In an ideal world, furnaces and air conditioners would only need service during regular business hours of 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday. That's not reality though! Customers will often say things like "I'm having people over for the holiday and my furnace just quit working" or "of course this couldn't have happened during the day" or "it was working fine yesterday!" HVAC can be unpredictable which is why Emergency Service or After Hours Service is available.
We want to provide a little information on our after hours service and some changes that have taken place within LCS. We have a story for you:
Many of you have either met or spoken to Travis or Renee, the owners of LCS Heating and Cooling. For over eight years, Travis and Renee took all of the incoming calls. With the continued growth of LCS, they were finding that they couldn't keep up on the calls. People were getting frustrated for a few reasons: 1. They were getting voicemail when they called 2. Their calls were not getting returned fast enough 3. They felt that their HVAC needs/projects/jobs weren't important. 4. Travis' phone ringing while he was meeting with customers made the customer feel like he wasn't focused.
Obviously, this was a problem! Travis and Renee felt that their inability to keep up with the phone calls was affecting the high level of customer service that they wanted to offer. The solution:
In July of 2013, they hired an office manager. Chasity is a great asset to the LCS team! Phone calls that are coming in during the day are answered, phone calls are returned and follow-up calls are made in a timely manner. Of course, Travis and Renee are always reachable by phone or email but Chasity handles much of the scheduling now.
The one problem Travis and Renee were still having was answering all of the after hours calls. These calls were being forwarded directly to Renee's cell phone. Every night, every weekend and every holiday, Renee and Travis were answering calls. Their solution to being on the phone so much was to let after hours calls go to voicemail and then returning the calls that were emergency calls in which someone needed service right away. As it turns out, people don't like leaving a message! If they needed service at 9:00pm, they didn't want to leave a message about it. They wanted to talk to someone about getting service! After receiving some great feedback from customers regarding talking to a real person versus leaving a message, Travis and Renee decided they needed a new solution. They couldn't handle all of the calls but customers didn't like leaving messages. The solution:
In February 2014, Travis and Renee hired an answering service. The answering service simply acts as an extension of LCS Heating and Cooling after regular business hours. ALL calls are answered and our customers will always have a person to talk to...whether it's midnight, a Sunday or a holiday. If the call is for immediate service, the information gets sent to the LCS technician on call. These calls are then handled right away by the technician. If the customer is calling regarding something other than immediate service, the information is sent to the LCS office and either Chasity or Renee will follow up the next business morning.
Why are we telling you all this? Because we care about what our customers think and we want our customers to understand the process. We've had some mixed feedback regarding the answering service. Most of it has been good as people are happy to have the phone answered no matter when they call. We've also had some great feedback regarding phone conversations with the answering service themselves. They are efficient and we are happy with their service. We have had some feedback in which people are unhappy that it's not Travis or Renee answering the phone or that Travis isn't available to talk at that time. This has been an adjustment for everyone. It's hard to make changes when things have been done a certain way for almost nine years.
We promise, these are GOOD changes. Providing the best possible customer service is a priority for us. We want to thank you for your business, your referrals and an exciting 8.5 years! We're looking forward to growing our business with you and providing you exceptional service...any time, any day or any night. If you have any feedback for us, it's always appreciated and can be emailed to Renee through the website: www.LCSheatingandcooling.com