Dale Misner knows that there is nothing as important to his clients as the comfort that knowing 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 university, multiple apartment and condominium complexes, and several shopping malls.

“When my clients call, I have to 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 how people know us now, and that’s the way I want it to stay.”

For Dale, 24 hour telephone answering service is 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 the evening calls himself while managing his growing business - and family. Plus, it was nearly impossible to sound professional when midnight calls interrupted his sleep. “After working all day, it would take me a few minutes to get my bearings. By the time I woke up, I was already off the phone. By the second year, we begin using an answering service to handle all of our after hours calls. Since then, the answering service triages all of our calls based on our own 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 out 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 taken care of 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 danger,” said Dale. “We quickly 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 the might be able to help you.