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Dale Misner knows that
there is nothing more important to his clients than knowing that his staff is available to serve them 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. Dale owns a commercial heating and cooling
company that serves hospitals, a local university, multiple apartment and
condominium complexes, and several shopping malls.
“When my clients call, I
must be available,” said Dale. “In this part
of the country, the weather can be unpredictable. Last year, we had an
ice storm that knocked power out for up to a week in some areas. Our
crews kept everyone up and running.”
Although he employs 33 people today, Dale's business
started small. “Service is what set us apart. From day one, that was my
number one priority. That’s what our customers expect and I
want it to keep it that way.”
For Dale, a 24-hour telephone answering service
was an indispensable part of his
company’s identity. “I used to print my home number on my business cards
and in our yellow page ads.” He soon found that he couldn’t continue to
take all the evening calls himself while managing his growing business - and
family. Plus, it was nearly impossible to sound professional when calls
came in the middle of night, making him from a sound sleep. “After working all day, it would take me a few minutes to
get my bearings. By the time I woke up, the phone call was over. By
the second year, I begin using an answering service to handle all of the after hours calls.
Since then, the answering service triages all of our calls based on our criterion.
For emergencies, we can be on site within an hour.”
It’s proven to be a good decision for Dale and his growing business as
well as his customers. “Last month, we were called when a client
reported smelling gas. It turned out that in one of the older parts of
the building, an old copper propane pipe had corroded. We also found
that the diameter of the old pipe was too small for the growing needs of the
building. We were able to replace the section with non-corrosive
synthetic and get them up to code in a matter of hours.”
In another case, a carbon monoxide alarm went off in an apartment
building, shutting down the heating system. The call was also triaged by the
answering service, by asking the caller a
series of specific questions that Dale and his account manager devised.
The answers given by the caller met the pre-established criteria for an
emergency call, and Dale was immediately contacted. “Fortunately, it was
a bad sensor, so the residents were never in any danger,” said
Dale. “We easily cleared the alarm and replaced the part.”
There is simply no substitute for good customer service. Most of Dale’s
new clients are referred to him by existing customers. “Because people
know they can trust our service and count on our responsiveness, we get a lot of recurring business
through no-bid contracts.” According to Dale, earning customer loyalty
has been the single-best source of new business.
Learn more about telephone
answering services and discover how they might be able to help you.
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