everreach, a new phone service to help busy small business owners take full control of their business calls, today announces the results of its Running Your Small Business Better Survey.

Small Business Challenges

The research, conducted on behalf of everreach by polling company Censuswide, surveyed over 250 small business owners and senior employees across various trades – including builders, plumbers, electricians and gardeners.

The idea was to explore the challenges small businesses in general, and tradesmen in particular, face when trying to manage their business calls. The survey looked at the most important issues these small businesses face, such as what missed calls cost in terms of lost revenue, as well as more personal elements, for example to what extent out of hours work calls might impact on time with the family.

Price Paid For Missed Calls

More often than not, tradesmen don’t have a dedicated business landline number, as the workforce is out and about rather than office bound. The survey results showed 87% of respondents use a mobile as their main business number. Significantly over half of those spoken to also said they bring their own phones to work rather than being supplied with a company handset.

Over a quarter of all calls to these phones are new business related, figures vary between trades but the builders in the survey estimated 27%. So what happens when these calls are missed?

The builders surveyed stand to lose the most out of all the trades. They charge on average nearly £2,000 pounds per job. This figure, combined with the rate at which they miss new business calls, means they are potentially losing in the region of £1,000 worth of business every week due to missed phone calls. That’s £52,000 per year in lost revenue.

A vast majority of respondents – 72% – worry about missing calls and losing business as a result. Over half of builders said having a way to ensure calls are answered would improve their business – 44% of plumbers, 38% of gardeners and 32% of electricians agreed.

Behaving Dangerously

The results also highlighted the risks tradesmen take when taking incoming business calls. Crucially, 4 out of 5 tradesmen surveyed would be tempted to answer the phone whilst in an unsafe situation at work, for example when up a ladder or lifting something heavy.

Family Time

In addition to the commercial implications for small businesses, the research also looked into the work/life balance impact of not having full control of the way they manage their business calls. Over a quarter of tradesmen surveyed said they can’t switch off at home as they frequently have to take work calls. Significantly 60% said either their partner or kids have accidentally answered their work calls in the past, while 21% admitted to accidentally deleting a voicemail themselves before listening to it or taking the number down.

Nick Mullen, CEO of everreach, comments: “According to the Running Your Small Business Better Survey results, missed calls mean missed revenue opportunities. The figures equate to millions in potentially lost revenue just in relation to the builders covered by our survey. The results illustrate the hidden communication challenges faced by small businesses such as these, but also show that addressing them can be financially rewarding and have a positive impact on the way they run their business.”

About everreach

everreach is a new phone service designed to help busy small business owners take control of their business calls. It allows customers to chose a ‘virtual’ local or non-geographic national rate number for their business, then use the everreach website to manage their incoming calls according to how their business works.

You get a suite of features as part of the service which you use to create your call rules:

• Call forwarding
• Time-based rules
• Welcome greetings
• Call menus
• Voicemail to email
• Call data

www.everreach.co.uk

For more information contact Christina at Limelight – christina.gough@limelightpr.co.uk or 020 7927 8100.