Ask These Questions When You Interview a Call Center

By Paul Zak, President of Inspector Office Solutions – America’s Call Center

As a home inspector, you inspect to certain standards when you perform a home inspection, right? Most credible inspectors do, especially those who are members of one of the professional home inspector associations. This way, your clients and agents know the scope of the inspection; it will always be the same scope because those are the standards professional home inspectors follow.

But when it comes to selecting many other services, there are no standards. One example is call centers that serve inspectors. Here is a list of important questions to ask when hiring a call center.

Question	Answers and Importance
Home Inspection Focus & Experience
Do you serve home inspectors only/how long have you served the profession/how many inspectors do you represent?	Understanding home inspections, agents and clients, as well as the demands of a home inspector = more successful bookings and fewer headaches for you. Many clients means the call center is doing something right.
How long have you served home inspectors?	Depth of experience, proven track record = more inspections, less hassle & headaches for you.
How many home inspection companies do you serve?	Breadth of experience, successful track record = higher quality service to you.

Extent of Services
What are your hours of operation?	Coverage to meet your needs.
Are all calls answered “live” or do calls go to voicemail during the day?	Voicemail during the day means lost inspections and a call center that is understaffed.
Do you do follow-up calls to capture missing/ additional information? Or is that left up to me?	Fully ready-to-go orders saves you time. Half-completed orders you will have to follow up on to make ready-to-go wastes your time.
Can you book and schedule to my specific preferences and needs?	Schedule/price/arrange orders to your preferences verses one size fits all with no flexibility (less business for you).
How much can I personalize the service?	Greater personalization to your preferences better serves clients, agents, and you = more inspections, happier agents/clients.
Can you arrange my 3rd party services?	Less work/hassle for you to have to schedule, reschedule, and handle exceptions = time saved, fewer headaches.
Can you confirm access for each order? Even if that means calling the selling agent or seller?	Less work for you to arrange, plus impresses agents = time saved, fewer headaches.
Can you arrange payment for each order?	Automated payment options provide security to your clients.
Can you handle my email leads?	Fast response to email leads = more inspections.
Can you follow up on my online scheduled orders, if I want that?	Confirm details, sell add-on services = higher revenue per inspection, less hassle for you.

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Question	Answers and Importance
Services
How do you handle “shopper calls”?	Educate, sell inspection. Done professionally = more inspections booked.
What is your close ratio for calls with an opportunity to book?	Higher close ratio = more booked inspections.
Can you send price quote emails to my leads?	Turns more leads into booked inspections.
How do you handle my agent calls verses my client calls? The same or different?	Each need specialized treatment. Leads to happier agents, more satisfied clients.

Call Center Staff
Tell me about the staff answering my calls, are they full-time or do you use part-time staff?	Full-time performs better, more knowledgeable, which benefits you and your callers.
Does everyone take my calls or a smaller group?	Smaller group is more personal. Otherwise, it sounds more like an impersonal call center.
Regular staff? The same staff all the time?	Staff stability means more personal/ knowledgeable interaction with you and your callers.
Do they read scripts or is the call a natural conversation?	Natural conversation is more personal and presents a better image to caller.
What are their average ages, experience, and background?	Maturity & service experience yield more inspections and more satisfied callers.
What kind of training do you provide?	Formal training, ongoing training = higher performing staff.

Technology
How are calls to my business number transferred to you?	Your business number should not have to change.
Does the staff answer with my company name?	Call must be answered with your company name.
What happens to my calls when everyone is already on a call?	All calls must be answered “live,”no voicemail…ever!!! Voicemail means lost inspections.
Do you record calls?	Needed for quality control, training, and issue resolution…you need to know.
What caller id shows to my agents and clients when you call them? Is it my business number?	Outbound calls showing your business number is more professional.

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Scheduling, Messages
Do you use a business management system such as ISN to book and schedule my orders?	Reduces re-entering of information by you into back-end systems, saves you time.
How does the system you use allow for personalizing to my needs and preferences?	More personalizing to your preferences = things done the way you want = more inspections, less headaches and rework for you.
What kind of quality procedures do you have to ensure accuracy?	Double & triple checking, consistency = fewer errors, less hassle for you.
How do you handle calls that require a message to be emailed or texted to me? Can you do that?	Handling/delivering messages in a timely and professional manner = happier agents/clients, less hassle for you.
Can you handle email correspondence with my agents and clients?	Leads to more inspections and flexible communications with your agents/clients.
For email correspondence with my agents and clients, what “from” address will they see? Does it look like an email from my company?	“From” your company is more professional and personalized = happier, less confused agents/clients.
Can you send me reports of calls received and what happened?	Gives you visibility into number of calls, type of call, result, and close ratio.

Regardless of the level of support you are looking for from a call center, be sure to feel comfortable with them (heck, if you are not comfortable talking to them, what about your agents and clients!). Feel you can trust them and ask for references so you can speak to other inspectors using their services for a good peer-to-peer discussion.

Not all home inspectors are the same, right? Skill level, services, price. Same for call centers. Prepare yourself by knowing what level of service and support you need from a call center, have your questions ready and you’ll be much more prepared to make a good decision on whom to use. And with that good decision should come more inspections and less stress for you!

About the Author
Paul Zak is President of America’s Call Center – Inspector Office Solutions. He has helped hundreds of home inspection companies prosper by providing phone answering and scheduling solutions, significantly boosting the revenue, customer service, and professional image of the inspector. America’s Call Center is a leader in the industry and provides solutions customized to fit your needs. The result is more inspections for you, more revenue per inspection from ancillary services, and an enhanced professional image.

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