Driving Revenue and Performance in the Home Services Call Center

For home services businesses operating call centers, improving performance and driving more revenue can be thought of in three essential buckets focused on efficiency: agents, leads, and managers.

At this year’s Home Services Growth Summit, industry experts dove into how these efficiencies boost revenue and improve performance in home services call centers. With lead costs expected to rise due to new FCC regulations, the focus is now on efficiency at every level. 

As panel moderator, Convoso CMO Lisa Leight asked insightful questions that drove the discussion. Brian Spurgeon, former Director of Call Centers at Long Home Products, and Keith Regan, VP of Sales at Connection Holdings, shared their strategies for keeping home services call centers profitable by getting the most out of agents, leads, and managers.

1. Agent Efficiency: Maximizing Agent Performance

If you want to run a thriving call center, you need to get the most out of your agents. The secret? Tracking the right numbers and creating a work environment that keeps them motivated and engaged.

It’s important to make the work environment fun while still holding agents accountable. Regan does this by using a ranking system that pulls both data from the dialer—like how many transfers an agent makes, their pause time, and how available they are—and qualitative factors like how coachable and dependable they are. Combining both hard data and soft skills gives a clear picture of how well agents are doing.

Regan also makes agent performance visible to everyone, which fires up healthy competition. “If you walk into the office and see that you’re in the bottom quartile, you kind of get that ‘Oh shoot’ moment,” he said. Agents see how they stack up and start thinking, “How do I beat the other agents? How do I get ahead?” Gamification like this keeps them pushing to improve.

Spurgeon takes a similar approach but with a bigger focus on real-time data. His team looks at key performance indicators (KPIs), such as how quickly the agents answer calls and their success rates and also listens to calls for quality assurance.

“With our dialer, we’re able to very quickly put out real-time data every few hours about how our agents are performing,” he said. “We’re sharing that with the agents throughout the day, every two hours.” Keeping agents updated on performance throughout the day lets them know what adjustments they need to make to stay on track.

But it’s not just about tracking KPIs. Training and support are just as important. Call scripts, coaching, and feedback give agents the tools they need to succeed. Spurgeon is clear on this: agents need the right resources if you want them to perform at their best.

Key Takeaways:

• Use a mix of hard data (like transfers and talk time) and softer factors (like coachability and attendance) to measure agent performance.
• Show agents where they rank to spark competition and keep them motivated.
• Share real-time performance data throughout the day to help agents stay engaged and focused.
• Make sure agents have the right tools, dynamic scripts, and training to do their jobs well.

2. Lead Efficiency: Extracting Maximum Value from Leads

In a call center, leads are everything. But just having them isn’t enough—you need to handle them efficiently to really see results. As Leight put it:

“We all know that with the coming FCC regulations, lead costs are going to get more expensive. It’s more important than ever to really manage the ROI of your leads and make sure that you’re maximizing the efficiency of these leads that you’re paying dearly for, whether you’re buying them or generating them yourselves.”

Speed to Lead

One of the most important factors in lead efficiency is speed to lead. The first home services provider to make contact has the biggest advantage. To get the most out of your speed to lead, you need to understand the complexity of your dialer software. Spurgeon’s team was able to cut their response time dramatically after their dialer’s technical team showed them a key feature.

“Our speed to lead was anywhere from a minute and a half to three minutes with the dialer,” he said. “But through our development with the dialer, we found out that there’s a parameter you can put in your API script that pushes the lead into your dialer. Our technical account manager showed us this, and within a couple of minutes, we were calling leads in seconds instead of minutes.”

This shift—from a few minutes down to seconds—gave Spurgeon’s team a crucial edge in being the first to reach potential customers. “Everyone in the home improvement industry is trying to get that customer first,” he said. “You’ve got to make sure you understand your dialer and how it works, because speed-to-lead is so important.”

Caller ID Management

Another key aspect of lead efficiency is managing caller IDs. If you’re not careful, your numbers can get flagged as “spam likely,” which means no one is going to answer the call. (Unless it’s Leight, who is happy to answer to find out what ineffective dialer solution the call center is using.)

Regan pointed out how important it is to manage your DIDs and have dialer software that helps keep things in check. “You provision a bunch of new DIDs, and you have to let them rest or they’re going to show up as spam likely,” he said.

You also need to keep an eye on how often each number gets used. If you overuse a number, it’s going to get flagged. “Your dialer will tell you, ‘Hey, you’re using this number too much. You’re going to show up spam likely, or you’ve been flagged,’” Regan said. Rotating your numbers and keeping them fresh means more people will answer your calls, which makes a huge difference in contact rates.

Resting Leads

In addition to managing caller IDs, another strategy for lead efficiency is resting leads. If a lead doesn’t convert right away, don’t keep bombarding them with calls. Instead, give it some time and try again later. Often, a lead that didn’t work out the first time will be much more responsive after a break.

“Up until about six months ago, I never rested anything. I just called,” Spurgeon said. “But we started resting [leads], and with our dialer, we’re able to quickly create new lists and campaigns that allow us to take those rested leads and recall them. For the last three months, it’s been a game changer for our company.”

Of course, none of these strategies matter if you’re not paying attention to the data. Knowing when to call, how often to call, and managing the cadence of those calls all come down to tracking performance and adjusting based on what the numbers are telling you.

Key Takeaways:

• Speed to lead is critical—calling leads within seconds can give you a big edge over competitors.
• Manage your caller IDs carefully to avoid being flagged as spam. Rest new DIDs, rotate your numbers, and track how often they’re used.
• Rest your leads before trying to contact them again. Sometimes, a little time can lead to better results.
• Use your dialer data to make smart decisions about when and how often to call, ensuring maximum efficiency.

3. Manager Efficiency: Setting Your Team Up for Success

Having great agents and solid leads is important, but without efficient management, your call center won’t reach its full potential. A big part of manager efficiency is knowing how to read and use the data. 

Regan uses a report that tracks KPIs like contact rates to catch issues before they turn into bigger problems. “I’ll look at what the contact rates are on the data we’re using… If I see a campaign that drops off from a 20% contact rate to eight or nine percent, [it’s time] to pull the ‘Oh no’ handle and stop the presses,” he said. The goal is to catch issues early, whether it’s caller ID flagging, overused DIDs, or technical issues with the dialer, so you can fix the problem and get back on track.

Effective managers have to be comfortable with the technical side of things. Spurgeon says they should be able to dive into spreadsheets, manipulate data, and use tools like pivot tables to make informed decisions. “We’re looking at all this stuff so that our managers can efficiently make decisions throughout the day that help us set more appointments,” he said.

In his former position, tracking data was essential to his role. He sent nightly reports to leadership on how the call center did that day, showing what they converted and which markets performed well. “It’s just understanding your data and knowing how to move on it,” Spurgeon said.

While it’s possible to have a manager who is both data-driven and a people person, Regan typically considers these two different skill sets. “The guy who manages the dialer is not, in my mind, the guy who’s bringing the sizzle and excitement to the call center,” he said. 

For Regan, the ideal dialer manager is someone intensely focused on data, constantly analyzing the numbers to find ways to improve performance. “I want the guy who’s running the dialer to have glasses this thick,” he joked, “because he’s staring at the screen all day and saying, ‘Hey, I found something, this can improve our KPIs.’” In his view, managing the dialer and motivating the team require two different mindsets, each critical to a call center’s efficiency and success.

Key Takeaways:

• Use real-time data to catch issues early, like caller ID flagging or overused DIDs, and make quick adjustments to keep campaigns on track.
• Ensure your managers are comfortable with the technical side, including working with spreadsheets and pivot tables to analyze performance and make informed decisions.
• Set up clear processes for monitoring KPIs and reporting results to keep leadership informed and the team aligned.
• Recognize that managing the dialer and motivating the team are two different skill sets, and you may need a data-focused manager and a people-focused manager.

Both Brian Spurgeon, formerly of Long Home Products, and Keith Regan of Solar Direct Marketing use Convoso’s AI-powered sales platform to drive impressive results. 

Spurgeon’s team saw a 67% boost in appointment set rates, a 33% increase in contact rates with ClearCallerID Pro, and reduced their speed-to-lead from over 2 minutes to just seconds. Regan’s team achieved a nearly 40% lift in contact rates and improved agent efficiency, which also boosted team morale.

Ready to see what Convoso can do for your business? Sign up for a demo today and discover how our platform can transform your call center’s performance.