This past week I wanted to get a tree pruner to come out and estimate how much it would cost to top a tree in my yard. The tree, a gigantic maple, is interfering with the hydro lines running into the house, and I'm not brave enough or foolish enough to attempt such a job myself.
Opening my handy yellow pages, I found eight tree care/pruning companies listed, and called all of them. Of the eight companies I called, only one answered the phone! When I dialed the other seven, all that happened was the phone rang and rang.
Now, in this case, I was a pre-sold customer. I wanted this particular service, and I had gone to the trouble to seek out businesses that would provide this service. As you would guess, the company that answered the phone got the job.
Being a busy person, I don't have the time or inclination to call back several times on the off-chance that someone may be available to talk to me, when the company I've called has given no indication that they're even interested in doing business with me. Your potential customers are busy people, too, and won't call back either.
What can we assume about these other small businesses? Is it true that although they bothered to place ads in the yellow pages, they're not interested in doing business? Hardly. But they're definitely businesses that are not realizing their full potential, because they're not making it easy for potential customers to communicate with them.
While there are many small businesses that are one person operations, that doesn't mean that the shop should be closed when that one person isn't available for a customer to talk to. It's crucial that you ensure that your potential customers can reach you at all times, or at least get the impression that you do want to talk to them.
If those other seven tree pruners were out working when I called, they could have given themselves a chance at my business by having a specific message on their answering machine, telling me that they appreciated my call and saying when they would be back in the office that day, or giving me an alternate cell phone or pager number. They could have someone else answer the phone, such as a telephone answering service. They could have given me a chance to leave a message for them on voice mail, or used call forwarding to take my call themselves.
You need to make it easy for your customers to communicate with you by ensuring that you have the telephone and communications services that let your potential customers at least know that you appreciate their interest. If you're one of those people that's trying to run a business with an "unmanned" phone, contact your phone company today and get the communication services you need. The telephone is or should be a business tool, not a business killer.
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