Watching a successful contracting company operate is a thing of beauty. Every employee and every manager knows their defined role in the business, and they execute it perfectly. As a result, technicians get to customer’s homes on time; they provide an excellent service, and everyone is happy in the end. Homeowners get what they need, and the business is able to generate the revenue it needs.

None of this can happen if it’s not for the people you have answering your phones and dispatching your techni cians. They’re the superstars that rarely get the attention they deserve. Without them, your business wouldn’t last a minute. Think of all the advertising you spend to generate calls. If your CCRs (Client Care Representatives) don’t know how to perform their job effectively, it’s as if you're flushing that money down the toilet. That’s why the most successful businesses have CCRs with high closing percentages.

Shayna Shadowen of Cole Electric (dba Electrical Detectives) consistently has one of the best closing percentages in all of Success Group International. For more than six straight months, she’s been in ESI’s (Electricians’ Success International) top five. As you’ll read, she explains her success can be attributed to her newfound confidence and ability to take control of every phone conversation. You’ll find out in this month’s Learning from the Best.

How did you develop your script and really make it your own?
I took the ESI script and really made it my own. I needed it to work for me. I reworded a few things back and forth until it flowed like I needed it too. It’s worked really well since then.

What kind of initial training did you do once you had your script developed?
I pretty much answer all of our phone calls, unless it’s after hours-we have a service. So, training in t he beginning was a little difficult. I had to learn as I went, but in the beginning, I always had a copy of my script with me. Even if I was driving down the road, I would sit there with my script and go over and over and over it. Jason, my husband, would be driving with me. He’d pretend as if he was calling me, and we’d go over it together. Boy, did he try and make it hard. But we went over it that way.

How would you describe your script? Is it fairly long and elaborate, or is your script shorter, and to the point?
It’s a very simple, short script. It’s to the point, and it has everything that the customer needs to hear.

How long did it take you to get comfortable with your script?
As far as doing the script well and doing it like ESI wants us, it’s taken me three years. We joined ESI in 2004; we were founding members. But I’ve been answering the phone for our business since I was 12 years old. Answering a phone was one of the last big steps we needed to take in terms of changing over the business. So while I’ve done well with our conversion ratios, it hasn’t been easy; it’s taken time.

What are some other things you have done to help improve your performance on the phone?
We hired a consultant who specializes in helping people improve their performance on the phone to come in and work with us for a bit. She offered the training locally, and now she’s doing it nationwide. S uccess Academy was an incredible class for me, but we wanted to do something more. She helped us understand more of why we’re supposed to use certain words when we’re on the phone. She told us what questions we need to ask, and she told us what things we should avoid discussing. Really, she made us feel even more comfortable with our script.

Do you feel all of your training has helped you?
Training has definitely helped, because since July of last year, I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversion ratio below 92%.