AIR CONDITIONING
Who answers your AC line at 9 PM?
The AC dies at 9 PM in Sweetwater. The tenant calls the landlord. The landlord calls you. If your line goes to voicemail, he calls the next company, and you find out never. Here is what an automated voice should do on that call, and the three things it must not.
A note on what this is. We are not claiming an automated voice books more jobs than a person. We are saying what it should be allowed to do, so it helps instead of embarrassing you.
What the 9 PM caller wants
Not a conversation. He wants to know three things: are you real, can someone come, and when. In Sweetwater he usually wants to know them in Spanish. A voicemail greeting in English answers none of that, and he hangs up.
What the voice agent should do
- Pick up on the second ring and say, first thing, that it is an automated assistant and the call is recorded. Florida requires that.
- Offer Spanish or English right away, and stay in whichever one he picks.
- Take the address, the unit number, what is wrong, and a callback number.
- Offer a real open slot on your calendar, not "someone will call you."
- Save the recording and a written copy to the job record, marked ES or EN, so whoever picks it up in the morning knows.
BOOKING AND DETAILS ONLY
What it must never do
Quote. A voice that says "that sounds like a capacitor, about $300" has just priced a job nobody has seen. It should say a tech will look and give a price on site.
Argue. A caller who is angry about a past job gets a person, in the morning, not a robot doing customer service.
Handle an emergency alone. A gas smell or an electrical burning smell goes to a human path you set up, tested before the agent goes live. No exceptions.
The recording notice is not a formality. Florida law requires both people on a call to know it is being recorded. The agent says it at the start, in the caller's language.
What the landlord hears
A company that picked up, spoke his language, took the unit number, and gave him a time. That is the whole difference between the first company on his list and the second.
Questions we get asked about this
Will callers know it is a machine?
Yes. It says so first thing, and that the call is recorded. We do not fool callers, and in this market it would backfire.
What if the caller only speaks Spanish?
It offers Spanish or English on the first turn and stays in Spanish. The record gets marked ES so the right person calls back.
What happens with a real emergency?
A person gets the call. The handoff is built and tested before the agent goes live. A burst pipe or a burning smell does not get a booking form.
Related
Want to hear it in Spanish?
Book a 30-minute call. We will call the agent together, in Spanish, and you can decide if it sounds like your company.