I get a fair amount of people who will text or email when the phone option is available. Perhaps they feel they can express themselves on an uncertain subject more reliably, at least for initial communication. However, a sizeable percentage of the emails will then include no contact number and the texts are often phrased as if they'd prefer your reply by text.
It's tempting to be irritated and the needless elongation of process but unless you're constantly inundated with work it's probably unwise to act that way. When a customer seems to require more effort to get to the point of sale than others (excluding those who are just not worth working for) I tend to picture the effort already expended in getting them where they are: jobs resulting in recommendation, leafleting, working on website etc.. Then to drop them at the last hurdle seems silly.
But it can be a mission. I have found when I reply "yes, happy to help, please call on this number to arrange" I don't hear back from a fair few. And I don't think they're time wasters, they're just in 'online mode' or 'smart phone mode.' They feel reclusive, extremely low on concentration (they're online) and quickly get distracted and drop the bait. They can however be coaxed into being a customer. But it's long winded. I find myself replying with a list of about 5 current times I could come have a look and telling them to "text this number with their preference and address asap"
Anyone else court custards in this way? And if you don't - and you're not reliably busy anyway - why?
And if you do, can anyone think of ideas to minimise faff and back and forth and still manage to turn a passing email/text enquiry into a job without scaring them into a telephone call when they don't fancy one (something even we can no doubt sympathise with now and then..)
It's tempting to be irritated and the needless elongation of process but unless you're constantly inundated with work it's probably unwise to act that way. When a customer seems to require more effort to get to the point of sale than others (excluding those who are just not worth working for) I tend to picture the effort already expended in getting them where they are: jobs resulting in recommendation, leafleting, working on website etc.. Then to drop them at the last hurdle seems silly.
But it can be a mission. I have found when I reply "yes, happy to help, please call on this number to arrange" I don't hear back from a fair few. And I don't think they're time wasters, they're just in 'online mode' or 'smart phone mode.' They feel reclusive, extremely low on concentration (they're online) and quickly get distracted and drop the bait. They can however be coaxed into being a customer. But it's long winded. I find myself replying with a list of about 5 current times I could come have a look and telling them to "text this number with their preference and address asap"
Anyone else court custards in this way? And if you don't - and you're not reliably busy anyway - why?
And if you do, can anyone think of ideas to minimise faff and back and forth and still manage to turn a passing email/text enquiry into a job without scaring them into a telephone call when they don't fancy one (something even we can no doubt sympathise with now and then..)
