Frank Blau
Owner, Blau Plumbing
Contributing Writer

“How much will a new water heater cost me – mine is leaking?” Anyone in the PHC service business hears this question and others like it numerous times a day over the phone. Most attempt to answer it by quoting an hourly labor rate or giving a “ballpark” estimate of what the job will cost based on the caller’s description of the problem.

Whether you bill flat rate or  T&M, that is a mistake. There are a number of logical reasons for not quoting prices over the phone:

• Most service contractors don’t know their costs. They are just guessing what it will take to make a profit.
• If you quote a price over the phone, chances are better than 50/50 you’ll never see the job site. Can you beat the lowest quote the shoppers are likely to hear when they call around? If you can, you’ve got more troubles than just losing a job!
• It is difficult to tell what the job will consist of over the phone. You are relying on the diagnosis of a lay person. Yet once you quote a price over the phone, the customer will scream bloody murder if you try to escalate it because of job conditions that you never anticipated.
• When you quote prices over the phone, it reduces our business to the level of a commodity like a bushel of corn or soybeans. You lose the ability to present all the value-added features and benefits your company has to offer.

This is all common sense, of course. I’m sure most of you feel uncomfortable giving out prices over the phone. The main problem lies in not knowing how to respond when the inevitable price question comes up.

Scripted Conversation: To handle these inquiries you must have all of your inside and field staff who deal with customers trained to move the conversation away from the subject of price. The best way is to have scripted conversations for your people to follow when dealing with routine situations.

There are two different philosophies for dealing with phone scripts. Some contractors look at them just as rough guides and encourage their people to alter them as they see fit. The advantage is a more natural conversation that allows people to “be themselves.” The disadvantage is that inexperienced employees may stray into areas of discussion that they shouldn’t.

Personally, I believe in more rigid adherence to the scrip. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that people should never deviate from it, but I think you get into less trouble if you emphasize how important it is to stick to the script as much as possible.

Here, for example, is our company phone script for dealing with an incoming call from an existing customer.

Existing Customer Script:

Customer Service Rep: “Good morning (afternoon, evening), service department, my name is…How may I help you?

Customer: “I have no heat.”

CSR: “No problem. You called the right place for Sudden Service” (our company’s trademarked motto). “May I have your home phone number, please?”

(Customer gives the phone number.)

CSR: (Queries computerized data base, which shows the Henry Smith family.) “Am I speaking to Mrs. Henry Smith?”

Customer: “That’s me.”

CSR: “Do you still live at 1234 N. Jump Street?” (This enables us to continuously update our data base.)

Customer: “That’s correct.” (If it’s not, obviously we would ask for updated information.)

CSR: “Mrs. Smith, tell me, when would it be convenient for you to have one of our licensed service technicians stop at your home? We’re always in a position to render our famous ‘Sudden Service.’”

Customer: “Could you have him here in a couple of hours?”

CSR: “No problem. You called the right place. By the way, Mrs. Smith, my records show that you paid our service tech with a VISA card the last time we visited you. I assume you’ll pay the same way when he has finished the job?”

Customer: “Yes. By the way, do you know how much it will cost to fix?”

CSR: “Mrs. Smith, it’s impossible for me to tell you what the charges for the repairs will be over the phone. Our licensed technician will have to visit your home in order to accurately diagnose the problem, after which he’ll quote you a price for the entire job, as he’s done on past visits. In other words, you’ll know exactly what the entire job will cost before he begins any work – no surprises for our valued customers! This pricing method is designed to save our customers money. Doesn’t that sound great?”

Customer: “Sure does.” (At least we hope she will respond that way. Usually we get a simple “okay” response.)

CSR: “Mrs. Smith, we like to know if we are spending our advertising dollars wisely. Do you mind telling me how you got our phone number today?”

Customer: “I got it from your orange valve tag in the basement.”

(About 18{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} of all repeat calls come from valve tags, stickers, refrigerator magnets or other company identification we leave at the home on every call. This is one of the most economical ways of generating business. Anyone who doesn’t do this is missing the boat.)

CSR: “Great, I have all the information I need. Our dispatcher will call you when our service tech is on the way to your home. Thank you for the order, Mrs. Smith, and you have a very nice day. By the way, the last time we provided service for you, I spoke with Mr. Smith. Would you be so kind as to give him my very best regards. Good bye.”

Schmoozing Goes A Long Way: As I’ve noted in many previous columns, I believe that a little schmoozing goes a long way toward building a strong bond with customers. It is important to convey the feeling that they are dealing not only with capable mechanics and a professional company, but with real human beings as well. Next month we’ll continue with a couple of scripts we use for dealing with new customers who call, and for handling complaints about our diagnostic fee charge.