A very handy man

I've never much enjoyed having workmen in. You have to be very lucky to get one who doesn't suck his breath in over his teeth while shaking his head sadly as he quotes a price. Or taken the plunging neckline principle and applied it to the back of his trousers. And worst of all is when you first phone them to book an appointment: most work for themselves, which means that when they answer they're generally halfway up a ladder, or driving their white van at warp speed to their next customer. It's one of those few situations when you're actually glad to get a Call Centre on the line. And sometimes - just sometimes - it's a pleasant experience when you do.

I'm talking about a company called 0800-Handyman, and it's the subject of my blog this week.

What they do is quite simple: they have lots and lots of workmen, from carpenters to plumbers to electricians, and give you a single number to call when you want work done around the house. Many of them are multi-skilled, so you can get more than one thing done at once. (Apparently I needed a CORGI engineer to plug in my cooker, and I half-expected well-bred dogs to appear at my door brandishing screwdrivers.) And the prices are very reasonable. But the best thing for me was simply the way they take your call. No grunts, no background noise of a Transit, just a trained Call Centre Agent who listens to your problem. That's what it's all about.

First off, you get through to a real live person very quickly. Just like First Direct. And the person's armed with all the common problems workmen encounter, so they can be taken care of straightaway. For example, they don't ask what type of electrical connection you have in the cooker area. They ask: "Was there a cooker there before?" That tells them what they need to know, without asking for knowledge I don't have.

Second, they understood that every customer is different. I wasn't talking to a script robot, I was having a real conversation with a real person. He even noted that a previous workman, visiting my neighbour, had experienced problems with the gate and was it fixed yet? So many little things that can destroy your plans on the day, were taken care of during that first call.

Best of all - he gave me proper information. No hedging and fudging - we agreed an exact time slot for the work and what it would cost. When a problem arose - the area around my cooker's very tight and getting in there to reach the wires and stuff needs a bit of planning - he even suggested I email over a photo of the area, just so he could check everything would be ok. How many Call Centre agents give you their email address to work with? How nice.

And when the confirmation came through, it echoed my exact words and contained a proper description of the work. Not a "flange bracket" in sight*.

The call took less than ten minutes, to arrange a fairly long list of little things around my house, and I ended the call feeling I'd genuinely achieved something - none of the frustration you feel after phoning most commercial organisations. 0800-Handyman really seems to believe its Call Centre is a profit centre rather than a cost centre. (Those Rapide people wrote a paper on this very subject recently - click there to download it.)

And yes, the workmen actually did arrive (and leave) on time. What a great Call Centre experience!

* "Flange bracket" is a term plumbers use on invoices when they want to bump the price up a bit. If you've ever paid for a flange bracket, you've paid too much - thanks to Rant for this tip.