A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Phone
Well, not funny really, just a bit odd.
The amount of orders we projected for last week turned out to be lower than the actual orders that came in. What makes this suprising was the fact that we had very little phone support for the entire week. There were no orders placed over the phone at all, they all came directly from the web site which leads me to believe that perhaps we can do without that highest of all overhead expense, the telephone.
Naw, we’ll keep it going. Most of our competitors have a toll-free phone number posted, but they don’t seem to answer it. How do I know? Because I call them constantly and I have yet to reach anything other than a recording. There is one exception but he does his business over a cell phone and I can’t stand those things. At least he does answer though.
We answer ours anytime a call comes in and I or Jared are not on the phone with people asking questions. But I have heard from people who have called us and were not able to get a human to answer. Instead of leaving a message, they try back later. Because I can personally attest to being on the phone more than 90% of the time, I would imagine it to get frustrating for someone determined to hear a human voice. They would need to call several times to reach us at just the right moment, but it does happen.
I know it seems like I go on and on about the telephone here but it is our largest overhead expense and if that expense could somehow be removed, our costs would be lower which would save our customers money. On the other hand, I do realize the need for telephone support, but perhaps we could somehow reduce the amount of time each phone call lasts. Right now we are around 30 minutes per call and that seems excessive, but most of the questions being asked are legitimate. However, the answers to almost 100% of those questions can be found on the web site.
On another subject, we are pretty excited about the new Tomlinson designer faucets we started carrying. They have been selling in higher quantities than predicted and the two test faucets we were given have survived the abuse we subjected them to, plus they look good! Check them out on the web site under the reverse osmosis parts section.
Have a Happy New Year!
About Us
Water Value Company is a web-based distributor of water treatment equipment. We pride ourselves in educating our customers BEFORE they make their purchase. We supply only the best equipment made and we personally test every product before making it available on the web site.
In business on the web for nearly 5 years, we are rapidly approaching our goal of becoming the number one source for water treatment education and product solutions.
