By the Numbers

How Fast Does a New Caller Expect an Answer?

Research on response speed has held up for nearly twenty years. A 2007 MIT and InsideSales study of more than 15,000 leads found that reaching someone within five minutes made them 21 times more likely to qualify than a contact at 30 minutes. A Harvard Business Review audit of 2,241 companies put the average first response at 42 hours and found that 23% never responded at all. Roughly 78% of customers buy from whoever gets to them first. Speed only pays off if the person answering also collects the right information.

The Six Answers a First Call Should Produce

A good intake runs about two minutes and produces six things: who is calling and how to reach them, what they need and how urgent it is, where the work is, how they found you, whether they have used you before, and when they are available. That list looks unremarkable written down, but asked live and recorded the same way every time it turns a phone call into work you can schedule. Most businesses lose the fourth and sixth items, which are the two that let you market and set an appointment.

The Real Cost

A Message Slip Leaves You Starting Over

A name and a number means calling back cold, asking questions the customer already answered once, and competing with the business that asked them first. Callbacks also pile up until the end of the day, which is exactly when the customer has stopped answering their phone. Every question captured live is a question you do not have to earn a second chance to ask.

On the Ground in Cherry Creek

What a Cherry Creek Intake Should Capture

Cherry Creek buyers are used to a considered experience and notice when they get a rushed one. A strong intake here captures the service they are asking about, the occasion or deadline behind it, their preferred contact method, and whether they were referred. The referral question matters more in this neighborhood than almost anywhere else in Denver, since so much of the business moves by word of mouth and nobody tracks it unless they ask.

The Solution

How Intelligent Office Runs Your Intake

We write the script with you, so your receptionist asks your questions in your order and uses your language for your services. Custom intake forms are available at $75 a month, appointment scheduling at $125 a month, call notes at $25 a month and CRM integration at $149 a month, so the answers arrive in the system you already use instead of on a sticky note. Answering plans start at $225 a month for 50 minutes, minutes are not rounded up, and calls under 5 seconds are never charged.

• Custom call scripts written with you, not a generic greeting
• Custom intake forms at $75 a month
• Appointment scheduling at $125 a month, so the customer leaves with a time
• Call notes at $25 a month and CRM integration at $149 a month

Watch

What an Intelligent Assistant Does on a Live Call

This clip covers what our assistants handle while a customer is on the phone, including the questions they ask and where the answers go.

Why Intelligent Office Cherry Creek Is Built Around Real People

Our Cherry Creek team is staffed by real receptionists who answer your business calls with a script written for the way your customers buy. Intelligent Office Cherry Creek also handles your mail, provides a real Cherry Creek business address at 44 Cook Street, and opens a meeting room when a conversation needs a table.

Learn more about Intelligent Office Cherry Creek

Sources

Response-time figures come from the 2007 MIT and InsideSales Lead Response Management study and a Harvard Business Review audit of 2,241 companies, both summarised in current lead response research. Pricing reflects current Intelligent Office plan rates.