What to ask a customer on the phone

Ask less than you think

The temptation on a first call is to ask everything. Full name, full address, postcode, email, how they heard about you. Each extra question is a chance for the caller to lose patience, and people ringing a trade are often stressed already.

The test for any question is simple: would the answer change what you do next? If knowing it would not change whether you take the job, what you bring or what you charge, it can wait until you ring back or arrive. Most trades need four or five things from a first call, not fifteen.

These are the rules we follow when we set up a receptionist, and they work just as well if you are answering the phone yourself or briefing whoever does.

Rules that apply to every trade

• React before you ask. When someone tells you their ceiling is leaking, say something human first. Then ask your question.
• One question at a time. Two questions in one breath get one answer.
• Use their words. If they call it the fuse box, it is the fuse box. Don't correct them.
• Don't ask for a postcode as a matter of course. Many people don't know it under pressure, and a road and a town is usually enough to decide whether you cover it. Take a postcode if they offer one.
• Get the number and read it back. It is the one thing you cannot manage without. Read it back in small groups to check it.
• Don't diagnose or quote on the first call unless you are sure. A wrong price given in a hurry is harder to undo than no price.
• Say what happens next. One line: someone will ring you back shortly. It stops them ringing the next firm.

Plumbers and heating engineers

You need to know what is wrong, how bad it is and whether it can wait.

• What has happened: a leak, a blockage, no hot water or a boiler fault
• Whether water is still running, and whether they have found the stopcock
• For a boiler: the make if they know it, and anything showing on the display
• Whether it is a house, a flat or a business
• Whereabouts they are and how soon they need someone

If anyone mentions a smell of gas, stop the ordinary questions. They need to get out and ring the emergency number, not describe their boiler.

Electricians

• What is wrong, or what they want done
• Whether anything is unsafe: a burning smell, sparks or a shock
• Whether it is the whole property or one circuit
• Whether it is a fault, new work or an inspection
• Whereabouts they are and how soon they need someone

Never suggest they reset or touch anything. You cannot see what they are looking at.

Garages and mobile mechanics

• What they need: an MOT, a service, a repair, or what the fault is in their own words
• The make and model, and the registration if they have it to hand
• Whether the car starts and drives
• For a mobile mechanic: where the car is and whether there is room to work
• When they would like it done

The registration is worth asking for because it lets you look up parts before you ring back. If they don't know it, move on.

Vehicle recovery

Recovery calls are the ones where short matters most. The driver is at the roadside and wants to hear that help is coming.

• Where the vehicle is now, however they can describe it. On a motorway: which direction and roughly which junction
• Where it needs to go
• What the vehicle is, and whether it is manual or automatic
• What happened
• Whether it still rolls

That last question decides which truck and what equipment. A link the driver can tap to share their location saves the most time of all.

Locksmiths

• Whether they are locked out now or want locks changed
• Whether anyone is at risk: a child or a pet inside
• What kind of door or lock, if they know
• Whereabouts they are
• How soon they need someone

Proof that they live there is a question for the doorstep, not the phone.

Roofers, builders and landscapers

These are quoted jobs, so the first call is about deciding whether to visit.

• What they want done, and for a roof, whether water is coming in now
• The type of property
• For building work: whether they have drawings or planning permission
• Access: how you would get materials or a machine to it
• When they hope to start, and when you could come and look

Asking for a photo is often the most useful question of all. A picture from the ground tells a roofer whether it needs a scaffold.

Write it down the same way every time

However you take the call, record it in the same order: name, number, where, what, how soon. When every job arrives in the same shape, you can read it at a glance between jobs and nothing gets forgotten. That is how the job text from a Kallorix receptionist is laid out, and it is a good habit even on the back of a receipt.

If you would like to hear these questions asked for your own business, the free demo builds a receptionist from your website in a couple of minutes.