Managing call response rates with ServiceM8 Phone reports

Your ServiceM8 activity feed will show one of two types of After Hours Phone Calls report, depending on how you have set your on-call staff members.

1) After Hours Phone Calls - Weekly Report

If the staff member on call has not changed in more than a week, you will receive a weekly report in your activity feed.

For the period stated, this report tells you:

• The total number of calls received after hours, broken down by answered or missed
• The value (sum of the invoices) of jobs associated with the after hours calls received, then marked as completed during the same period

2) After Hours Phone Calls - By Staff Member and Shift

If the staff member on call changes and there was at least one call after hours during their shift, you will receive a report in your activity feed.

This report is identical to the weekly report, except it reflects the time period during which the staff member was on call.

The Business Dashboard gives you a quick overview of several business metrics. To access the Business Dashboard, click Reports in the Online Dashboard, or tap More > Business Dashboard from the ServiceM8 App. You can review metrics for the last 28 days or the last 7 days.

The Incoming Calls metric reflects the total number of incoming calls to your business during that time period, including:

• Answered calls
• Missed calls
• Calls during standard operating hours
• Calls after hours

This metric is compared to the total number of calls received in the previous period of the same length, with the change indicated below the total.

From the Online Dashboard, go to Reports > Inbound Calls.

The Inbound Calls report provides a historical view of the number of incoming calls by month, split between operating hours and after hours.

From the Online Dashboard, go to Reports > Missed Calls.

The Missed Calls report provides a historical view of the number of missed calls by month, split between operating hours and after hours.

Whenever it's possible, strive to have a staff member answer calls. Your odds of converting a call into a sale is much greater if your client speaks to a live person. Monitor your ServiceM8 Phone metrics and use the tips below to improve your call response rates.

If you see calls being missed during business hours:

• From the Online Dashboard, go to Settings > ServiceM8 Phone. Review your Business Hours Call Group settings. Do you have more than one staff member selected? Are the chosen staff members the most likely to be able to answer calls?

• If you haven't already, consider setting up a secondary call group.  If a call comes in that would normally be answered but isn't, then you can divert the call to a "backup" staff member, or Secondary Call Group, instead of going straight to voicemail.

If you see calls being missed after hours and you don't have a staff member on call:

• Consider designating a staff member to be "on call" to respond to calls that come in after hours, instead of sending them to voicemail.

If you see calls being missed after hours and you do have a staff member on call:

• Work with the on-call staff member to understand why the calls are not being answered - is it reluctance to answer, or inability to answer? Listen carefully and consider different solutions, such as a change in on-call staff or compensation, or the need for a secondary call group for after hours.

If you see after hours calls being answered, but no associated value with the calls:

• This could be perfectly normal, depending on your business. However, if you typically schedule and complete jobs within a week, a lack of associated value with after hours calls could indicate a need for additional training for the on-call staff. They may be missing the opportunity to close sales, especially if their daily role is service-oriented and does not typically involve handling leads.