The greeting
"Thanks for calling [Company], this is [Name]. What can I help you with today?"
Short, branded, one question. Long menus and long introductions cause hang-ups in the first six seconds, which is when the caller decides whether they are in the right place.
Capturing the reason for the call
- "Tell me what's going on." — then stop talking and let them describe it.
- "When did you first notice it?"
- "Is it getting worse, or is it steady right now?"
- Record their wording verbatim. Categories can be applied later; nuance cannot be recovered later.
Qualification lines that do not feel like an interrogation
- "What's the address so I can check which crew covers you?"
- "Is this the home you own, or are you managing it for someone?"
- "Is this something you'd like handled this week, or are you planning ahead?"
- "Has anyone looked at it already?"
- "How did you hear about us?"
Offering the appointment
"I've got Tuesday morning between 8 and 10, or Wednesday afternoon between 1 and 3. Which is easier?"
Then confirm: "You're booked for Tuesday between 8 and 10. I'll text you a confirmation now, and you'll get a reminder the day before. If anything changes you can reschedule from that message."
Escalation and fallback lines
- Emergency: "That sounds urgent — I'm getting our on-call tech on this right now. Stay on the line."
- Complaint: "I'm sorry, that's not how this should have gone. I'm passing you to someone who can fix it."
- Price negotiation: "I don't set pricing, but I'll get the person who does — one moment."
- No one available: "Everyone's on a call. I have your details and [Name] will call you back before [time]. You'll get that in writing now."
The pre-launch checklist
- Service area boundaries loaded and tested with an out-of-area address.
- Job types and realistic durations configured, not generic one-hour blocks.
- Written emergency definition and a paging path that is confirmed live.
- Escalation topics tagged and routed to named people with a fallback chain.
- Confirmation and reminder messages written and sent from the right number.
- Ten test calls covering: normal booking, out of area, emergency, complaint, price question, existing customer, wrong number, poor line quality, angry caller, and a request for a human.