Do you ever get tired of giving away free advice to clients over the phone? Do your clients think that if they call you via telephone instead of coming in to your office that they won’t be billed for your consulting time? If this is an issue for your company, then consider using account codes to accurately re-bill your clients for your valuable time spent consulting over the phone.
Everyone loves to offer advice and to solve pressing and complex issues for clients. It’s what you’ve been trained to do. However, if you are in the business of providing such services to your clients for pay, it is a necessity to be compensated for your expertise. That can be a challenge when your clients call you in a mad rush and need an essential answer on the spot.
Can you tell them they have to come into your office before you can give them the answer to their problem? Unrealistic. They will likely go elsewhere to solve their problem.
Do you bring up how much the advice will cost them over the phone before you give them the answers they need? Unprofessional and uncomfortable.
So how do you avoid being taken advantage of and avoid giving your valuable time and expertise away for free? Simple. You use account codes to track client conversations and time frames spent with them over the phone, and then you re-bill for your time at the previously agreed upon rate. Key words being previously agreed upon. Billing for consulting over the phone must always be addressed in advance of the actual occurrence..
For years, certain business professionals such as lawyers, architects, and accountants have all billed for their time spent over the phone with clients. The only proven, provable, and professional way to successfully track and bill for their time over the phone was to use account codes. Account codes track customer conversations by an assigned number, as well as track the length of the calls.
There are two main ways to implement the use of account codes and bill for your time. You can either implement account codes through software that interfaces with your telephone system, or you can use your telephone company’s account code service. Let’s look at these two options in more detail.
Account codes via telephone system software: This is by far the best option if you have the need or desire to run reports, or if you need more than just a few codes. With the right software package, you will be able to run reports, input minimum billing time increments, hourly dollar rates per customer, export data in a number of formats, and easily create billing statements to send directly to the client. Some programs even allow you to graph the data in several pre-configured chart options if so desired. The account codes can be forced or verified, non-forced and non-verified, or a combination of both. They may also be changed at any time by software setting, and new codes can be added within moments. With this option, account codes may even be able to be assigned to a call after the call has begun depending on the package.
Account codes via telephone company service: This is an inexpensive and adequate option for the right scenario. In this scenario, the local telephone company you use allows you to have a block of account codes for a small monthly fee, and the monthly billing statement will detail out the volume and length of calls by code. With this option, you may also have a combination of forced, verified, un-forced, and un-verified codes. Changes to any settings can be expected to take a couple of business days after requesting the changes with your local phone company provider. Account codes from the telephone company will only work on outbound calls, so they may not be a fit for companies that will be dealing with inbound calls that require re-billing. In the case of an inbound call, the client will often be told they will need to be called right back. This will allow for implementation of the account codes and proper tracking via outbound call.
Account codes typically will range in length from 1-9 digits long, and must be input into the phone prior to making the call. This will allow the software or telephone company to start tracking and reporting on that specified call. Speed dials are often programmed into phones to make account codes more convenient for both options, as dialing a lengthy code up to 9 digits, along with a 10 digit telephone number could become quite cumbersome. Re-billing via telephone company account codes is a little more tedious, as there are no import/export reporting capabilities. The process of re-billing for your time will often involve copying off portions of your telephone bill with the assigned account code, transferring that number into your billing software, and sending out your statement with partial phone bill copy attached as appropriate. The labor involved in this process can often eat up the benefit of the ability to re-bill for one’s time, so company’s of any size swiftly move to software based account codes for ease of use and efficiency of time. Consult your local telecommunications professional to determine which option is best for your company.
Steve Norris is a Texas based Energy” target=”_blank”>www.energyretrofitters.com”>Energy Efficient Electrical Contractor and Telecommunications Broker for over 80 carriers nationwide. He specializes in hardware solution for multi-location business with advanced infrastructure needs. Over 90% of his clients are able to implement a new Business Phone System without increasing their budget with TeleTAP.
