
AI vs. Human Receptionists: What Works Best for Electrical Businesses?
When a homeowner is dealing with power failure or a broken switch, they don’t want to wait. If they call your electrical service and get no response, they will look for the next available provider immediately. Responsiveness is critical for businesses in this industry, considering requests and emergencies often emerge during off-hours. Typically, service providers have a few people handling calls, but these are staff members who also handle other administrative tasks. Unsurprisingly, many electrical services are now switching to AI voice receptionists. Read more to know what may work best for your business.
Speed and Availability
Humans have limitations. Your front desk staff members must take breaks and work a fixed number of hours each day. There are also weekends and holidays. If no one takes a call, a potential customer is unlikely to wait, especially if an electrical issue needs prompt attention. By including an AI receptionist on the frontline to answer calls, you can free your staff for more critical tasks.
Cost Comparison
Scaling your customer care team isn’t the easiest thing. There are upfront recruitment costs, and even if you manage to hire people, there are additional costs, including salaries, benefits, perks, and training expenses. An extended team doesn’t always make sense, considering many electrical services are small businesses that have more focus on the field than the office. AI voice agents, on the other hand, come for as low as $75, and you can always scale and upgrade your plan as and when required.
Call Handling Volume
AI can handle as many as a million calls simultaneously, which means your customers don’t have to wait to get a response. Your in-house team could be very professional and efficient, but one person can only attend one call at a time. Attending to incoming calls isn’t easy during emergencies, such as heatwave-related service demand spikes or natural calamities. With AI handling first interactions, your team can focus on emergencies that truly need attention.
Customizable for Your Needs
Humans need time to adapt to call scripts, new changes in services and pricing, and other things. On the contrary, an AI answering service can immediately start responding in the desired manner. You have control over every detail that AI shares with callers, and whenever required, updates can be made instantly. There are no inconsistencies in responses, and you don’t have to worry about overworked humans making errors.
Consider a blend of both
Now that we have talked about the perks of using AI answering for electrical businesses, it is worth mentioning that your front desk team will still matter. While AI can understand intent and keywords to respond to callers, there will be times when someone would need more attention or personalized service. Your in-house receptionists will matter the most for such calls.
Top electrical services often choose a blend – AI to handle routine calls and route customers to real staff when absolutely necessary. AI can also capture caller details and relevant information, which can be used to capitalize on leads later. You can expect the internal support executives to work more productively and use their time for relevant tasks. Not to miss – Your electricians don’t have to return customer calls while they are doing crucial work.
Taking the leap with an AI answering service
If you are new to comparing options, start with the price but always focus on features. You want to ensure the process of including AI for your electrical business call answering needs doesn’t disrupt regular operations. The idea is to integrate AI answering service is to make responses seamless, and it should help your teams in the long run.