I need to put a new voicemail greeting on my phone. I’m concidereding:
“You’ve reached Jason with SharpView Window Cleaning. I either have a squeegee to the glass or I’m dangling from a ladder. Please leave me a detailed message and I’ll return your call at my first opportunity. Thanks and have a blessed day.”
My wife thinks customers wont think it sounds professional enough and being as I only do it part time they’ll get the impression I’ll be available at all times. Personally I think it reflects me. Easy to get along with and a good sense of humor. As far as the only doing it part time my first job dictates my scheduling anyway which limits jobs to afternoon only (of course they dont have to know that. For all they know I’m booked up in the morning).
Jason, personally I like your greeting. I got a great suggestion from someone on this site, wish I could remember who :o…they said to mention a service i offered, i picked chandelier cleaning. I got a couple new jobs for lite cleaning when they called for window cleaning…they said they didnt know we offered that service. Just add on sales but an extra $75.00-80.00.
most people DONT have a sense of humor… if they do they might not have YOUR sense of humor
never give an excuse for not answering the phone
my suggestion… change your voice mail daily with the day and date (i do this every day during the season)… apologize for being unavailable to take their phone call… tell them their phone call is very important, to leave a detailed message and assure them you will return the call.
if you have time, do what wndwgrl mentioned about a special youre running on a particular service
with those suggestions pretty much everyone i missed a phone call from left a message and i closed the deal… people commented on my out going message all the time
About the thing of “your call being important”, it gotta be one of the most overused cliches. If is THAT important why in hell you didn’t answered it ?
Is, or used to be, a great line, but now everybody is using it everywhere, so has lost its meaning. Just my 2centavos
even if its cliche what are you going to say? eh, your call isnt that important? im watching tv, while on a window cleaning forum, screening calls and sent you to voice mail? how about… im on the toilet?
even if you dont agree with the verbage we all know making a customer feel important is a VERY important part of business especially for a first impression on an out going message. there are obviously other ways to express the fact that their call is important. if you express can get the point across that their call is important the more likely it is that they will leave a message.
Hello, you’ve reached David with Squeeky Clean Window Service where screen cleaning is complimentary with the first window cleaning and repeat customers recieve up to a 30% discount on their window cleaning service. If you’d like to be one of my lucky customers where reliability and quality are number one leave a breif detailed message including the reason for your call and if applicable who reffered you after the tone and I will return your call as soon as possible or email me at [email protected]
i personally think giving repeat customers 30% off is a super high number.
i wouldnt mention a discount for repeat customers…
i wrote out what i left for my message daily and tweaked it with wndwgrls mention of an idea i think kevin had…
“hi thank you for calling (insert window cleaning business name here) the residential window cleaning specialists. today is (insert day and date). we’re sorry for not being able to take your phone call at this time… but your call is very important to us, so please leave your name, number and best time to reach you with your detailed message. we will be sure to get back to you as soon as possible. Also dont forget we are offering free screen cleanings until the end of the month for all window cleaning customers. Thanks for calling, we’ll talk to you soon.”
always try to have a smile on your face when youre leaving your out going message… makes a huge difference in your tone and the way you come across
Still in the early stages of forming my company, but I did get a google voice number to use. What’s not to like? I can have it forward the call to up to (I think) 6 different phone numbers. It will transcribe a voice mail into an email and send it to my personal gmail account which is linked to my phone so I have a written record of name and phone number. And best of all, it’s free!!! I love that word.
“hello, you have reached the voice mail box of Eric van Dalen, I’m sorry that I missed your call, but if you will leave your name and phone number I will return your call as soon as possible. Thank-you.”
It always makes me whince when I hear a message say “I am either on another call or bidding a job” etc. That may not be truthful. Maybe they are really on vacation or playing with the kids! I am not stupid ok. If you say “I am doing this or that” then I expect you to be doing “this or that”. Sorry to rant but it’s a pet peeve of mine.
+5 That’s how I do it. I put in a little blurb at the end of my message letting them know they will get a call with in 24 hours. Sometimes it’s not practical for me to call them back right away. But if you stay in your timeline of 24 hours it shows you are professional and that the persons call is important to you. I hear wayyyyy to many times about other cleaners not answering the phone or not returning calls.
i like it, although i have to agree i think the 30% may be a little high for repeats, maybe offer them a discount for a referral, but i do like your ideas.
ive taken a few of the ideas ive read from this thread and im going to incorporate into my message. I like the idea of changing the message daily, but who am i kidding…i know i wont change it daily…im trying for at least monthly.
RIGHT! I can’t tell you how many times I have hung up in the middle of a message. I am thinking not only did they not answer my call, but now they are wasting my time.
What you need to do ask yourself what impresses you and what irritates you about messages you hear when someone doesn’t answer your call. If you are impressed by someones answering message telling you what day it is then use it. If I called some place and got an answering service that started to hear what day it is I would hang up thinking if they are going to inform me of the day(which I already know what day it is), what other useless information are they going to waste my time telling me. Again if you are impressed by when you hear it, then use, this is just my thoughts.
yeah, maybe 30% is too high… I’m just working out my pricing and I find that sometimes I worry too much about getting customers and not enough about the pricing part. I think of it as if I’m getting to clean a $200 house I’d take $150 if they’ll let me do it every week as opposed to $200 quarterly. I’m just getting started so I’ll definitly learn pretty quickly if that’s something I decide to keep doing:o Thanks for the feed back though… I’m gonna refine it a little more. This thread is really helpful
30% is way too high… figure out a dollar amount youre comfortable with and offer that for a monthly cleaning discount. i do a house here 6-8 times a year, i dont give a discount bc they need it done. the ocean is literally 100ft from their front door… the sea spray makes a mess.
as far as worrying about your pricing, go to amazon, look up the book “pricing with confidence” and read the intro if you can… it was best part of the book.
i think we all go back and forth sometimes when it comes to pricing especially if youre in a lowballer market but just how smiling can change your tone in an out going message so can being confident in your pricing. i dont know if you were able to catch kevin during the wcr nightly meet up but he said tell people your price like youre telling them the time…
I love that line…wish i would have caught kevins meet up…i think the biggest mistake Ive made in the past 10 years was underpricing jobs… not thinking that customers would be willing to pay what i quoted…so i would go a little lower…i was wrong they are willing to pay a little higher price…and our service is well worth that price.
On my phone I have
Sorry for NOT taken your call I am just hanging around somewhere, so leave your number and ill get back to you before this day is over.
Alex
