7 Tips on How to Stop Being a Slave to Business Telephone Technology
In today's world of texting, cell phones, emails, Facebook, Twitter and other social media services we seem to get hit from all sides returning emails, texts, etc. at all hours of the day, night and weekend. We seem to be beholden to these devices as our masters. We jump every time our smartphone dings, chirps or vibrates. It seems as soon as a client gets your cell phone number you are now available 24/7 at any time, no matter the issue, even when the issue would be better attended to by someone else in your organization.
The fact is that technology was originally designed to give each of us control of our life, so here are 7 tips to take back control of your time and life, which will ultimately enhance your work-life balance.
TIP #1: Set client expectations when you are available and the best way to engage you and your organization. Let them know upfront how your organization works, so they can best be served. Give them a contact escalation list, so they know when, who and how to work with your company.
As an example, in our after-hours support, you leave a voice mail. Then, the system attempts to connect with the on-call technician and the first to take ownership is then played the message and has a chance to wake-up, get composed and address the emergency. The system also reports back who actually took responsibility.
TIP #2: STOP running your business from your smartphone. From the start, you should design your business with growth, even if you’re a solo practitioner. It gives you the ability to scale and not have to reeducate your clients on your procedures. My voice mail states if this is a customer care issue press 2, if you need to reach me right away press 1 and the system will attempt to locate me via use of “find-me-follow-me,” if I can't be located then you are returned to my voicemail greeting and the system will send me a text notification regarding your voice mail message. A VoIP solution is an inexpensive and smart investment to solve this.
TIP #3: When returning calls from your smartphone, use a VoIP app which will show the caller ID as coming from your office. In this manner, you will never have to give out your cell number. There are also VoIP systems which can have multiple numbers on your cell phone, so you have both a personal and business number.
TIP #4: Use airplane mode. When I am in a client meeting, the client who I am with is the most important person at that time. They have given me the gift of their time and I intend to respect it. I know even when I feel my phone vibrate, it is a distraction to the meeting. By placing the phone on Airplane mode, I will not be interrupted by the device. This allows you to be truly present with your clients and prospects.
TIP #5: Get an app like Agent which will allow you to control when, where and how you accept calls on your smartphone.
TIP #6: Check the smartphone at the door for internal meetings. Yes, leave the smartphone or other device at the door. The truth is, it can wait until the meeting is over. When the devices are checked, meetings run smoother, individuals are actually present to the topic at hand, they run more effectively and seem to take less time.
TIP #7: Turn off Notifications on your smartphone. Let’s face it, you don’t need the phone to ding every time someone posts something new on Facebook or a new story comes across on your favorite news feed.
Open One Solutions, Inc. is a Chicago based Business VoIP Provider specializing in both cloud / hosted and premised based IP phone systems or IP-PBX solutions. Open One Solutions brings years of experience in this field. Our company founder has been using and deploying cloud / hosted VoIP since 2004 and deploying IP-PBX solutions since the 90s. For additional information, contact us at 312-780-1010 or email us at info@openonesolutions.com