May 7, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode, Janet and Caitlyn dive into the crucial role that call centers play in bridging the gap between digital marketing leads and actual sales opportunities. They explore how a call center acts as the connective tissue between your marketing team and your sales reps — especially for replacement contractors and home improvement companies.
You'll learn why having a call center can dramatically increase your lead conversion rate, how it affects marketing ROI, and what to look for in a call center partner. Whether you’re running paid search, social ads, or sweepstakes campaigns, this episode breaks down how call centers keep your pipeline healthy by following up fast, staying persistent, and qualifying leads correctly.
Want to find out how we can create a custom digital marketing game plan for your contractor business? Schedule a call with us at fatcatstrategies.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Caitlyn Noble (00:01):
Welcome to Digital Marketing for
Contractors.
This podcast is brought to youby Fat Cat Strategies, a
full-service digital marketingagency based in Raleigh, North
Carolina.
We specialize in helping homeimprovement contractors just
like you grow their businesses.
Janet Mobley (00:17):
Today, you're listening to a series called
Build, Grow, Dominate, marketingstrategies for every stage of
your home improvement business.
Every Wednesday, we take a deepdive into the lessons that
we've learned from supportingsome amazing business owners in
the home improvement industry.
Caitlyn Noble (00:34):
In part one, we'll cover the essentials from
startup to your first fivemillion.
In part two, we're shiftinggears to focus on what it takes
to scale your business to asuccessful exit and or how to
dominate your market.
Now let's get into it.
Janet Mobley (00:50):
Hello, I am Janet and I'm the founding and
managing partner here at FatCat.
Today, I am joined once againby my lovely and talented and
co-owner, Business partner andfriend.
Yeah. Caitlyn Noble.
Caitlyn Noble (01:04):
It's been a long time coming.
Hey, I am Caitlyn.
I am the head of clientservices here at Fat Cat
Strategies.
Janet, what are we diving intotoday?
Janet Mobley (01:12):
That is an excellent question.
Let me see if I can answer it.
I think today what we'retalking about is the importance
of call centers in a digitalenvironment.
Campaign makes a huge
Caitlyn Noble (01:24):
difference.
Janet Mobley (01:25):
Yeah.
So like our clients come to us.
They have all these questionsabout generating leads online.
We love talking about thattoday.
We're talking about whathappens after that lead is
generated.
Caitlyn Noble (01:36):
Right.
Exactly.
Janet Mobley (01:37):
What happens in the call center?
Caitlyn Noble (01:39):
And no shame.
I mean, we've worked withclients of all sizes.
Some of y'all just wing it.
There's no rhyme or reason towhat you do.
You answer the phone and you'rejust happy you got a phone
call.
And some of y'all actually havebuilt out call centers.
So let's get into why callcenters matter.
I'm going to start with the bigquestion.
Why should you even care abouta call center if you already
(02:03):
have leads coming in?
Janet, do you want to talkabout that?
Janet Mobley (02:07):
So here's the deal.
You're paying really good moneyfor those leads, right?
You know it because you talk tous about it.
We're talking about setting PPCbudgets.
You're paying for SEOcampaigns.
That wrap around
Caitlyn Noble (02:19):
your
Janet Mobley (02:20):
truck wasn't free.
Yeah, you wrapped your truck.
You've got your phone numberout there.
So every single lead costs youdollars, US currency.
But unless there's someonethere to take care of that lead.
That's right.
So the lead...
contacts your company theyeither fill out a form or they
(02:40):
call unless you have dedicatedstaff who are trained to take
care of that lead and protect itlike the investment that it is
right um then you could just beburning money and looting losing
business and so the harsh Truthis that people do shop around.
They're going to submitmultiple forms on multiple
(03:01):
websites.
If they need a job done, ifthey're looking for a painter,
an HVAC contractor, they needtheir roof replaced, they're
probably going to get quotesfrom multiple companies.
And whoever calls them firstusually wins.
They do.
You guys know that.
You've heard it.
We've heard people talk aboutspeed to lead.
So that's on the outbound side.
(03:22):
version of the story wheresomeone filled out a form and
now you need to call them backquickly but there's another
version of the story which isthe inbound version where some
homeowner actually picked up thephone and called your business
directly are you handling thatinbound call well or is it going
(03:44):
to um is it ringing 20 timesWe've seen that.
We've seen it.
We've seen no answers.
We've seen no answers.
Right.
We've seen a weird like autodialer.
Yeah.
We've seen weird like autoresponders that pick up.
Yeah.
And then you have to go througha phone tree.
Phone trees are
Caitlyn Noble (04:04):
usually bad.
Janet Mobley (04:04):
Yeah.
And then the other thing thatis just, it's one of my pet
peeves.
You know, we all, we, themarketing agency, we work really
hard to generate the lead.
You as the owner, you paidmoney, you worked really hard to
generate the lead, but thenyou've hired somebody to answer
your phone who has like a littlemouse voice.
Oh yeah.
(04:25):
Gosh.
We record calls for ourclients, these inbound calls.
And I have listened toprobably, you know, a teenager
who Like you hired somebody'sniece to answer the phone.
Right.
And she answers it in this tinylittle voice.
And then somebody asks, youknow, do you guys install
gutters?
And by the way, you do.
(04:45):
But she doesn't know that.
She says, let me check.
Yeah.
She says, I don't know.
And then you're like, but I...
And the lead is gone.
You're
Caitlyn Noble (04:54):
gone.
You're dead.
Right.
So we're just kind of highlevel telling you why call
centers matter on the digitalside of things is...
you've got to make sure thatyou've staffed somebody to
connect you from that click to aconversation and from a
conversation to a consultationand having the right scripting
(05:14):
that matches what you're sellingon your website, what's on your
trucks, what's on yourbillboards, your TV commercials,
radio spots, whatever it is,they all are connected.
So let's get into five waysthat your call center can
supercharge your marketing.
Janet,
Janet Mobley (05:31):
what's like one of the first ways?
So I rambled on at thebeginning of this episode.
The number one way is you'rereally going to enhance that
lead conversion.
For every form submission andevery inbound phone call, your
frontline call center staff,they are the true foot soldiers
helping you with that conversionfrom a raw lead conversion
(05:54):
Right.
A day.
Ugh.
they may not even remember thatthey filled out the form or
(06:17):
they've already had somebody outto give them an estimate.
So, but on the other hand, ifyou've got really skilled call
center staff and they'reconnected to your CRM with good
scripting and good training, andthey call that lead back within
minutes, then the person whojust filled out that form based
on a Facebook ad that they saw,they're answering their phone
(06:40):
and they're, you've justincreased the likelihood that
you're going to turn thatinquiry into a qualified lead
and an appointment.
Caitlin, what's the secondthing people need to know about
this?
Caitlyn Noble (06:52):
So to supercharge your marketing through a call
center, Janet talked about thisat the top when we were kind of
summarizing what we were goingto say, but it really improves
your customer experience.
So when people call into youroffice and get a voicemail or
worse, a rushed answer fromsomeone who's juggling multiple
tasks, it's a bad impression.
A call center createsconsistency.
(07:14):
It creates an experience of afriendly professional rep who is
trained in a brand voice, whocan answer questions calmly with
any concerns you may have andmake your company really feel
like they are the premiumservice provider.
The clients that we have whohave that dedicated person or
people man, it makes our livesso much easier because we know
(07:37):
that the leads that we'regenerating through SEO and PPC,
which we talked about inprevious episodes, are going to
set in those appointments.
So I just think that's superimportant to make sure you've
got a great customer experiencewhen they're answering the
phone.
Janet Mobley (07:51):
Yeah, and I'm just going to tag on to that a
little bit.
I'm kind of airing somegrievances here, but whatever.
It's our podcast.
We can do whatever we want to.
I mean, I cannot emphasizeenough to the listeners out
there the number of times thatthe owner of a home improvement
company who's invested theirtime, their money, their
(08:13):
efforts, and their dreams,honestly, their business dreams
of being an entrepreneur,invested all of that effort and
energy into building a homeimprovement company.
Then you go out and you hire amarketing firm.
We're running ads.
You're paying for ads.
We've got campaigns going.
We've built you a website.
You get an inbound call andnobody answers it.
(08:34):
Come on.
I mean, I just can't.
I just can't.
Let's just
Caitlyn Noble (08:39):
not even have a phone number.
Janet Mobley (08:40):
Well, just don't run the ad.
Right, exactly.
Just shut your doors.
Right.
Seriously.
I know.
And then they want to know,well, why isn't the marketing
working?
Well, the marketing worked.
What didn't work was how youtreated the lead.
We are obviously passionateabout this.
You treated them like, Theydon't matter because you didn't
even answer the phone.
(09:01):
So anyway, we are passionateabout this.
We're very passionate.
We have five tips.
So the third tip that you'regoing to
Caitlyn Noble (09:07):
supercharge your marketing.
Janet Mobley (09:13):
The third qualification.
Caitlyn Noble (09:15):
Yeah, this is good, Janet.
You're actually, this is a goodone.
Janet Mobley (09:17):
So you guys know not everybody that calls or
fills out a form is qualified orOh, yeah.
Yeah.
It doesn't mean that they'renever gonna buy, but you know
(09:47):
that there's some folks thatcontact you that are just not
ready right now.
So if you have a good, trainedcall center manager and staff
that they know how to ask theright questions about timing,
budget, needs, et cetera, thenyou are not sending your sales
team on a wild goose chase tochase low quality leads.
(10:12):
So you're saving everybody'stime including the homeowner's
time and your sales rep's time.
And if you've got your callcenter staff trained to have
this really good qualityconversations, you are banking
tomorrow's sales, next month'ssales, because you're able to
capture some of those peoplethat are ready, but they're not
(10:32):
ready right now.
So the goal of getting yourcall center staff really focused
you know, dialed in is to makeit so that your salespeople are,
oh yeah, I honestly didn't evenmean that pun.
Get them dialed in.
Get your call center dialed in.
What you want them to do iscreate a situation where when
(10:55):
you issue that appointment toyour sales rep, they are walking
into high-quality,high-probability appointments.
So that's point number three ofwhy call centers are so
important.
Caitlin, what's number
Caitlyn Noble (11:08):
four?
Number four totally feeds offof that, and this one makes my
little marketing heart sing.
If you have a strong callcenter, call person.
I mean, I'm telling you all, wekeep saying center.
One person is enough.
One highly trained person isplenty.
They can...
collect data and analysis onthe types of leads that are
(11:31):
calling in and or they'recalling out to based off of the
form submissions.
Every call is a data goal mine.
What does that mean?
What questions are peopleasking?
What objections are coming up?
What neighborhoods are thehottest?
If you've listened to ourprevious episodes, you know that
this is what we can use to goon and write blog posts about.
(11:55):
We can build content on ourwebsite.
We can make content on socialmedia about it because you're
taking a note really of wherepeople are interested in, what
they're not interested in.
Janet Mobley (12:07):
What homeowners care about.
Caitlyn Noble (12:08):
Yeah, what homeowners care about.
So that info can go straightinto your CRM, which we'll talk
more about in next week'sepisode.
But capture that information.
Even if it's in a spreadsheetfor right now, write down what
those questions are and let'sfine tune your marketing
campaigns to see if there's onespecific location that's really
hot.
Let's see if there's a reasonpeople aren't setting those
(12:31):
appointments and what we can do.
And it becomes your next emailtopic, ad headline, blog post,
you name it.
So I'm really passionate aboutthat.
And then the last one, in termsof how
Janet Mobley (12:43):
we're going to supercharge.
In our five tips.
Yeah.
So tip number five is your callcenter plays such an important
role in integrated marketingcampaigns.
So when your marketing team andyour call center are synced,
magic can happen.
So let's say you're running aPPC campaign and there's a promo
offer and in that campaign andthe PPC campaign goes to a
(13:07):
landing page with specificmessaging on it about a product,
about a color, about a trend,about a promo offer.
If you don't connect thatcampaign and educate the person
who's answering your phone, thenthey're not prepared to have
that conversation.
But if you do have everythingintegrated and you're being
(13:31):
thoughtful and you're connectingyour PPC campaigns, your
landing pages with the scriptingthat your call center is using,
then when that inbound phonecall comes in, then the
conversation that the homeownerhas with your company completely
matches their expectation.
Absolutely.
Because they searched on akeyword, they clicked on an ad,
(13:53):
they landed on a landing page,and then they called the company
and the entire journey matchestheir expectation and what they
were looking for.
So in that sense if you'retalking about integrating from
beginning to end your reps playsuch an important role in
reinforcing your ad messagingthey're helping your company
(14:14):
handle objections and they'reguiding that lead or that
homeowner towards beingconfident enough and comfortable
enough to set an appointment.
So it's consistent, it'sprofessional, and making sure
everything's integrated works.
Caitlyn Noble (14:31):
And I'll throw out a tip.
We've worked with a bunch oflovely marketing managers,
marketing directors of thesehome improvement companies.
And I know for many instances,a lot of those people would
print out an ad that we'rerunning and give to their call
center and they would just tapeit up in the call center in the
cube so they knew like this isthe ad that's running um so
(14:54):
that's just a quick trick
Janet Mobley (14:55):
before we move on to the third section caitlin you
said something earlier in theepisode that i want to circle
back to 15 years ago when ifirst started working with
clients in the home improvementindustry one of my clients kept
mentioning his call center
Caitlyn Noble (15:10):
and
Janet Mobley (15:11):
And you said earlier in this episode, your
call center can be one person.
That's right.
I was kind of naive 15 yearsago.
And when my home improvementclient, the one I had at the
time, was saying, oh, my callcenter, my call center.
I was honestly picturing likean entire floor of people in
cubes with headsets on.
Caitlyn Noble (15:33):
Wow, that must have been a lot of leads that
company was
Janet Mobley (15:36):
generating.
No, and so then later weactually, you know...
Got to see.
Got to see.
Yeah.
You know, we went and visitedone of our clients because we've
got some out-of-state clients.
We traveled, we visited theclient.
We go and we see this callcenter and it's a lady at a
desk.
Caitlyn Noble (15:54):
Oh, yeah.
With that printed out ad thatwe designed for that month's
Janet Mobley (15:58):
promo.
Yeah, with stickies all overher monitor.
So...
I mean, you guys know this.
You're not dumb.
You're listening to thispodcast because you want to make
your business better.
But if you're early in thejourney and you're going to
shows or you're talking to peersand you hear them talking about
call centers, it can just beone person.
And then it grows into twopeople.
And then it grows from there.
Caitlyn Noble (16:20):
You're jumping into the next part, which I love
you for doing that, friend.
Because you're probably sittinghere thinking, okay, great.
This is awesome.
Thanks for the tip.
But how do I actually pull thisoff?
I mean, I'm still answering myphones.
Janet, let's go through a fewways on how to implement a call,
(16:40):
quote unquote, call center.
What's the first way?
Janet Mobley (16:44):
So I think the first thing you have to do is
you have to decide, are yougoing to staff this in-house or
are you going to outsource it?
Right.
So most of our clients, they gothrough this journey where
they're in the beginning,they're answering all of the
calls themselves on their cellphone.
And at a certain point thatdoesn't work anymore.
(17:05):
So, you know, if you decide tooutsource, I would encourage you
to reach out to some peers,maybe in the network that you're
in.
Let's say you're installinglike jacuzzi bath products or,
you know, you know, James HardySiding, you're in the gutter
(17:25):
helmet network.
If you're in a network, askyour peers, whatever it is, go
to the your manufacturer that'sproviding you with supplies.
And if you haven't met somepeers who are outside of your
service area, because you don'twant to be You know, you want to
get information.
Yeah.
You don't want to be talking toyour competitors.
Talk to a peer who you're nevergoing to compete with three
(17:47):
states away.
Right.
Who you look up to and askthem, how did you start your
call center?
And they may point you to someoutsourced companies that can.
So before you take on, youknow, hiring internally and
managing a person, maybe you dipyour toe in the water.
We have a
Caitlyn Noble (18:04):
lot of clients who do this
Janet Mobley (18:05):
too.
Yes.
This is the path that we haveseen be most common.
Caitlyn Noble (18:08):
And we get the question all the time.
Yeah.
Do you have any recommendationsfor outsourced third-party
providers?
Janet Mobley (18:15):
Right, and so I would say tap your peer network
because they're going to havethat firsthand experience.
If it's authentic.
Yeah, it'll be authenticexperience with really hiring
these call centers, and they cananswer in a much deeper way
questions than we can about howdo you train an outsourced
(18:37):
person company to handleobjections, set appointments,
you know, coordinate with your,your calendar.
So the first step you need todo is decide, am I going to hire
this on my staff as a W2employee, or I'm going to
outsource it.
And there's pros and cons ofeach.
And I would just encourage youto tap, um, a peer or a mentor
(18:57):
for, to get some insights onthat.
Caitlyn Noble (18:59):
Definitely.
And so whether you, uh, stickwith in-house or you are going
out sourced, um, scripting is soimportant we talked about this
earlier um you you have to havepeople who are answering your
phones or calling out andsetting those appointments who
know what you guys sell and knowwhere you sell it so we've had
(19:22):
horror stories where we've hadan outsourced call center not
even know the service area tothe full extent
Janet Mobley (19:29):
you know so so a homeowner calls in in a
neighborhood that you servicebut the Outsourced call center
is like, nope, I'm sorry, ma'am.
We don't go to that address.
Nope.
Caitlyn Noble (19:38):
So don't settle for robotic.
You can really do some greatrole playing with real
conversations that whether it'sthis outsourced vendor or
in-house.
In-house, of course, youprobably have more control over
where you can practice, butdefinitely have training and
definitely have scripting.
That's one of the other waysjust to make sure you're
(19:59):
implementing your call center.
What's another way, Janet?
Janet Mobley (20:02):
Yeah.
Another way I wanted to talkabout the technology, but before
we get into the technology, Ijust wanted to add on a point
about scripting.
We've been in this business asan agency supporting home
improvement contractors for 10years plus.
Really 15 if you go all the wayback.
And what we have found, wetalked a little bit about the
(20:24):
manufacturers that you get yourproducts from.
many of them will have scriptsthat are very relevant to the
product that you are installing.
That's a great point.
So if you've never had to...
offload that task.
If you've been the one and youjust know how to answer all
those questions because youstarted the business and you've
(20:46):
been doing it.
Now you're looking at likegiving this task to someone else
and delegating it.
And you're wondering, God, Idon't even know how to get out
of my brain how to talk tohomeowners and train somebody
else.
Go to your peer network and goto your manufacturer and see if
someone will share with you somephone scripting.
And I would bet $100 you canfind someone who will share
(21:09):
scripting with you.
And that will be a good placeto start.
So then the next thing I wouldsay...
you've decided if you're hiringinternally or you're going to
outsource it, then you got tomake sure you have scripts.
The next thing you have to dois make sure you've got the
right technology in place.
So in the next episode, we'regoing to talk more about CRMs.
(21:29):
For this conversation, we arejust assuming that you have a
CRM in place.
So when you start beefing upyour call center, make sure that
you are using all of thefeatures of your CRM to support
those call center efforts.
So some CRMs have automaticrouting to different call center
(21:53):
staff.
call tracking, recording.
Monitors performance.
Which can help you monitorperformance.
So, you know, just spend sometime looking at what your CRM
has in place and considerputting another piece of tech in
place that communicates withyour CRM, which is, you know, we
(22:15):
use a program called WhatConverts.
It records every single phonecall.
Our clients love it.
And we can see the source ofthat phone call.
Did it come from organicsearch?
Did it come from a paid ad?
Did it come from a Facebook ad?
And so then we can expose yourmanagement team to that resource
(22:35):
and they can listen to thecalls and then see what happened
in the CRM.
So that technology component isgoing to be really important as
you build out your call center.
So Caitlin, what's the lastthing people need to know in
this five minutes?
All of the
Caitlyn Noble (22:51):
tips.
We've already said it, and I'mgoing to say it again and again
and again.
Please keep your teamconnected, even if it's you and
Susie who's calling.
you know, and answering all thecalls, calling people out and
answering the calls, please stayconnected with Susie and make
sure that she, the team, theyknow what's going on promotion
(23:12):
wise.
They know if you're running aMemorial day sale, they know,
um, if you're closed, they, theyknow if you're expanding into a
new territory, um, that'sreally going to be important.
Also, I would challenge you toget that lead quality feedback.
So, um, It's one thing to havesomebody who's connected with
(23:35):
what's going on with yourbusiness.
It's another thing to get thatfeedback from that person to
say, man, these were a lot ofspam calls.
Or I'm getting a lot of callsthat are not in the service
area.
You should check with yourmarketing agency and make sure
they're advertising in the rightlocation.
Talk to them.
Stay connected.
(23:55):
Keep communication strong.
Janet Mobley (23:57):
Yeah, and that communication, to your point,
Caitlin, is two-way.
It is.
You as the owner-operator, youwant to be giving your call
center staff feedback on howthey handle themselves on the
call, but then they have suchcritical insights to give back
to you about what they're seeingand what they're hearing on
(24:18):
those calls.
Caitlyn Noble (24:19):
It's huge.
This was short and sweet, butwe did talk to you guys about
why call centers matter, fiveways your call center can
supercharge your marketing, andthen, of course, how to
implement a call center.
So, Janet, bring it home.
Janet Mobley (24:34):
So to wrap it all up and stitch it all together.
Digital marketing is the thingthat's going to help you
generate leads.
It is.
But your call center is whatturns those leads into
appointments, which turn intorevenue.
So it's not either or, it'sboth.
It is.
And if you're going to spendthousands of dollars on ads,
(24:55):
SEO, email, all the differentmarketing tactics, agencies, if
you're going to spend money onthat and you don't get your call
center done, Dialed in.
I love it.
Then you're really leavingmoney on the table.
Caitlyn Noble (25:11):
You really are.
So here's our challenge to you.
We typically don't challengeyou.
Audit your current follow-upprocess.
How fast are you responding toleads?
How consistent is theexperience?
If you see room forimprovement, consider testing
out a call center, whether it'sa small internal team, one
person, a specialized partner.
Just find somebody and do it.
(25:33):
The payoff, I promise you, it'sgoing to be more booked
appointments, better customerexperience, and more closed
sales.
Janet Mobley (25:41):
okay so if you're ready to put your call center to
the test we have a greatsolution for you lead champ by
fat cat strategies what is leadchamp it is a sweepstakes
package that is guaranteed togenerate hundreds of high
quality homeowner leads visitfat cat strategies forward slash
lead champ to learn more today
Caitlyn Noble (26:02):
oh yeah that's gonna definitely supercharge
your Call center.
Janet Mobley (26:05):
Oh, yeah.
So when you do a sweepstakespackage, if you have not
included your call center in theplanning and prepared them for
the volume of applicants thatyou're going to get when you run
one of these contests, it canbe a little bit
Caitlyn Noble (26:25):
scary.
And spoiler alert, if you dodecide to do this lead champ by
Fat Cat Strategies, what isincluded in this package is,
believe it or not...
Call center scripting.
Saying it, so.
Next week, y'all, we're goingto talk about CRM's, Customer
Relationship Management Systems.
If you're still using aspreadsheet, sticky notes, and
(26:46):
just your memory to manage thoseleads and customers, it might
work for now, but it's not goingto get you to the next level.
Janet Mobley (26:53):
So thanks again for joining us for another
episode of this podcast.
If you can give us a half anhour, we are going to give you
actionable tips, tricks,insights, and ideas to help you
grow your home improvementcompany through online
marketing.
And if you found us today Ifound today's episode helpful we
would love it if you wouldshare it with one of your peers
(27:13):
a fellow contractor businessowner don't forget to subscribe
to this podcast and we'd alsolove it if you'd go on your
favorite podcast platformwhether you're listening on
Apple or through Spotify andgive us a review thank you
that'd be awesome talk to y'allsoon digital marketing for
contractors is created by fatcat strategies for more
(27:37):
information visitfatcatstrategies.com.
Welcome to Digital Marketing for
Contractors.
This podcast is brought to youby Fat Cat Strategies, a
full-service digital marketingagency based in Raleigh, North
Carolina.
We specialize in helping homeimprovement contractors just
like you grow their businesses.
Janet Mobley (00:17):
Today, you're listening to a series called
Build, Grow, Dominate, marketingstrategies for every stage of
your home improvement business.
Every Wednesday, we take a deepdive into the lessons that
we've learned from supportingsome amazing business owners in
the home improvement industry.
Caitlyn Noble (00:34):
In part one, we'll cover the essentials from
startup to your first fivemillion.
In part two, we're shiftinggears to focus on what it takes
to scale your business to asuccessful exit and or how to
dominate your market.
Now let's get into it.
Janet Mobley (00:50):
Hello, I am Janet and I'm the founding and
managing partner here at FatCat.
Today, I am joined once againby my lovely and talented and
co-owner, Business partner andfriend.
Yeah. Caitlyn Noble.
Caitlyn Noble (01:04):
It's been a long time coming.
Hey, I am Caitlyn.
I am the head of clientservices here at Fat Cat
Strategies.
Janet, what are we diving intotoday?
Janet Mobley (01:12):
That is an excellent question.
Let me see if I can answer it.
I think today what we'retalking about is the importance
of call centers in a digitalenvironment.
Campaign makes a huge
Caitlyn Noble (01:24):
difference.
Janet Mobley (01:25):
Yeah.
So like our clients come to us.
They have all these questionsabout generating leads online.
We love talking about thattoday.
We're talking about whathappens after that lead is
generated.
Caitlyn Noble (01:36):
Right.
Exactly.
Janet Mobley (01:37):
What happens in the call center?
Caitlyn Noble (01:39):
And no shame.
I mean, we've worked withclients of all sizes.
Some of y'all just wing it.
There's no rhyme or reason towhat you do.
You answer the phone and you'rejust happy you got a phone
call.
And some of y'all actually havebuilt out call centers.
So let's get into why callcenters matter.
I'm going to start with the bigquestion.
Why should you even care abouta call center if you already
(02:03):
have leads coming in?
Janet, do you want to talkabout that?
Janet Mobley (02:07):
So here's the deal.
You're paying really good moneyfor those leads, right?
You know it because you talk tous about it.
We're talking about setting PPCbudgets.
You're paying for SEOcampaigns.
That wrap around
Caitlyn Noble (02:19):
your
Janet Mobley (02:20):
truck wasn't free.
Yeah, you wrapped your truck.
You've got your phone numberout there.
So every single lead costs youdollars, US currency.
But unless there's someonethere to take care of that lead.
That's right.
So the lead...
contacts your company theyeither fill out a form or they
(02:40):
call unless you have dedicatedstaff who are trained to take
care of that lead and protect itlike the investment that it is
right um then you could just beburning money and looting losing
business and so the harsh Truthis that people do shop around.
They're going to submitmultiple forms on multiple
(03:01):
websites.
If they need a job done, ifthey're looking for a painter,
an HVAC contractor, they needtheir roof replaced, they're
probably going to get quotesfrom multiple companies.
And whoever calls them firstusually wins.
They do.
You guys know that.
You've heard it.
We've heard people talk aboutspeed to lead.
So that's on the outbound side.
(03:22):
version of the story wheresomeone filled out a form and
now you need to call them backquickly but there's another
version of the story which isthe inbound version where some
homeowner actually picked up thephone and called your business
directly are you handling thatinbound call well or is it going
(03:44):
to um is it ringing 20 timesWe've seen that.
We've seen it.
We've seen no answers.
We've seen no answers.
Right.
We've seen a weird like autodialer.
Yeah.
We've seen weird like autoresponders that pick up.
Yeah.
And then you have to go througha phone tree.
Phone trees are
Caitlyn Noble (04:04):
usually bad.
Janet Mobley (04:04):
Yeah.
And then the other thing thatis just, it's one of my pet
peeves.
You know, we all, we, themarketing agency, we work really
hard to generate the lead.
You as the owner, you paidmoney, you worked really hard to
generate the lead, but thenyou've hired somebody to answer
your phone who has like a littlemouse voice.
Oh yeah.
(04:25):
Gosh.
We record calls for ourclients, these inbound calls.
And I have listened toprobably, you know, a teenager
who Like you hired somebody'sniece to answer the phone.
Right.
And she answers it in this tinylittle voice.
And then somebody asks, youknow, do you guys install
gutters?
And by the way, you do.
(04:45):
But she doesn't know that.
She says, let me check.
Yeah.
She says, I don't know.
And then you're like, but I...
And the lead is gone.
You're
Caitlyn Noble (04:54):
gone.
You're dead.
Right.
So we're just kind of highlevel telling you why call
centers matter on the digitalside of things is...
you've got to make sure thatyou've staffed somebody to
connect you from that click to aconversation and from a
conversation to a consultationand having the right scripting
(05:14):
that matches what you're sellingon your website, what's on your
trucks, what's on yourbillboards, your TV commercials,
radio spots, whatever it is,they all are connected.
So let's get into five waysthat your call center can
supercharge your marketing.
Janet,
Janet Mobley (05:31):
what's like one of the first ways?
So I rambled on at thebeginning of this episode.
The number one way is you'rereally going to enhance that
lead conversion.
For every form submission andevery inbound phone call, your
frontline call center staff,they are the true foot soldiers
helping you with that conversionfrom a raw lead conversion
(05:54):
Right.
A day.
Ugh.
they may not even remember thatthey filled out the form or
(06:17):
they've already had somebody outto give them an estimate.
So, but on the other hand, ifyou've got really skilled call
center staff and they'reconnected to your CRM with good
scripting and good training, andthey call that lead back within
minutes, then the person whojust filled out that form based
on a Facebook ad that they saw,they're answering their phone
(06:40):
and they're, you've justincreased the likelihood that
you're going to turn thatinquiry into a qualified lead
and an appointment.
Caitlin, what's the secondthing people need to know about
this?
Caitlyn Noble (06:52):
So to supercharge your marketing through a call
center, Janet talked about thisat the top when we were kind of
summarizing what we were goingto say, but it really improves
your customer experience.
So when people call into youroffice and get a voicemail or
worse, a rushed answer fromsomeone who's juggling multiple
tasks, it's a bad impression.
A call center createsconsistency.
(07:14):
It creates an experience of afriendly professional rep who is
trained in a brand voice, whocan answer questions calmly with
any concerns you may have andmake your company really feel
like they are the premiumservice provider.
The clients that we have whohave that dedicated person or
people man, it makes our livesso much easier because we know
(07:37):
that the leads that we'regenerating through SEO and PPC,
which we talked about inprevious episodes, are going to
set in those appointments.
So I just think that's superimportant to make sure you've
got a great customer experiencewhen they're answering the
phone.
Janet Mobley (07:51):
Yeah, and I'm just going to tag on to that a
little bit.
I'm kind of airing somegrievances here, but whatever.
It's our podcast.
We can do whatever we want to.
I mean, I cannot emphasizeenough to the listeners out
there the number of times thatthe owner of a home improvement
company who's invested theirtime, their money, their
(08:13):
efforts, and their dreams,honestly, their business dreams
of being an entrepreneur,invested all of that effort and
energy into building a homeimprovement company.
Then you go out and you hire amarketing firm.
We're running ads.
You're paying for ads.
We've got campaigns going.
We've built you a website.
You get an inbound call andnobody answers it.
(08:34):
Come on.
I mean, I just can't.
I just can't.
Let's just
Caitlyn Noble (08:39):
not even have a phone number.
Janet Mobley (08:40):
Well, just don't run the ad.
Right, exactly.
Just shut your doors.
Right.
Seriously.
I know.
And then they want to know,well, why isn't the marketing
working?
Well, the marketing worked.
What didn't work was how youtreated the lead.
We are obviously passionateabout this.
You treated them like, Theydon't matter because you didn't
even answer the phone.
(09:01):
So anyway, we are passionateabout this.
We're very passionate.
We have five tips.
So the third tip that you'regoing to
Caitlyn Noble (09:07):
supercharge your marketing.
Janet Mobley (09:13):
The third qualification.
Caitlyn Noble (09:15):
Yeah, this is good, Janet.
You're actually, this is a goodone.
Janet Mobley (09:17):
So you guys know not everybody that calls or
fills out a form is qualified orOh, yeah.
Yeah.
It doesn't mean that they'renever gonna buy, but you know
(09:47):
that there's some folks thatcontact you that are just not
ready right now.
So if you have a good, trainedcall center manager and staff
that they know how to ask theright questions about timing,
budget, needs, et cetera, thenyou are not sending your sales
team on a wild goose chase tochase low quality leads.
(10:12):
So you're saving everybody'stime including the homeowner's
time and your sales rep's time.
And if you've got your callcenter staff trained to have
this really good qualityconversations, you are banking
tomorrow's sales, next month'ssales, because you're able to
capture some of those peoplethat are ready, but they're not
(10:32):
ready right now.
So the goal of getting yourcall center staff really focused
you know, dialed in is to makeit so that your salespeople are,
oh yeah, I honestly didn't evenmean that pun.
Get them dialed in.
Get your call center dialed in.
What you want them to do iscreate a situation where when
(10:55):
you issue that appointment toyour sales rep, they are walking
into high-quality,high-probability appointments.
So that's point number three ofwhy call centers are so
important.
Caitlin, what's number
Caitlyn Noble (11:08):
four?
Number four totally feeds offof that, and this one makes my
little marketing heart sing.
If you have a strong callcenter, call person.
I mean, I'm telling you all, wekeep saying center.
One person is enough.
One highly trained person isplenty.
They can...
collect data and analysis onthe types of leads that are
(11:31):
calling in and or they'recalling out to based off of the
form submissions.
Every call is a data goal mine.
What does that mean?
What questions are peopleasking?
What objections are coming up?
What neighborhoods are thehottest?
If you've listened to ourprevious episodes, you know that
this is what we can use to goon and write blog posts about.
(11:55):
We can build content on ourwebsite.
We can make content on socialmedia about it because you're
taking a note really of wherepeople are interested in, what
they're not interested in.
Janet Mobley (12:07):
What homeowners care about.
Caitlyn Noble (12:08):
Yeah, what homeowners care about.
So that info can go straightinto your CRM, which we'll talk
more about in next week'sepisode.
But capture that information.
Even if it's in a spreadsheetfor right now, write down what
those questions are and let'sfine tune your marketing
campaigns to see if there's onespecific location that's really
hot.
Let's see if there's a reasonpeople aren't setting those
(12:31):
appointments and what we can do.
And it becomes your next emailtopic, ad headline, blog post,
you name it.
So I'm really passionate aboutthat.
And then the last one, in termsof how
Janet Mobley (12:43):
we're going to supercharge.
In our five tips.
Yeah.
So tip number five is your callcenter plays such an important
role in integrated marketingcampaigns.
So when your marketing team andyour call center are synced,
magic can happen.
So let's say you're running aPPC campaign and there's a promo
offer and in that campaign andthe PPC campaign goes to a
(13:07):
landing page with specificmessaging on it about a product,
about a color, about a trend,about a promo offer.
If you don't connect thatcampaign and educate the person
who's answering your phone, thenthey're not prepared to have
that conversation.
But if you do have everythingintegrated and you're being
(13:31):
thoughtful and you're connectingyour PPC campaigns, your
landing pages with the scriptingthat your call center is using,
then when that inbound phonecall comes in, then the
conversation that the homeownerhas with your company completely
matches their expectation.
Absolutely.
Because they searched on akeyword, they clicked on an ad,
(13:53):
they landed on a landing page,and then they called the company
and the entire journey matchestheir expectation and what they
were looking for.
So in that sense if you'retalking about integrating from
beginning to end your reps playsuch an important role in
reinforcing your ad messagingthey're helping your company
(14:14):
handle objections and they'reguiding that lead or that
homeowner towards beingconfident enough and comfortable
enough to set an appointment.
So it's consistent, it'sprofessional, and making sure
everything's integrated works.
Caitlyn Noble (14:31):
And I'll throw out a tip.
We've worked with a bunch oflovely marketing managers,
marketing directors of thesehome improvement companies.
And I know for many instances,a lot of those people would
print out an ad that we'rerunning and give to their call
center and they would just tapeit up in the call center in the
cube so they knew like this isthe ad that's running um so
(14:54):
that's just a quick trick
Janet Mobley (14:55):
before we move on to the third section caitlin you
said something earlier in theepisode that i want to circle
back to 15 years ago when ifirst started working with
clients in the home improvementindustry one of my clients kept
mentioning his call center
Caitlyn Noble (15:10):
and
Janet Mobley (15:11):
And you said earlier in this episode, your
call center can be one person.
That's right.
I was kind of naive 15 yearsago.
And when my home improvementclient, the one I had at the
time, was saying, oh, my callcenter, my call center.
I was honestly picturing likean entire floor of people in
cubes with headsets on.
Caitlyn Noble (15:33):
Wow, that must have been a lot of leads that
company was
Janet Mobley (15:36):
generating.
No, and so then later weactually, you know...
Got to see.
Got to see.
Yeah.
You know, we went and visitedone of our clients because we've
got some out-of-state clients.
We traveled, we visited theclient.
We go and we see this callcenter and it's a lady at a
desk.
Caitlyn Noble (15:54):
Oh, yeah.
With that printed out ad thatwe designed for that month's
Janet Mobley (15:58):
promo.
Yeah, with stickies all overher monitor.
So...
I mean, you guys know this.
You're not dumb.
You're listening to thispodcast because you want to make
your business better.
But if you're early in thejourney and you're going to
shows or you're talking to peersand you hear them talking about
call centers, it can just beone person.
And then it grows into twopeople.
And then it grows from there.
Caitlyn Noble (16:20):
You're jumping into the next part, which I love
you for doing that, friend.
Because you're probably sittinghere thinking, okay, great.
This is awesome.
Thanks for the tip.
But how do I actually pull thisoff?
I mean, I'm still answering myphones.
Janet, let's go through a fewways on how to implement a call,
(16:40):
quote unquote, call center.
What's the first way?
Janet Mobley (16:44):
So I think the first thing you have to do is
you have to decide, are yougoing to staff this in-house or
are you going to outsource it?
Right.
So most of our clients, they gothrough this journey where
they're in the beginning,they're answering all of the
calls themselves on their cellphone.
And at a certain point thatdoesn't work anymore.
(17:05):
So, you know, if you decide tooutsource, I would encourage you
to reach out to some peers,maybe in the network that you're
in.
Let's say you're installinglike jacuzzi bath products or,
you know, you know, James HardySiding, you're in the gutter
(17:25):
helmet network.
If you're in a network, askyour peers, whatever it is, go
to the your manufacturer that'sproviding you with supplies.
And if you haven't met somepeers who are outside of your
service area, because you don'twant to be You know, you want to
get information.
Yeah.
You don't want to be talking toyour competitors.
Talk to a peer who you're nevergoing to compete with three
(17:47):
states away.
Right.
Who you look up to and askthem, how did you start your
call center?
And they may point you to someoutsourced companies that can.
So before you take on, youknow, hiring internally and
managing a person, maybe you dipyour toe in the water.
We have a
Caitlyn Noble (18:04):
lot of clients who do this
Janet Mobley (18:05):
too.
Yes.
This is the path that we haveseen be most common.
Caitlyn Noble (18:08):
And we get the question all the time.
Yeah.
Do you have any recommendationsfor outsourced third-party
providers?
Janet Mobley (18:15):
Right, and so I would say tap your peer network
because they're going to havethat firsthand experience.
If it's authentic.
Yeah, it'll be authenticexperience with really hiring
these call centers, and they cananswer in a much deeper way
questions than we can about howdo you train an outsourced
(18:37):
person company to handleobjections, set appointments,
you know, coordinate with your,your calendar.
So the first step you need todo is decide, am I going to hire
this on my staff as a W2employee, or I'm going to
outsource it.
And there's pros and cons ofeach.
And I would just encourage youto tap, um, a peer or a mentor
(18:57):
for, to get some insights onthat.
Caitlyn Noble (18:59):
Definitely.
And so whether you, uh, stickwith in-house or you are going
out sourced, um, scripting is soimportant we talked about this
earlier um you you have to havepeople who are answering your
phones or calling out andsetting those appointments who
know what you guys sell and knowwhere you sell it so we've had
(19:22):
horror stories where we've hadan outsourced call center not
even know the service area tothe full extent
Janet Mobley (19:29):
you know so so a homeowner calls in in a
neighborhood that you servicebut the Outsourced call center
is like, nope, I'm sorry, ma'am.
We don't go to that address.
Nope.
Caitlyn Noble (19:38):
So don't settle for robotic.
You can really do some greatrole playing with real
conversations that whether it'sthis outsourced vendor or
in-house.
In-house, of course, youprobably have more control over
where you can practice, butdefinitely have training and
definitely have scripting.
That's one of the other waysjust to make sure you're
(19:59):
implementing your call center.
What's another way, Janet?
Janet Mobley (20:02):
Yeah.
Another way I wanted to talkabout the technology, but before
we get into the technology, Ijust wanted to add on a point
about scripting.
We've been in this business asan agency supporting home
improvement contractors for 10years plus.
Really 15 if you go all the wayback.
And what we have found, wetalked a little bit about the
(20:24):
manufacturers that you get yourproducts from.
many of them will have scriptsthat are very relevant to the
product that you are installing.
That's a great point.
So if you've never had to...
offload that task.
If you've been the one and youjust know how to answer all
those questions because youstarted the business and you've
(20:46):
been doing it.
Now you're looking at likegiving this task to someone else
and delegating it.
And you're wondering, God, Idon't even know how to get out
of my brain how to talk tohomeowners and train somebody
else.
Go to your peer network and goto your manufacturer and see if
someone will share with you somephone scripting.
And I would bet $100 you canfind someone who will share
(21:09):
scripting with you.
And that will be a good placeto start.
So then the next thing I wouldsay...
you've decided if you're hiringinternally or you're going to
outsource it, then you got tomake sure you have scripts.
The next thing you have to dois make sure you've got the
right technology in place.
So in the next episode, we'regoing to talk more about CRMs.
(21:29):
For this conversation, we arejust assuming that you have a
CRM in place.
So when you start beefing upyour call center, make sure that
you are using all of thefeatures of your CRM to support
those call center efforts.
So some CRMs have automaticrouting to different call center
(21:53):
staff.
call tracking, recording.
Monitors performance.
Which can help you monitorperformance.
So, you know, just spend sometime looking at what your CRM
has in place and considerputting another piece of tech in
place that communicates withyour CRM, which is, you know, we
(22:15):
use a program called WhatConverts.
It records every single phonecall.
Our clients love it.
And we can see the source ofthat phone call.
Did it come from organicsearch?
Did it come from a paid ad?
Did it come from a Facebook ad?
And so then we can expose yourmanagement team to that resource
(22:35):
and they can listen to thecalls and then see what happened
in the CRM.
So that technology component isgoing to be really important as
you build out your call center.
So Caitlin, what's the lastthing people need to know in
this five minutes?
All of the
Caitlyn Noble (22:51):
tips.
We've already said it, and I'mgoing to say it again and again
and again.
Please keep your teamconnected, even if it's you and
Susie who's calling.
you know, and answering all thecalls, calling people out and
answering the calls, please stayconnected with Susie and make
sure that she, the team, theyknow what's going on promotion
(23:12):
wise.
They know if you're running aMemorial day sale, they know,
um, if you're closed, they, theyknow if you're expanding into a
new territory, um, that'sreally going to be important.
Also, I would challenge you toget that lead quality feedback.
So, um, It's one thing to havesomebody who's connected with
(23:35):
what's going on with yourbusiness.
It's another thing to get thatfeedback from that person to
say, man, these were a lot ofspam calls.
Or I'm getting a lot of callsthat are not in the service
area.
You should check with yourmarketing agency and make sure
they're advertising in the rightlocation.
Talk to them.
Stay connected.
(23:55):
Keep communication strong.
Janet Mobley (23:57):
Yeah, and that communication, to your point,
Caitlin, is two-way.
It is.
You as the owner-operator, youwant to be giving your call
center staff feedback on howthey handle themselves on the
call, but then they have suchcritical insights to give back
to you about what they're seeingand what they're hearing on
(24:18):
those calls.
Caitlyn Noble (24:19):
It's huge.
This was short and sweet, butwe did talk to you guys about
why call centers matter, fiveways your call center can
supercharge your marketing, andthen, of course, how to
implement a call center.
So, Janet, bring it home.
Janet Mobley (24:34):
So to wrap it all up and stitch it all together.
Digital marketing is the thingthat's going to help you
generate leads.
It is.
But your call center is whatturns those leads into
appointments, which turn intorevenue.
So it's not either or, it'sboth.
It is.
And if you're going to spendthousands of dollars on ads,
(24:55):
SEO, email, all the differentmarketing tactics, agencies, if
you're going to spend money onthat and you don't get your call
center done, Dialed in.
I love it.
Then you're really leavingmoney on the table.
Caitlyn Noble (25:11):
You really are.
So here's our challenge to you.
We typically don't challengeyou.
Audit your current follow-upprocess.
How fast are you responding toleads?
How consistent is theexperience?
If you see room forimprovement, consider testing
out a call center, whether it'sa small internal team, one
person, a specialized partner.
Just find somebody and do it.
(25:33):
The payoff, I promise you, it'sgoing to be more booked
appointments, better customerexperience, and more closed
sales.
Janet Mobley (25:41):
okay so if you're ready to put your call center to
the test we have a greatsolution for you lead champ by
fat cat strategies what is leadchamp it is a sweepstakes
package that is guaranteed togenerate hundreds of high
quality homeowner leads visitfat cat strategies forward slash
lead champ to learn more today
Caitlyn Noble (26:02):
oh yeah that's gonna definitely supercharge
your Call center.
Janet Mobley (26:05):
Oh, yeah.
So when you do a sweepstakespackage, if you have not
included your call center in theplanning and prepared them for
the volume of applicants thatyou're going to get when you run
one of these contests, it canbe a little bit
Caitlyn Noble (26:25):
scary.
And spoiler alert, if you dodecide to do this lead champ by
Fat Cat Strategies, what isincluded in this package is,
believe it or not...
Call center scripting.
Saying it, so.
Next week, y'all, we're goingto talk about CRM's, Customer
Relationship Management Systems.
If you're still using aspreadsheet, sticky notes, and
(26:46):
just your memory to manage thoseleads and customers, it might
work for now, but it's not goingto get you to the next level.
Janet Mobley (26:53):
So thanks again for joining us for another
episode of this podcast.
If you can give us a half anhour, we are going to give you
actionable tips, tricks,insights, and ideas to help you
grow your home improvementcompany through online
marketing.
And if you found us today Ifound today's episode helpful we
would love it if you wouldshare it with one of your peers
(27:13):
a fellow contractor businessowner don't forget to subscribe
to this podcast and we'd alsolove it if you'd go on your
favorite podcast platformwhether you're listening on
Apple or through Spotify andgive us a review thank you
that'd be awesome talk to y'allsoon digital marketing for
contractors is created by fatcat strategies for more
(27:37):
information visitfatcatstrategies.com.
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