majority of these callers will bring business to your company and spread the right word about your exceptional customer service, thus bringing in more customers and expanding your customer base.
Do Not Lose Prospects and Existing Customers to Competitors
Many solar installation companies could be offering similar services to your business. The only thing that might differentiate you from competitors like these is customer service. Don’t let your competitors be one step ahead of you by failing to answer calls or keeping customers on lengthy wait times. Poor communication in your business means giving away customers to your competitors.
If you use an answering service for your company, you will never miss a client call, which means your customer service will make you stand out among your competitors, thus achieving the bottom line.