Powered Now has launched Powered Now Receptionist, a new service designed to help tradespeople capture potential jobs when they are unable to answer the phone.
Available on iOS, Android and the web, Powered Now Receptionist engages with customers, holds a natural conversation, asks relevant questions about the job and books appointments directly into the tradesperson’s diary.
The idea is to tackle a familiar problem for tradespeople who may be on a ladder, under a boiler or otherwise unable to stop work to answer an incoming call. Instead of returning a missed call later, users can find that the enquiry has already been handled and an appointment confirmed.
The launch follows Powered Now’s NOW Report, research into the working lives of UK tradespeople. According to the company, the research identified missed calls and slow administration as significant causes of lost work, with tradespeople potentially missing jobs they were unaware of because they could not answer the phone.
Powered Now also points to research suggesting that 33% of small businesses fail to answer incoming calls and 69% of people reaching voicemail hang up without leaving a message. With the company estimating that a single call to a trade business can be worth between £200 and £600, the potential cost of unanswered calls can quickly mount.
Robert Brown of RB Electrical Services has been using Powered Now Receptionist since its launch.
“Within the first week of using the receptionist, it answered six calls that would previously have gone to voicemail and four of those turned into booked jobs. That’s a 66% conversion rate on work I’d have simply missed otherwise.”
Benjamin Dyer, CEO and Co-Founder of Powered Now, says, “We built Powered Now Receptionist to address one of the clearest gaps our research uncovered, the moment a phone rings and nobody’s free to answer it. Now, no job needs to be missed due to a lost call. There’s no excuse for it to happen.”
Powered Now Receptionist forms part of the wider Powered Now software offering for trade businesses, providing another way for users to manage customer enquiries and administration while working on site.
More information is available from the company.
