How much should I pay someone to answer my phone?

[daniel@procarpet]

How much would you pay someone to answer your phone and schedule jobs? I was thinking 10 dollars per appointment. That would include first time customers as well as repeats. I have been checking the minutes on my phone and it seems new cusotmers take on average 10 minutes and repeats around 2 minutes. After 10 minutes I find an excuse to get off the phone. They would also have to do a pre-appoinmtment call to confirm the appointment and a follow up thank you call.

 

[Out of Character - 0]

I think it's hard to get good consistent work out of someone who doesn't receive good consistent pay. The position in question is a very important one. If you don't have any call volume issues that would mean peaks and valleys for the employee then at least consider that you're paying them on a per appointment basis means (in their mind) that everything else you want them to do is "free". That will breed resentment with some individuals when you're having them do too much "free" work and they aren't making their appointment quota.

Add some personal financial issues (lots of them today) to a fluctuating pay and then you won't have a employee with a clear mind. When they need money and have a variable income some people let their mind get the best of them, they'll resort to irregular and unacceptable tactics to cover their shortage or get overly stressed when they can meet their goals, this can lead to all kinds of abuses and other problems making their situation even worse.


Surely you need more than just help on the phone. Have them do whatever they can handle, train them well, and progressively increase their pay if they are worthy. Eventually they should have others under them.

 

[Sticky]

my cousin has a lady answer his CC phone line for him...he pays her $50 per week and provides a cell phone for her to answer the calls....she is a stay at home mom and answers the calls at her house....she prolly answers 5 to 10 phone calls per day....

 

[royalkid]

Daniel, sounds like Robs suggestion would work good for you....? If you could find someone similar...seems like a stay-at-home Mom could use the extra $$$ and helps you....win/win.

 

[Brian R]

I would pay them a salary weekly equal to minimum wage and add bonus' for production. If you make $10,000.00 for the month (or whatever you come up with) give them $500.00...something realistic but they still have to work at it.

People at that level want security and maybe benefits.
Give them the security and let them be ambitious.
If they don't do well, replace them.

Remember, like Ken said, "hire the smile" because you can hear that over the phone.

 

[dgargan]

Best deal out there. www.fullcircle.com They know carpet cleaning and are not just an answering service. You access your schedule online and if a customer need to talk to you they can transfer the call. Call and talk to Anne or Devan

 

[Steve Toburen]

How much would you pay someone to answer your phone and schedule jobs? I was thinking 10 dollars per appointment. That would include first time customers as well as repeats. I have been checking the minutes on my phone and it seems new cusotmers take on average 10 minutes and repeats around 2 minutes. After 10 minutes I find an excuse to get off the phone. They would also have to do a pre-appoinmtment call to confirm the appointment and a follow up thank you call.

Simple answer? Ask them! Many times I would ask a prospective employee how much they wanted and it would be less than I was thinking of offering. I would then say "OK,I'll pay you what you want but tell ya what. IF you achieve these performance benchmarks I'll sweeten the pot and pay you ..." Best of both worlds. I was able to hold their feet to the fire with the promise of a raise plus they thought I was the best boss ever. (At least till they actually started working for me!)

What you are proposing to do, Daniel, has worked well for quite a few SFS members in their natural progression into a full time office staff. Another good source of people to answer your phone are retired folks. They are often very skilled, know how to communicate with your target market, appreciate having something to do with their day and they usually don't have the issue of crying babies in the background!

Island Boy
www.StrategiesForSuccess.com

PS Whoever you use (or even if it is you) it is critical to actually answer the phone correctly and professionally sell the job and your company over the phone. For how our company did this including a phone script that often (not always) would convert a so-called "price shopper" into a customer just go here:

http://www.strategiesforsuccess.com/175 ... one-format

No charge for the download. You will need to fill out a simple, one-time-only registration form. Just make a note of your user name and the password that will be e-mailed to you immediately after you hit "finish". Then you can change your password to anything you like.

 

[Royal Man]

I would think that you would have to pay at least $450.00 per week + incentive bonuses.

You need to motivate them to close the calls most answering services will not close calls. They are more just order takers.

They can also call commercial, call back your appointments from the previous day for quality control, input your data base, mail thank/reminder cards, reply to web quotes etc.....

 

[Brian R]

Just remember to pay them a little more than they are worth as long as they are worth keeping.
Security to the company is important too.
You don't want to have to train someone else in 6 months to a year. That's money lost.

Your phone is one of the most important parts of your company. Deals are made and lost right there and you might not even know it.
Websites bring them in, referals, ads...whatever. But if you have a crappy phone person, it cuts the line of production instantly.

If I had a third 50%, I would pay them that. :wink: