Why You Need a Dispatcher Today
When you run a tree care service business, you usually focus on two things: developing the services offered and your marketing.
What you tend to miss is one key element: having a great dispatcher on your team. These are actually you front-liners who connect your customers effectively to your business and get things rolling. Here are the top reasons you want to have an effective dispatcher today.
They bring in the business
With the most basic function of attending to your inquiring customers, figuring out which services match, and when the best times to send someone out are, your dispatchers are truly the ones who bring home the bacon. Provided they are matched up with a dependable system to schedule and track appointments, they’re invaluable in actually keeping your business going smoothly. They can even field questions that your website or marketing pushes might have missed in terms of informing your customers.
They keep things organized
As a bridge between you and your customers, your dispatchers are the ones who also make sure that things don’t devolve into chaos. They manage the calendar that they have built and set up. They’re responsible for informing the personnel involved in a specific job exactly when and where they’re supposed to set out. Without an effective dispatcher, you risk miscommunications that, at best, will cause a minor inconvenience. At worst, it can actually lose you a customer to frustration and unreliability.
They smooth out problems
Any and every operation that has a human element is inevitably going to encounter hiccups here and there. You can never have a perfect operation, and that’s ok. With an effective dispatcher, not only do you minimize the chances of trouble occurring, you can effectively deal with any that are already there. That’s because tree service businesses usually don’t separate a dispatcher and customer support. They’re one and the same. That’s a good thing too. As the ones who organized the schedules for dispatch, they can best provide support when conflicts arise. They can also help talk customers down when they’re agitated.
They manage your records
It makes sense that the dispatcher on your staff also manages the records of your transactions. Eliminating another step in a process flow ensures the minimization of errors in record keeping. Of course, the key there is setting an effective and efficient process flow, to begin with. Make sure there is a clear path from receiving a call all the way up to managing the successful completion of a job. When handled by an able dispatcher--or a team of dispatcher--you can all but guarantee that everything will be in perfect order by the end of a long day.
What to look for in a dispatcher?
So now you know exactly what a dispatcher does, and you’re excited to have one on your team right away. What do you look for in a potential dispatcher to ensure that they get the job done, right?
Communication Skills
A great dispatcher is one who can communicate effectively with people. They have a great command of the language, and they speak with certainty and confidence. It’s important that they are able to hold a conversation very well regardless of who they are talking to.
Empathy
You also want to ensure that they’re good listeners and, at the core, very caring towards the needs of others. Warmth towards customers is usually the x-factor that makes or breaks a potential closed deal. When your dispatcher makes your customer feel cared for, they get drawn in to come back.
Organization
Get a dispatcher with the proven ability to organize information in a logical and efficient manner carefully. It wouldn’t do to have a dispatcher that can’t draw up data when it is asked for. If they have the added ability to organize with the use of spreadsheets and the like, all the better.
Leadership
Because your dispatchers will also be the ones responsible for sending people out to fulfill jobs, they also need to be strong leaders. They need to be able to ensure people are well motivated and meet appointments promptly every time. They also need to be able to take charge when there are problems to be able to provide great solutions.
A dispatcher plays an invaluable role as customer support, frontliner, appointment setter, and personnel manager in your tree service business. Finding someone who is a great fit for this position is the right way to manage things successfully. Just make absolutely sure that you get someone who is a strong fit for the role and you’re sure to find success.
