Follow Up Boss Tip: Replace Voicemails with Texts

Want to triple your response rate on leads? Who wouldn’t right?

Well…if you’re still leaving voicemails and NOT sending leads a text after you call them with no answer, this opportunity is yours for the taking.

Honestly, you’ve been blasted with everyone talking about how consumer preferences have changed around how we like to communicate, but instead of stats, let’s just look at a real-world example.

Let’s look at my dentist.

Like most, they do their recalls to book me in for my next cleaning every 6 months. The challenge is, I often don’t end up getting this booked until 7 or 8 months have passed losing them money (and arguably putting my oral health at risk). Here’s why:

• They call me during the day, while I’m working. In many cases, I’m in the middle of something or on another call, and when I see it’s not my wife or another family member, I send them to voicemail to ‘deal with later’ (in this scenario, later = never).
• They leave a voicemail that I am very unlikely to listen to right away if ever. As an example, I have 3 un-checked voicemails right now dating back to 2 weeks ago (one is actually from my dentist).
• Nothing happens.
• They call again in a week or two and try again.
• Sometimes I’m able to answer, but often not.
• The cycle repeats.

Now, if they had just sent a text following their first call, I’d already be booked for my next cleaning. Win-win. Here’s why:

• They call, I don’t answer.
• Immediately after the call, they text me letting me know I’m due for a cleaning and asking me what days next week work to schedule an appointment.
• I reply with options.
• They suggest a few times.
• I pick one and it gets confirmed.
• Done.

Even better if they had used something like Calendly.com but that’s another story for another day.

Can you see how much better this is for everyone involved? Here’s why texting gets responded to more than voicemails:

• Voicemails are time-consuming to listen to where texts take me seconds to read and I can do it anywhere (and some people still don’t have features like visual voicemail and still listing to each message that came in before, before being able to listen to yours)
• Voicemails force me to then initiate the conversation back to you which means I need to find a space and time to call you back whereas texts enable me to respond in seconds wherever I am

To help you get started, we’ve also added some new text templates to everyone’s accounts (also available for new free trials).

If you’re still skeptical – just test it for a week or two and then check how your response rate from leads is affected in the response rate report in Follow Up Boss. Then text me to get my address so you’ll know where to send the thank you gifts 😜.