Automating intake without breaking the rules

The first response is the service and can be automated. What people send in that first message often cannot be stored anywhere you like.

Module 8 of the Castells Media academy for contractors: Automation.

The acknowledgement that has to be instant

What the first message may collect

Consultations that do not get forgotten

Following up on the deferred

The referral loop, which is not automatable

What we use, and the disclosure

Where the practice is losing people. Put your own numbers in. In most practices the largest single loss happens before any professional judgement is involved, and it is closed by an automatic acknowledgement rather than by anything expensive.

Do this next: Decide the response time you can actually keep, then automate an acknowledgement that promises exactly that. Keeping a modest promise beats missing an ambitious one.

Written by Castells Media, a marketing agency at 1298 Antelope Creek Drive, Roseville, California, working with home service businesses across the US.

Castells Media Inc, 1298 Antelope Creek Drive, Roseville, California