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I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just don’t feel like dealing with the phone. Yesterday I had to take the day off to drive my wife to the peridontics for some minor oral surgery. She generally answers my home inspection phone calls and just before we left she reminded me twice to forward the phone to my cell. My mind start to rationalize that people can wait till we get home and there probably won’t be any calls anyway, blah, blah, blah.
What’s a missed opportunity worth? Not only did I not book the four waiting inquiries for inspections, I lost the future referrals that most inspections generate. The realtors who called ended up using another firm, and guess what, its entirely likely they could actually like the new inspector better than me. So if you care to add it all up, I lost the four inspections, the additional future referrals that the inspections generate, and quite possibly a realtor or two. Realtors are generally worth 10 -20 inspections a year, the inspections plus the referrals generally generated would be in the range of 8 – 20.
So figure, 18 present and future inspections lost if I’m lucky. At $300.00 per inspection I most likely lost a minimum, (minimum is a key word here) of $5,400 dollars because I was lazy and didn’t feel like answering my phone.
Keep in mind that everything you do is cumulative. The phone doesn’t ring today because of today’s efforts, it rings because of your total past efforts. All your marketing to make the phone ring is useless unless you answer the phone when it does ring. A very good case can be made for the call centers specializing in booking inspections. This is a referral business, either past customers or realtors generate the most and least costly sales year after year. Indeed, they can be counted on if your any good at what you do and your marketing follow up is in place. The follow up and referral generation (past efforts) is the reason that so many inspectors with 5 to 7 years of experience are booked out at least a week in advance.
$5,400.00 lost to the lazy man’s bet. Bet they can wait till tonight, I’ll bet there won’t be any solid inspection inquires. I’ll bet this figure is way high and the realtors will stay loyal because, blah blah bla. Poor bets for a guy who doesn’t answer his phone in a profession where time is of the essence.
Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com