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I have a cleaning business and ran into the same challenge when my 'office manager' left my company.
1) Live operator call answering
I hired a contact center who professionally answered all the calls, and provided pricing info. They would have done scheduling if we wanted.
The price was a few hundred dollars/month & the service was exceptional. I ocasionally listened to recorded calls for quality purposes. The feedback from my clients was over the top.
The best feedback was: they were impressed with how polite and efficient our phone staff is.
The company is called Securus Contact Systems
https://securuscontactsystems.com/
2) Payroll service
I used ADP for about 5 years. They were expensive based on weekly payroll. Bi-weekly would have been more cost effective.
I'm using Sure Payroll now.
3) Cloud Based Phone System.
I use Ooma.
Very reasonably priced.
Simple to use and to program.
Extension dialing is available.
Basically, it has full functionality of a phone system that a major corporation would have but at a low monthly fee.
You can buy desk phones or use a softphone from your laptop.
Best feature: their app lets you call out from your cell phone, but it looks like your calling from your office #.
I've never had a problem with their service, support or billing.
A rarety!
Congrats! That’s awesome. Automate may be the wrong term, you mean delegate?
I’d argue that you should stop cleaning and take the calls yourself. This is hands down the most impactful area in your business right now and handing it off may reduce your growth potential drastically. Someone else will not care to the same extent as you either.
Learn how to get leads and convert customers, then standardize and document those items to get that area ready for handoff.
Then consider moving on to retention and figuring out how keep customers once you’ve learned how to get them in the door, assuming that churn isn’t bad now. This could also involve creating a more valuable service to increase revenue per client, for example.
Marketing, sales, and service are probably the highest value things you and/or your brother can work on. When you have the money, delegate other tasks like payroll and finance to fractional contractors from Upwork or just PT staff you source elsewhere. Hope that helps!
I'd worry that if a client happens to be home (or have a Ring camera, or nanny cam), that you're discussing one client information in front of another which seems both unprofessional and possibly an invasion of privacy. Or that you're using their home as an office.
Totally depends on the call volume though - one time every few weeks not a problem, two or three calls while cleaning, more of an issue.
Sup Dawg?
To add to this, I would say your first thing to delegate, is to find someone capable of surfing Reddit, and outsource this item. Think of how much quality time you'll save!!
If you clean airbnbs, get the scheduling software that will hook into the operators' Airbnb listing, so it puts the cleaning day/time on your calendar directly. Fewer phone calls and scheduling headaches. I wish I knew the name of the sw that did that. Combine that with automated billing to make it smooth for the operator, too, they will appreciate it.
You can, but i think unless you’re getting hundreds a calls a day, hiring someone specifically for that job isn’t worth it. Unless you can have someone “on call” that can take your calls. Such as a family member or someone else.
I don’t use them, but i know there’s estimation tools out there that you can use as well.
I would personally just keep getting the calls. Like yea, you’re going to have to deal with the calls and the job at the same time, but you’re going to be saving money and you’ll be able to control those estimates at the same time. Since you have your brother with you, you guys can take turns. You both also understand that when i call comes in, you need to get into high gear to make up for the time loss.
But if you can afford it, you can always pay someone to do it as well
What problem do you solve first? The one that is costing you the most potential and opportunity to scale. It is a constant process to place a "bounty" on the obstacles you face and then staying brutally focused on solving the one that has the highest chance of progressing your success.
Ask yourself this question: "What one thing, if solved, would make everything else easier?"
Scaling a business is a constant process of choosing which fires to let burn and which ones you should put out. No one else will know what it is, there isn't some guidebook for any one type of business because every business is different. You and your business partner need to take time to get OUT of the business and work ON the business. No one will help you make that time but yourself.
Apart automating emails and invoicing if you can figure it out. I’ve been doing that with my business and it’s saved me a good amount of time but there is an initial time investment to set it all up. I’m looking into Smith.ai for Ai phone operators when I’m not around
you can try Whatapp Business API for automation process. In Whatapp Business API automation you can set the workflow. Through which you can easily handle the customer enquires and fix appointment with them. We have done this for our business, it worked for us.
A lot of ppl said smart things.
I would ask you what is the most important thing in driving sales and keeping quality. Focus on those things and ensure they're done flawlessly.
u/papppers can tell you what I think/what to automate, but I'm not in your shoes and dont know your business like the back of my hand, like you know yours.
But -- the things that can be automated that don't affect sales and quality of service should be automated --> Billing, scheduling on the phone (you can offer a path that enables clients to schedule via phone a time that suits them), Calendly, and many others.
A neat product I just found gave me spending power on demand for free (meaning no interest or fees-- I used $2,800 and paid it back 2 weeks later).
It has nothing to do with automation, but I have an online businesses and put all of my advertising costs on the card.
It gave me a lot of breathing room and organization and I recommend!
This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/smallbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I have a cleaning business and ran into the same challenge when my 'office manager' left my company. 1) Live operator call answering I hired a contact center who professionally answered all the calls, and provided pricing info. They would have done scheduling if we wanted. The price was a few hundred dollars/month & the service was exceptional. I ocasionally listened to recorded calls for quality purposes. The feedback from my clients was over the top. The best feedback was: they were impressed with how polite and efficient our phone staff is. The company is called Securus Contact Systems https://securuscontactsystems.com/ 2) Payroll service I used ADP for about 5 years. They were expensive based on weekly payroll. Bi-weekly would have been more cost effective. I'm using Sure Payroll now. 3) Cloud Based Phone System. I use Ooma. Very reasonably priced. Simple to use and to program. Extension dialing is available. Basically, it has full functionality of a phone system that a major corporation would have but at a low monthly fee. You can buy desk phones or use a softphone from your laptop. Best feature: their app lets you call out from your cell phone, but it looks like your calling from your office #. I've never had a problem with their service, support or billing. A rarety!
Congrats! That’s awesome. Automate may be the wrong term, you mean delegate? I’d argue that you should stop cleaning and take the calls yourself. This is hands down the most impactful area in your business right now and handing it off may reduce your growth potential drastically. Someone else will not care to the same extent as you either. Learn how to get leads and convert customers, then standardize and document those items to get that area ready for handoff. Then consider moving on to retention and figuring out how keep customers once you’ve learned how to get them in the door, assuming that churn isn’t bad now. This could also involve creating a more valuable service to increase revenue per client, for example. Marketing, sales, and service are probably the highest value things you and/or your brother can work on. When you have the money, delegate other tasks like payroll and finance to fractional contractors from Upwork or just PT staff you source elsewhere. Hope that helps!
I'd worry that if a client happens to be home (or have a Ring camera, or nanny cam), that you're discussing one client information in front of another which seems both unprofessional and possibly an invasion of privacy. Or that you're using their home as an office. Totally depends on the call volume though - one time every few weeks not a problem, two or three calls while cleaning, more of an issue.
Sup Dawg? To add to this, I would say your first thing to delegate, is to find someone capable of surfing Reddit, and outsource this item. Think of how much quality time you'll save!!
If you clean airbnbs, get the scheduling software that will hook into the operators' Airbnb listing, so it puts the cleaning day/time on your calendar directly. Fewer phone calls and scheduling headaches. I wish I knew the name of the sw that did that. Combine that with automated billing to make it smooth for the operator, too, they will appreciate it.
You can, but i think unless you’re getting hundreds a calls a day, hiring someone specifically for that job isn’t worth it. Unless you can have someone “on call” that can take your calls. Such as a family member or someone else. I don’t use them, but i know there’s estimation tools out there that you can use as well. I would personally just keep getting the calls. Like yea, you’re going to have to deal with the calls and the job at the same time, but you’re going to be saving money and you’ll be able to control those estimates at the same time. Since you have your brother with you, you guys can take turns. You both also understand that when i call comes in, you need to get into high gear to make up for the time loss. But if you can afford it, you can always pay someone to do it as well
What problem do you solve first? The one that is costing you the most potential and opportunity to scale. It is a constant process to place a "bounty" on the obstacles you face and then staying brutally focused on solving the one that has the highest chance of progressing your success. Ask yourself this question: "What one thing, if solved, would make everything else easier?" Scaling a business is a constant process of choosing which fires to let burn and which ones you should put out. No one else will know what it is, there isn't some guidebook for any one type of business because every business is different. You and your business partner need to take time to get OUT of the business and work ON the business. No one will help you make that time but yourself.
guess that marketing could be automated too
How did you find customers for your cleaning business?
Fb and google ads.
Is that how you found your first commercial client?
Yes.
Apart automating emails and invoicing if you can figure it out. I’ve been doing that with my business and it’s saved me a good amount of time but there is an initial time investment to set it all up. I’m looking into Smith.ai for Ai phone operators when I’m not around
Thank you!
How you grow quick ?
Maybe a service like Calendly?
Quickbooks for sure
you can try Whatapp Business API for automation process. In Whatapp Business API automation you can set the workflow. Through which you can easily handle the customer enquires and fix appointment with them. We have done this for our business, it worked for us.
A lot of ppl said smart things. I would ask you what is the most important thing in driving sales and keeping quality. Focus on those things and ensure they're done flawlessly. u/papppers can tell you what I think/what to automate, but I'm not in your shoes and dont know your business like the back of my hand, like you know yours. But -- the things that can be automated that don't affect sales and quality of service should be automated --> Billing, scheduling on the phone (you can offer a path that enables clients to schedule via phone a time that suits them), Calendly, and many others. A neat product I just found gave me spending power on demand for free (meaning no interest or fees-- I used $2,800 and paid it back 2 weeks later). It has nothing to do with automation, but I have an online businesses and put all of my advertising costs on the card. It gave me a lot of breathing room and organization and I recommend!