Another TAS Case Study
Lamoure Engineering offers a variety of professional services, from designing water systems for cities and rural townships to land surveying. Dan Lamoure, PE, is the president of the company founded by his father Gene.
“We’ve always been a small, family company,” explains Dan. “For the past twenty years, our hometown has held steady at about fifty-thousand people.
“During the past five years, though, we’ve had a real boom. Businesses are moving in, developments are being built, and we’ve even attracted a large software developer, which will help us grow even more in the future.”
The new development has had a dramatic effect on Lamoure Engineering. In the past, they would hire engineering interns from the university as office support staff. The interns could handle telephone calls, accounting, and appointment setting under Dan’s supervision.
“This was a win-win for both of us,” said Dan.
“They don’t teach you how to run a business in engineering school. They teach you all about physics, mechanics, and design. They don’t tell you what it’s like to operate a business. Our interns can see that side of things here, beyond straight engineering.”
The construction boom made it impossible for Dan to keep up with the demand for engineering services. He hired an office manager to supervise the interns and handle his routine bookkeeping.
He spent more time in the field and hired two more engineers, one of whom was a former intern. Dan also put together a team of land surveyors to handle the growing demands of commercial clients.
“In this year alone, we’ve seen no less than four big-box retailers coming into this market. That’s dramatic growth,” said Dan. “It’s really exciting to be a part of it.”
His office manager researched options to cope with their growing business. She recommended outsourcing all after-hours and overflow phone calls to a telephone answering service.
Dan agreed. “I had no idea how many calls we were missing until we hired the answering service. We often had all three lines busy, but I never thought about missed calls.
“I figured people would just call back. With the answering service we’re getting fifty percent more calls every day,” he said. “There are plenty of other firms to call if our line is busy; we were just losing business.”
Like his hometown, Lamoure’s business is growing. The new engineering staff, office staff, and additional interns have all played an important role.
Dan is also quick to credit the additional help he received from his telephone answering service as a key reason for his growth. “Our answering service has played a surprisingly big part in our success.”
Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s book The Profitable Answering Service.
With over three decades of industry experience, Peter is the publisher and editor-in-chief of TAS Trader, covering the telephone answering service industry.