I tried em & they didn't work out at all. From another board, my post & then a post from someone who called em to book a job w/ my company.
My post:
I'm having challenges w/ Perceptionist. Nice people but maybe not the right fit for me. Someone calls & they get voice prompted to press "1" for a live person or "2" to leave a message. If they leave a message, I'm not notified by email or anything. I knew people had left messages (like friends who called back & said they left one) & didn't understand why I wasn't notified.
I found out that they only email ya for booked jobs. That to retrieve my messages I had to
1) dial 1-866-278-3826
2) hit pound
3) dial 8706
4) pound again
5) enter my 6 digit password followed by pound.
LOL!!! yeesh!!! All that & I might not have any messages.
Even the pressing 1 for the live person, as I mentioned in another post I could swear I pressed 1 but got prompted to the message thingee. Someone else did the same.
Add to that one of the people I talked to later on told me "your phone system is weird." I told her about it being an answering service & she said it was iffy if she'd have waited to leave a message had she not known me.
I've found that maybe I can talk to people better than I thought. It helps to have my process written down. I'm not getting the prices I was hoping for but by not having Perceptionist I can take $20 off anyway. So I'm doing a whole house for $150. I can live w/ that for now.
So anyway, what do you do about answering your phone? I'm thinking of an answering service. I could forward to my cell but don't want to be getting calls when I'm working. That's kind of not fair to the customer who should have my undivided attention. If I had a helper & someone was still working that would be a lil different maybe.
Thanx in advance,
Danny
ps: If anyone wants to see what Perceptionist is about call my # 810-584-0376 in the next day or so. I'm gettin rid of em. I'll keep em for another day or so, so if anyone on this board wants to look into it, check it out. I'm not bashing them, just sayin it's not quite for me. It might be a good fit for ya.
A post from someone who called my company, w/ Perceptionist answering:
Danny, I called your number, pressed 1, was on hold for 3 minutes, someone answered, put me on hold for another minute. I asked him about cleaning 3 bdrms and a living room and what that would cost. He wanted my zip code so I told him I was calling for some family and that I was out of state. He couldn't give me a price. I asked how you guys cleaned and he couldn't tell me if it was HWE or with a buffer/op machine. He said that he was the only receptionist in their and that he would have someone call me.. I said goodbye!
Here is my suggestions if you don't mind.
1. Get rid of their services. In my eyes, they made your company look like you didn't know what you were doing (I obviously don't think that personally), but if I was a true customer, I wouldn't have been impressed.
2. You are just starting out. Answer the phone yourself. It really isn't a big issue having it ring in front of a customer. Just say "Excuse me on minute", take the call, get name an phone number and call them right back when you go out to your vehicle.
3. Get rid of this answering service!!!
4. First part if 1 and all of 3
Others might have had good experiences w/ em, that pretty much sums up mine though.
Take care,
Danny