Before the holiday rush: a carpet cleaner's phone check

Before Thanksgiving, a lot of homeowners want their carpets cleaned before family shows up. For a small carpet cleaning company, that means the phone gets busiest during the weeks you're busiest on jobs, and the calls you miss go to whoever answers next.

Here are five questions you can answer this week, on paper, to find out how many of those calls you're actually losing.

A note from Logan

I get asked a lot whether a small cleaning company really needs help with the phone. My answer is always the same: I don't know yet, and neither do you, until you look.

Most owners I talk to around Prosper and Collin County have a feeling about their missed calls. Some think it's a couple a week. Some think it's a lot more. Very few have ever written it down. The questions below are the same ones I'd walk you through if we were sitting in your truck between jobs. They take a week to answer and cost nothing.

Question 1: Where are you when the phone rings?

Think about a normal day in November. You're running the wand in a living room, the truck mount is roaring out front, and your phone is in your pocket on vibrate. Or it's on the dash. Or it's on the counter next to a customer's coffee maker because your hands are wet.

Write down the times of day you physically can't answer. For most cleaners, that's most of the working day. It's not a discipline problem. You can't clean a sectional and talk a new customer through pricing at the same time.

Question 2: What does a caller hear when you don't pick up?

Call your own business number from someone else's phone and let it ring. Count the rings. Listen to the greeting. Does it say your company name? Does it tell the caller what happens next, or just "leave a message"?

If you've never done this, it's worth the two minutes. We wrote a whole post on it: Call your own number tonight. A lot of owners are surprised by what they hear, whether it's an old greeting, a full mailbox, or a carrier's robot voice reading back the number.

Question 3: How many calls did you miss this week?

Your phone already keeps this list. Open your recent calls each night this week and count the missed ones from numbers you don't recognize. Write the count on a sticky note or the back of a work order.

Then ask: how many of those left a voicemail? Many people who reach voicemail on a service call just hang up and try the next company. A missed call with no voicemail isn't a wrong number. It's often someone who wanted a quote and moved on.

Question 4: How long did it take you to call back?

For each missed call you did return, jot down roughly when it came in and when you called back. Be honest. If the call came in at 10 AM and you got back to it after your last job at 6 PM, write 8 hours.

Someone trying to get carpets done before Thanksgiving isn't going to wait all day. They're calling a few companies and booking the first one that picks up and gives them a time. By the time you call back, the person on the other end has often already said yes to someone else.

Question 5: What happens after hours and on weekends?

Plenty of homeowners call in the evening, after work, when they're standing in the living room looking at the stain the dog left. Others call on Saturday morning. Write down whether anyone answers at those times, or whether those calls sit until Monday.

If the answer is "they sit," that's where a lot of holiday work goes. A homeowner who called Saturday and heard nothing by Sunday afternoon has usually found someone else.

What to do with the answers

At the end of the week, you'll have a short list: how many calls came in while you were on jobs, how many you missed, how long the callbacks took, and what happened after hours. That's the real picture. No guessing.

If the numbers are small, good. You don't need to change anything, and you've spent nothing to find out.

If they're not small, the fix is usually simpler than hiring someone to sit by the phone. Here's what we set up for cleaners: when you don't pick up, the call forwards to a line that answers in your company's name. It takes the caller's name, number, address, and what they need cleaned (how many rooms, any stairs, pet stains, upholstery), and texts it to you in about a minute.

It won't quote a price. It won't book a time on your calendar. It won't pretend to be you. It just makes sure the person who called gets an answer and you get their details while they're still waiting to hear back.

Your number stays the same. Calls you answer work exactly like they do now. Only the ones you miss go to the line. More on how it works on the answering page.

Why Logan does this himself

Logan Bishop runs Hired Hand AI out of Prosper. He tests every tool himself before he recommends it, sets up every line himself, and owners reach him on his cell, not a help desk.

Missed-call and after-hours answering is $250 a month, and the first 14 days are free. No contract. Run the five questions above, and if the count tells you calls are slipping, the 14 days will show you exactly what you were missing.

Get it on before the holiday calls start. Start your 14 free days and Logan will call you to set it up.