The heat is on this summer! And it’s typically a peak season for sales and service calls among companies across the heating and air conditioning, plumbing and electrical industries. Your office phones likely ring often, more emails are answered and customers call frequently regarding emergencies at their homes during the hottest months of the year.
Your office team members – call takers and dispatchers – are the heartbeat for internal and external operations within home service businesses regardless of size. They’re a vital piece of your company, providing customer service to clients while juggling daily tasks and receiving constant job updates from technicians in the field. Your call takers and dispatchers need to be organized in that hectic daily environment, and their efficiency directly affects growth and profits.
Our Office Champions Academy, the essential results-driven training for dispatchers and call takers, is your answer for rapid profit growth and better customer reviews. But there are plenty of small tricks to kickstart change before you register! Here are four simple tips for better organization among your office team.
Don’t let your desk transform into a disaster
Your desk is the epicenter for work tasks throughout the day, whether those are accomplished on a computer, phone, notepads – or all the above. Loose papers, files, sticky notes and additional materials can become lost quickly as small piles of clutter turn into large stacks. And, at that point, good luck finding those sales tickets, job details and other necessary documents that keep your in-home service business operating efficiently.
A desk in disarray eventually erodes productivity, and those precious minutes spent searching for a sheet of paper could’ve been utilized to build a stronger relationship with a customer who called seeking your service. Filing systems, desk calendars and decluttered drawers can be a starting point for better motivation and productivity for call takers, dispatchers – even managers.
Prioritizing the important tasks
Your daily workload can quickly pile up, pulling you in several simultaneous directions. It’s hectic, and the peak season of the in-home service industry isn’t immune to the chaos. Prioritizing tasks – everything from preparing documents to filing paperwork – is important for managing stress and remaining organized on the job.
Scorecards and ranking systems can help strategically hash out what work needs to be completed in the immediate future. Lists, calendars and planners typically aid in prioritize daily tasks and provide an attainable roadmap for efficiency within an office. Crossing off items, rather than deleting tasks altogether, even helps with tracking projects after completion!
Your time is valuable – stop wasting it!
Time management is an imperative skill to combat distractions, like ringing phones, fingers clacking on keyboards and loud conversations, within an office. Lists and scorecards, like what was mentioned above, certainly help mitigate procrastination. But learning how to utilize your energy to take on important tasks is important as well.
Your toughest jobs should be completed when your energy is at its peak. Train yourself to focus on challenging assignments at the right time, and stop wasting those precious minutes of productivity!
Your email inbox shouldn’t become a scavenger hunt
Unread emails stack up and get lost easily, whether it’s internal correspondence or customer inquiries about particular services and sales. Responding to those questions is an important piece of client relations – and generating solid testimonials through thoughtful and thorough replies.
Your email likely incorporates options for tabs and folders. Utilizing those features, flagging customer questions and prioritizing which correspondence is the most time-sensitive can keep your inbox clean and stress levels low!
Your office staff can grow – your company, too – through even the simplest organizational strategies. Stop wasting valuable time searching for emails, sifting through documents and neglecting customer service. This is your chance to create an all-around better business, starting with your call takers and dispatchers!
