5 Criteria to Find the Right Answering Service for Your Flooring Business

In the business of flooring, you spend a lot of time on the sales floor, on the phone, and even on the job site in some cases. If you could free up your time in some way, how much more could you get done? Plus, what about all those calls that go unanswered when you’re not available?

A professional answering service could be just what you need. You can get a team of agents to field the calls as they come in, any time you need them. A lot of companies today are investing in 24/7 answering services, just in case a lead decides to randomly call on a Sunday or one of your booked clients has a last-minute design change to inform you about. 

In any case, upgrading to a third-party virtual receptionist or answering service is going to help you improve your business in several ways. It will allow you to present a professional, experienced image to your callers and it will ensure that you never miss a single call. Plus, you won’t be distracted from the job at hand every single time the phone rings. 

There are several benefits that come from investing in an answering service these days. You have a lot on your plate and by taking the calls off the list, you can focus on your in-store clients, current jobs, and other business activities. Of course, there’s something to be said for choosing the right answering service for your flooring business. 

In order to assist you with that, we’ve collected five of the most important criteria that should go into making your decision. Although everyone’s needs are a little different, these general guidelines should help everyone find their ideal fit, no matter what they have in mind. 

1. Easy setup and integration

This is an integration that’s supposed to make your job easier. If it’s not easy to setup and integrate, that defeats the purpose. Check with different providers to see what the startup process is like and how long you can expect it to take before you’re up and running with your own professional answering service. 

They should also provide you with user-friendly software that tracks their answering services and other tasks that they handle for your business. If it is more complicated than just answering the phone yourself, it might not be the right solution. 

2. Construction/home improvement experience

Some industries work well with with generic answering services. They can generally handle basic calls with little industry knowledge, and that might be fine for others. However, if you own a flooring business, you’re going to fare much better if you have a team of agents that have (or can gather) experience that’s directly related to the construction or home improvement industry. After all, many of your callers are going to have technical questions and while warm transfers are an option, you shouldn’t have to field every basic question about flooring just because the answering service doesn’t have the answer. 

3. 24/7 support and availability

In the world of retail and home improvement, you might not anticipate needing 24/7 availability for your customers. However, there’s definitely something to be said for having help available around the clock. People have random questions and needs outside of business hours all the time—don’t make them wait until the next business day to get answers. 

With a dedicated answering service, you will never miss a single call or opportunity, no matter what time of day or night they come in. Plus, the best teams will be able to handle the majority of the issues without disturbing you at some hour in the middle of the night, so it’s a win for everyone. And if you do need to get involved, the call will be forwarded or a message will be taken, depending on how you set up your service. 

4. Customization

Speaking of how you set up your service, customization options should also be on your list. Being able to customize and scale the features of the answering service to suit your needs is going to be a game changer. You’re no longer limited to the standard options and pre-designed plans that are out there. You can now find answering services that will allow total customization of your solutions, from the way calls are answered to the types of services provided, and even how they handle reporting to keep you abreast of what’s going on. 

The more you can customize, the better. And with the solutions out there today, getting a customized, white-label answering service that can represent your business proudly and properly is more affordable. 

5. Features and services 

The best answering services will offer a host of features and solutions to help you get the perfect plan in place. Whether you have an idea of what you want or you’re just starting to learn about the options that you have, it’s important to review all the features that an answering service offers to make sure that it meets your needs. Look at the things you need now as well as services that you might benefit from in the future so that you don’t have to change services or worry about outgrowing yours. 

Partner with Smith.ai for the best communications and more 

If you really want to go above and beyond, you need more than just a 24/7 answering service. Fortunately, when you partner with Smith.ai, you’ll get a dedicated team of virtual receptionists who can deliver that along with assistance for lead intake, appointment scheduling, live website chat, and even solutions for your marketing and outreach campaigns if you need it. 

Plus, everything we do comes with a custom-tailored strategy to ensure that we handle all your needs, no matter what those might be. Reach out to us at hello@smith.ai to learn more or schedule a consultation to discuss how the virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can help your flooring business with a professional answering solution and more. 

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