Never miss a call with 24/7 live receptionists.

Residential and commercial painters can have difficulty squeezing their customer service responsibilities into their busy days. From simple projects, like color-matching a returning client's home, to more complex jobs, like waterproofing brick walls, painters have little flexibility in their schedule, meaning administrative tasks, like appointment scheduling or call handling, often goes unattended to. Unfortunately, this leaves calls from potential leads and loyal clients unanswered, costing painters more than just their reputation. Thankfully, with a home and commercial painter answering service, attending to new and existing clients can be one less thing to worry about. A reliable answering service can offer professional painting businesses individualized support in all the areas they need it matter most. The most notable benefits that home and commercial painters enjoy with answering services like Smith.ai are:

• Expanded availability‍

With a phone call answering service that’s available 24/7, your clients will always talk to a real person, whether you're busy, closed, or on holiday. With a trusted professional on the line representing your business, your clients will receive the high-quality customer service they expect.

• Increased lead captured  

Missed calls means missed opportunities. Don’t miss out on leads because you're unable to answer the phone. Answering services provide nighttime, overflow, weekend, and after-hours availability, so your leads will be well-secured without you or your team having to lift a single finger. 

• Increased work productivity 

By entrusting an answering service with your calls, you'll be free from the burden of administrative duties. Less time spent on the phone and more time allocated to productive work means your home or commercial painting company has more opportunities for growth than ever before.

• Enhanced client satisfaction and business reputation

Smith.ai knows great customer service, so whatever your business size or industry, our virtual receptionist have you covered. Every Smith.ai virtual receptionist is highly proficient and well-versed in customer service. Let us put our award-winning practices to work for you by delivering exceptional responsiveness. 

• Save money and time

For the price of a streaming service, your team can enjoy all the benefits of several highly-trained in-house receptionists. Customers who use Smith.ai instead of hiring in-house support can save upwards of $30,000/year, not to mention precious office space.

• Stay up-to-date with leads and clients

Phone answering services can send over detailed call summaries after each and every call, and even provide your clients with chat, social media, and text messaging so your clients have numerous ways to get in contact with your business.

A live home and commercial painter answering service can revolutionize the way you do business. Smith.ai's virtual receptionist services are uniquely designed to accommodate your needs, so whether you're on a budget, overwhelmed by growing business demands, or simply looking to enrich your customer service, Smith.ai can provide specialized support where you need it most. All the advantages of an in-house receptionist and more will be at your disposable, empowering your company to reach new, unprecedented heights.

Smith.ai’s answering service can offer residential and commercial painting companies…

24/7 availability

After-hours & overflow answering

Bilingual answering

Outbound call-backs

Spam blocking

Appointment scheduling

Sales development

Payment collection

CRM Integration

Lead development

And much more…‍

With a lengthy list of accommodating features and informative resources, Smith.ai’s answering service is the clear choice for painters looking to enhance their overall productivity, revenue, and outreach. For years, Smith.ai has offered quality service to home and commercial painting businesses like yours. Our clients trust Smith.ai, and only Smith.ai, to provide them with our award-winning services. Read a few of our 5-star reviews to learn why home and commercial painters all over the nation rely on Smith.ai.

The cost of "front desk" support is, understandable, an influential factor in any business's decision to hire administrative assistance. Keeping costs lows and quality high is the goal, but with an in-house receptionist, you most likely aren't going to get the most bang for your buck. To give you a look at the cost comparisons, we've compiled a list of the average expenses professional home and commercial painting business can expect to pay when hiring an in-house receptionist.

The average salary nation-wide for an in-house receptionist is about $37,000 and they usually come with appalling (frequently hidden) fees, such as:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, costing about $11,000/year
• Life and disability insurance, costing about $2,000/year
• 401K’s, retirement and pension plans, costing about $2,000/year
• Paid sick leave, holidays, and vacations, costing about $5,500/year
• Commuting reimbursement, costing about $5,000/year
• Child care subsidy and parental leave, costing about $3,000/year
• Health and wellness programs, costing about $1,000/year
• Bonus pay, costing about $2,000/year
• Company retreats, team bonding events, and employee outings, costing about $4,000/year
• Free lunch, snacks, and drinks, costing about $3,500/year
  

Total Cost in Addition to Salary: $77,000/year

If your business is located in a highly-populated city, that final price may be even higher. Over time, costs will pile up, like when your in-house receptionist inevitably comes in late, calls in sick, requests time off, takes personal leaves of absence, goes on vacation, etc. Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can tackle the exact same tasks as an in-house receptionist can and then some, barring coffee runs and supply restocks, of course. Our virtual receptionists are also much more affordable because our receptionists' benefits or salaries are never your company's responsibility.

Smith.ai’s answering service costs as little as $255/month, with no hidden fees. Ever. By hiring an answering service instead of an in-house receptionist, your business could save over $33,000/year on salary alone, and possibly up to $40,000/year in benefits beyond salary payments. Not only will you save big time, but you'll also see a substantial boost in your company's total productivity, lead conversion, and net profit. Unlike in-house receptionists, virtual receptionists can answer calls outside of regular business hours, enabling your team to capture and covert nearly 27% more leads. Smith.ai’s agents can also respond to live chats, texts, and social media messages, which is how 46% of customers prefer communicating with businesses, thus opening the door for more leads who may have previously gone unanswered.

Virtual receptionists can even provide sales assistance by making outbound calls to convert more leads, satisfying the over 67% of clients who base their decision to hire a business on the initial responsiveness to their call or email. With potential clients receiving timely, professional responses to their inquiries, the amount of leads your team will be able to convert will skyrocket. With Smith.ai’s trusted home and commercial painter answering service, your team can enjoy the benefits of numerous in-house receptionists minus the cost. Read our article to learn more about the differences between an in-house vs. a virtual receptionist.

There's no doubt that commercial and residential painting companies have their hands full. From administering daily tasks to supervising general business development and growth, professional painters have no shortage of projects that require their attention. With bustling work environments like this, issues tend to sneak up every once in awhile, and with teams up to their necks in existing projects, smart company leaders bring in outsourced support to help them effectively tackle those problems. Common scenarios that we notice home and commercial painting businesses often need virtual receptionist services for are:

• I'm desperate for “front desk” support, but I can't afford it

"Front desk” support, no matter what form it takes, is a must for just about business, small or large. Entrusting a trained professional with your administrative responsibilities can be the difference between manageable workflows and pure chaos. Unfortunately, many home and commercial painting companies can't afford expensive in-house receptionists, costing them valuable support and peace-of-mind.

• Constant phone calls distract from work

Calls come in whether your team can get to them or not. When professional painters repeatedly have to take time away from appointments to answer the phone throughout the day, getting back to their more productive work can be next-to impossible. And when it takes, on average, about 23 minutes to get back to a task after being interrupted by a phone call, you can wave goodbye to productivity.

• Growing business demands are overwhelming

Businesses grow and while that growth can be great for a company's profit margins, it can be a real challenge for professional painters to keep up with. Growth means more: more calls to answer, more appointments to schedule, more projects to undertake. With demands growing by the day, it’s easy to see how home and commercial painting teams can have a tough time getting everything done, let alone prepare to take on more.

• I can't offer the around-the-clock availability clients want

When the work day ends, professional painters deserve to go home and spend time away from clients. But when just because your team clocks out doesn't mean calls stop coming in. And when you're unavailable to answer their calls, you miss the over 27% of leads who call outside of regular business hours. Many commercial and residential painting business may want to capture these leads by offering after-hours answering, but they can't (and shouldn't) be expected to spend every waking moment on-call.

If any one of these scenarios have you and your team scrambling, an answering service can be your saving grace. By handing off administrative duties to professional virtual receptionists, your team will finally receive the support they need while your potential and existing customers will receive the top-tier responsiveness they've been wanting. Smith.ai's virtual receptionists are available to help pick up wherever your team leaves off. So whether your team could use an extra hand screening leads, scheduling consultations, or simply answering calls, our team of highly-trained receptionists are here to help provide the support you need and keep you in good standing with your client base.

As any professional will tell you, business rarely ever runs smoothly, no matter what industry you're in or company size you have. Inevitably, sticky situations require you seek out external support. A few of the most commonly reported issues we've seen countless home and commercial painters require virtual receptionist services for are:

• I can't provide the responsiveness leads demand

Jam-packed schedules and massive workloads leave commercial and residential painters with limited time to dedicate to customer service. Responsiveness has time-and-time again proven crucial for any business looking to convert leads, and with little to no spare hours in their work day to spend on answering client questions and responding to lead inquiries, professional painters have a hard time satisfying their existing and potential clientele.

• I'm spending all of my day on administrative tasks

Rising prices for in-house receptionists can leave home and commercial painters left to tackle growing administrative demands themselves. With so much that needs their attention, painters who choose to take on these administrative responsibilities themselves can have a hard time keeping up as their to-do list piles higher and higher. Needless to say, in cases like these, productivity levels take a dive.

• I’m missing calls from new business leads and it's costing me money

Though they may try to answer the phone as often as they can, home and commercial painters miss calls, whether they're on a job, attending to other clients, or simply away from the phone. Attempting to get everything done while still providing adequate customer service can prove to be overwhelming for any professional painter, and when schedules are tight, call handling and lead screening duties are the first to fall to the wayside, leaving current clients and interested leads unsatisfied.

• My competitors are responding to potential clients faster than me

With such a competitive market, it can be challenging for small or solo painters to stand out amongst their competitors. Providing high-quality customer service through quick and thoughtful responses can undeniably place any professional in good standing with leads, but quality customer service takes time that a majority of busy residential and commercial painters simply don't have.

• I'm struggling to convert leads

One of the most significant, yet challenging aspects of building a successful independent business is finding and converting new clients. With existing clients and current projects prioritized first, many residential and commercial painters struggle to balance their daily workload with growing lead screening and converting demands.  Without the proper time and effort invested in potential clients, lead conversion rates will quickly plummet.

• I don't know how to keep track of all of my clients’ data

Maintaining detailed phone records and call summaries isn't a simple task for painting companies who, like many client-based businesses, disperse client data across a different software platforms. Knowing how, when, and why clients call is naturally important for painters hoping to strengthen and grow their client relationships, but when customer information is mismanaged, painters will find their client relationships suffer immensely.

If you or your team is struggling to combat any one of these discouraging issues, know that a virtual receptionist service is designed specifically to resolve problems just like these. One of the many convenient aspects of Smith.ai answering services is that our receptionists direct their attention to the unique problems your team faces. Our virtual receptionists will allocate time where you need it most, whether that's call handling, lead converting, or something else entirely. Smith.ai suits your business needs, whatever they may be. Sign up risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee and experience first-hand how Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can resolve some of the most frustrating problems your home or commercial painting business faces.

When considering a virtual receptionist service, a good place to start is to consider which areas of your company could use additional support in. To figure out which services you and your team might benefit from the most, review which problems or challenges seem to be a consistent issue for you:

• Does your team have little availability to answer calls? 
• Could you use a hand collecting payments or sending invoices? 
• Do you struggle to respond to clients' social media or text messages? 
  

Whatever you struggle with, Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can adjust their service to accommodate the specific areas you might need help in. 

Once you've pin-pointed some of the issues Smith.ai receptionists can help your team resolve, consider what services would best fit your company's activity level: 

• Do phone call interruptions distract from your team and keep them from getting productive work done?
• Is your team's schedule overwhelmed by administrative tasks, like lead screening?
• Would your business benefit from 24/7 phone answering or would you prefer a particular time frame, such as 9-to-5, for answering calls? 
  

Whether you get twenty calls a month or 2,000, Smith.ai can customize your virtual receptionist service to fit your business activity so you only pay for what you need. 

All you have to do is sign up. Getting started with Smith.ai’s virtual receptionist service is quick and easy. No annual contracts, no hidden setup fees, and no need for scripts. 

To sign up with Smith.ai, follow these three simple steps:

1. Customize your instructions – Just answer a few, quick questions about your team and the preferences you have, and we’ll get you started. We’ll use your answers to customize the way our virtual receptionists answer your calls and your clients’ questions. 
2. Send your calls to us – We work with every major phone system and can set up customized rules for when we answer your calls, or we can answer every call, 24/7!
3. Try risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee – Fully experience our call answering, scheduling, payments, and other phone services completely risk free for 14 days. If you find that we're not the right fit for you, you can receive up to $1,000 back within the first 14 days.

Whether you'd benefit from a full-time virtual receptionist or simply an overflow or after-hours call answering service, Smith.ai can offer customized assistance to your team with quality customer service, lead screening, and sales development in a way that suits your needs best. When you sign up with Smith.ai, you won’t just be gaining a virtual receptionist service, you’ll be gaining a professional, reliable, and friendly team of well-trained experts who can transform the way you do business for good. And once you start using Smith.ai's virtual receptionist service, you'll wonder how you or your team ever got by without it.

‍Learn how to get started with Smith.ai’s virtual receptionist service.