It's 7am and I am actually looking at my OOma phone set up. What's an OOMA?you ask. Remember magic jack? That lil whatever device that plugs into.,,, anyways OOMA is a VoIP phone system that takes all my calls, it forwards them via text or vm to my cell phone. When I first got it and set up my two numbers, home and business, I had the handset on two different ring tones so I could identify if it was home or business. Of course I always picked up the biz ring tone in hopes it was a potential customer. I soon found out that most of my first year calls ( around 80%) were solicitors. They wanted me to spend money I had not generated yet. Advertisers, SEO, companies falsely representing google, penny savers, val-Pak etc etc etc..,
Anyways, all that to say this. The phone rings the opposite way after the third year now in business with 80% of my calls are customers. I get so many calls that I had to change my VM and respond instead of picking up. Mostly because I am out the door now on jobs and bids to do future jobs. Do I miss calls? Not really because I get a text of all missed call numbers and that alone tells me if someone is calling from my area code as a client or just another out of area solicitor. If the out of area solicitor does not leave a courtesy VM as to why they called I have the option to block that number through the system like a smart phone can. If a client does not leave a message then I just simply call their number back and tell them I am sorry I missed their call and then find out what they need.
I am not selling OOma but it is the best $99 I have ever spent in the last three years for business. The only way I can out do that is an answering service that knows my business like the back of my hand and can answer all questions while on the phone.
Now the reason for this particular post- which is not OOma .., lol ( sidetracked)
It is now 7:34 and I usually will get one call just before 8 am. That is when the business officially opens and sometimes there are savy people who want to get a jump on the day early. It is Friday though and people are planning their weekends.
(So am I )
The most interesting thing about my calls now, is that because of my blogging and social networking, I am getting more calls everyday asking about services Im not focused on,in my surface cleaning business. Here are some examples that if I choose to capitalize on right now it might require me to hire and expand just to meet the needs....
1) window cleaning
2) concrete polishing/ grinding/ cutting
3) pavers
4) concrete pouring
5) tile grout repairs
6) carpet dye
7) throw rug services
And there are several others but these are pretty frequent requests. And they somehow found us by google, The service request list has grown exponentially and organically.
In the case of blogging about what we do, more means more. The more people visit our different web presences, the more google throws us into the search results..,,
Happy blogging folks!
