The secret to a streamlined construction and trade workflow: Answer every call!

Construction and trade businesses feel the burn of miscommunication more than most. The slightest oversight can derail projects and schedules, which nobody wants. Carefully planning projects and ensuring streamlined construction and trade workflows can help make the best use of your resources.

Businesses try hard to stay organised and produce exceptional service. So, how do oversights keep happening? Most problems pile up in the background after staff leave the office. Lots of calls are missed outside of office hours. And this problem isn’t exclusive to construction and trade companies.

Businesses across every industry miss calls routinely. And the impact of missed calls is usually more significant than it seems.

Why communication is complex for construction and trade businesses.

Every business works hard to communicate effectively. But it’s a lot more complex than it seems. Construction and trade companies answering every call can feel incredibly challenging. 

Team communication

Construction and trade businesses don’t have the luxury of having everyone working under one roof. Some are in the office, while others are out working on jobs.

Having your team spread across multiple locations makes communication and managing mishaps tricky. 

Customer communication

Construction project management involves multiple customer touchpoints. Whether it’s onboarding a new customer or completing a project, you must capture information accurately.

Missing customer calls creates problems. Customers may need to cancel an appointment but can’t get through to a real person. So, they leave a voicemail but it might be too late before you listen to it. If situations like this happen multiple times a month, it creates disruption you could do without.

Whether it’s team or customer communication, problems pile up when information is missed. 

Common reasons why construction and trade businesses miss calls.

• Unprepared for call spikes: It’s likely that construction and trade businesses find answering every call impossible. Peak seasons and marketing campaigns can lead to big call spikes. The phone won’t stop ringing, which is great news but it’s also stressful if you’re not prepared. Businesses answer as many calls as possible but will send plenty to voicemail. It’s not ideal, as 69% of callers who are sent to voicemail don’t leave messages. Even if they do, you need to make time to call them back.
• Clunky call transfers: Calls may be for specific people or departments. Should they not answer, the caller may give up. Call transferring protocols need regular inspection to ensure callers have a smooth experience and always reach the right person.
• Staff on-site can’t always be reached: There are many reasons for this. They could be in an area with poor phone signal, it could be too noisy to hear the call, or they’ve simply turned their phone off as it’s not a good time to talk.
• No protocols in place: Calls can slip through the cracks when nobody is answering calls. Gaps commonly appear outside office hours, during lunch breaks, and when staff are absent. 

The impact of poor call handling in trade and construction businesses.

• Projects get derailed: Miscommunication can impact trade workflow efficiency, and lead to delays and increased costs to compensate for them. One project’s delay can affect multiple projects.
• Not capturing leads: Callers are likely to try a competitor if they can’t speak to a human when they call or wait too long after leaving a voicemail message. It’s frustrating as your hard work, reputation, and marketing attracted these leads in the first place.
• Inaccurate records: Missing calls leads to key information getting left behind, from customer requests to project changes. This causes more admin and tedious back-and-forth to figure out what went wrong.
• Damaged reputation: Customers understandably become upset when a preventable problem occurs because you didn’t answer their call. Reliability is crucial for retaining customers and building trust, as they need to feel confident their needs are a priority. A bad reputation is costly for construction and trade businesses since proximity is vital. People will ask others for recommendations, so you want to be the first name on everyone’s lips for the right reasons.
• Team friction: Mistakes can affect everyone. Routinely missing calls and mismanaging customers can get tedious. Staff may eventually seek employment elsewhere.
• Profits take a hit: Being swamped with calls and going through voicemail messages takes time. Productivity goes down, leads are missed, and poorly managing resources can chip away at your profits.

How construction and trade companies can capture every call.

Missed calls impact on business. The ideal outcome isn’t just to answer every call; it’s to answer every call and give callers exceptional customer service. There are many ways to answer the phone, but consumer research strongly suggests people prefer speaking to real people rather than AI or chatbots. 

We commissioned OnePoll to explore what people really think of AI in customer service. It revealed that 78% prefer to speak with a real person when they contact a business. 

Construction and trades answering every call is possible with the following tools.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems.

Should phone lines be busy, an IVR system can welcome callers and place them in a queue. A list of options will help guide them to the right person or department. IVR systems work well when call traffic is relatively low but can be frustrating if customers wait in line for too long. 

AI and bots.

While online tools can support businesses by welcoming and pre-screening callers, they should only supplement – not replace – human interaction. Transparency is key, as 81% of people think companies should disclose if they’re using AI. Ultimately, real human interaction creates trust and builds stronger customer relationships, which AI alone cannot achieve.

Use a construction and trade answering service.

Teaming up with a 24/7 construction and trade answering service ensures you never miss a call again. A team of friendly receptionists can take calls, capture and qualify leads, book appointments, transfer calls, and more. Construction and trade companies answering calls 24/7 can stamp out many common problems.

There are call management solutions and tools at your disposal that make it possible to take every call day or night. With every call answered, customers can be eased into your workflows and have a much-improved experience. This strengthens customer relationships and frees up time to take on more jobs and focus on other areas that demand attention.