It’s common for Australian trades services companies to use various software solutions to streamline their operations. They often rely on job management platforms like WorkBuddy to plan jobs, coordinate teams, and bill clients. Many businesses also implement cloud phone systems, which essentially allow users to make and receive calls over the internet.
Separately, cloud-based phone systems and job management platforms have massive implications for businesses, but both are far more effective when they work together. To illustrate this, we’ve compiled a list of things your trades business can achieve by integrating both solutions.
Enhance customer experience
When paired with a cloud-based phone system, WorkBuddy enables your business to deliver better customer experiences. Key information like contact details, notes from previous agents, and past interactions with your company are consolidated in your job management database.
You can then use this information to create a detailed profile of prospective clients so employees know how to approach every call. Field technicians can use what they know about the client to ask insightful questions about a project and give real-time updates on job progress. Meanwhile, customer service representatives (CSRs) will be able to see who is calling before picking up the phone and provide a more personal touch during a service call.
What’s more, cloud-based phone systems ensure that you never miss a call. As long as employees have their devices registered to your phone systems, they can make and receive calls using your business line from anywhere. Even if certain technicians are unavailable, your cloud-based phone system will simply redirect the call to the next most qualified person. All this reduces call wait times and makes your services much more accessible for clients.
Drive higher booking rates
With access to customer information, preferences, and histories, CSRs can understand their clients’ needs and have informed conversations with them. This, in turn, helps representatives recommend appropriate services and encourage clients to make an appointment.
If clients agree to an appointment, WorkBuddy’s job scheduling tools make it easy to identify the best technicians for the job based on certifications, availability, and relative location. From there, CSRs can reserve vacant time slots and update people’s schedules with a click of a button.
Access to call recording features
Cloud-based phone systems are capable of recording inbound and outbound calls, offering a host of benefits to your operations. For starters, recording phone calls is a great way to keep detailed archives of previous client interactions. Top cloud-based phone systems can automatically store digital recordings in your job management platform that you can use to recall specific instructions on a project. In fact, if project delivery issues occur, call recordings will allow technicians to pinpoint the source of miscommunication and address any overlooked details.
Listening in on calls also lets you assess your CSR’s performance and check whether correct procedures are being followed. If employees are having dead-end calls with clients, you can use the recordings to show them what they’re doing wrong. You can even have employees listen to their experienced colleagues’ calls to teach them valuable cold-calling, answering, and upselling techniques. After all, it’s much easier to train employees on the finer points of tone and timing when there are real-world examples they can refer to.
Finally, recordings let you dissect call scripts, identify problems, and modify them to improve client satisfaction. If appointment confirmation calls seem too ambiguous, for instance, your new scripts must clarify the purpose of the call, services expected, and confirmation of availability.
Gain valuable insights through call histories
Call histories keep a comprehensive log of your incoming and outgoing calls. It includes details such as contact profiles, phone numbers and extensions used, call time, date, and duration. Linking call history data to your job management database helps you analyse staff performance and communication patterns against jobs.
Insights from these call logs can then guide future communication strategies. For example, you may need to increase follow-up calls on large projects if clients are always overdue on progress payments. In a different scenario, if call history logs indicate that CSRs are taking too long to resolve issues, additional training may be in order.
Grow your business
Augmenting job management systems with cloud-based phone features leads to increased revenue. After all, winning your clients’ loyalty through fine-tuned customer services means they’re more likely to do business with your company again. Also, with greater insight into your clients and their preferences, you can unlock potential upselling opportunities to increase your profit margins.
Moreover, job management platforms come with customer and contractor portals where users can seamlessly share files, schedules, and compliance related to a job. When cloud-based phone systems are added into the mix, users get access to powerful features like their call and user history, last time called and history of when repairs made. This helps build transparent and efficient customer service.
If your company is looking to boost profits and improve client interactions, combining cloud phone systems and job management platforms is crucial. WorkBuddy can work with the most advanced cloud-based phone systems to put your business ahead of the curve. Contact our specialists today to see how we can integrate your cloud PBX with WorkBuddy.
