When I first started my electrical business back in 2004, I had the naive belief that it would be as simple as placing an ad in the local paper, landing a flood of work, and printing money. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Within 18 months, I was on the brink of giving up.
What I didn’t realise:
- Building a brand takes time: It’s not enough to just offer services; you need to consistently nurture customer relationships and build trust to secure a steady stream of work.
- The chaos of balancing everything: I was spending all day on the tools, climbing through ceilings and under houses, all while trying to juggle customer calls and take notes. I missed half of the calls, and when I did manage to answer, I was far from being in the right headspace – especially when I was wedged in a 60-degree ceiling.
- My family life suffered: My wife, who I had dragged into this business venture, didn’t sign up for a life of stress and long hours. She didn’t sign up for me being constantly cranky and always being absent when it came to spending time with our kids. There was no time for holidays, and she certainly wasn’t prepared to chase slow-paying clients or deal with debt collection.
- Endless hours after work: I’d get home and then spend 3-4 more hours returning calls, troubleshooting customer issues, and trying to book weekend quotes. It felt like I was working 24/7, and my personal life was in shambles.
- Regret: Every day, I found myself second-guessing walking away from a high-paying Electrical Supervisors role.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Fast forward 20 years, and somehow, we pushed through by investing in countless systems, processes, and a growing team. But here’s the kicker: Today, you wouldn’t need to go through what we did.
Back then, we had a huge team – over 30 sales and call centre staff, another 15 people in support roles – it was madness. Looking back, I can’t believe how much we spent and how much overhead we carried.
For the past two years, I’ve shifted gears and focused on research and training to implement AI systems that could eliminate those huge costs and inefficiencies.
Today we are operating a business at the same scale with a fraction of the overheads.
Appointment Settings
- Handle incoming leads and book appointments in the sales team calendar’s on autopilot (removed our entire call centre)
- Sync leads directly to lead forms on our website or social media
- Our own app that communicates with every channel
- Book customers in 24/7
Database Nurture and Lead Generation
- Our AI filters through our existing 30,000 customer data base and book new or recurring services
- It combs through old cold leads and rebooks as hot leads.
- Riffles through lead lists
- Can make up to 10,000 calls a day
Debt Collection
- Our accounts team just loads up the slow payers and our machine does the rest
- Improved cashflow significantly
- Removed a function that our staff really disliked
24/7 After hours Customer Service
- 24/7 Customer Service
- Fault Handling
- Customer inquiries
- Your weekend warrior or divert your phone to after hours
- Personally trained to help customers with Electrical questions by a 51 year old Electrician 😊
If you are interested in rolling out something like this into your business so you can get your life back, reach out to our team today!
Founder of Horan & Bird. Director of Master Electricians Australia and Board Member of Solar Accreditation Australia. John has played a key entrepreneurial role in the transformation of the Energy Landscape in Queensland.
