We’re on and off it countless times each day. Depending on how we use it, it can make our lives easier, or complicate it further. It can make us look polished and professional, or brusque and impolite.
Innovations like e-mail, faxes, pagers and the World Wide Web may have changed the way we get our messages out, but it’s the telephone that remains the heart of business communications.
Here are some tips to help you work the phones to your greatest advantage:
• Instruct callers to leave a detailed message on you voice mail or answering machine so you will be prepared with the information they need when you return their call.
• Likewise, be specific about why you’re calling when you leave a message on someone else’s voice mail.
• Include your mailing address, fax number and e-mail address on your outgoing message. This gives callers the option to contact you in other ways. Repeat callers may be annoyed by a long message, however, so let them know they can bypass your message by hitting the pound key.
• Check your messages frequently and return calls promptly. One consultant I know has a policy of getting back to callers in one hour, a fact he mentions on his outgoing message.
• To ensure you get your messages promptly, see if your telephone company offers a service where your voice mailbox automatically notifies your pager when a call comes in.
• If you don’t have a pleasant speaking voice, consider asking someone who does to record your outgoing message. A risk with that, however, is you may confuse callers. A solution is to maintain a separate mailbox with your voice on it.
• To avoid telephone tag, leave a message asking the person you’ calling to call back with a date and time when he or she can be reached.
• Consider changing your outgoing message daily, stating the date and the hours you will be in the office.
• When using your speakerphone, alert the caller when there’s someone else in the room listening in on the conversation.
• Don’t have a conversation with someone in the office when you’re on the phone. If something is so important that it can’t wait, get off the phone and call the person back as soon as you can.
• Call waiting does not belong on a business line. Instead, use voice mail, which answers calls even when you’re on the phone. Just remember to check for messages each time you hang up.
• If you have a home office, make sure you have a separate business line. If you have children, instruct them not to answer it. You can always cut down on your phone bill by making your outgoing calls on your residential line, which has less expensive rates.
• If you’re helping a customer or meeting with a client, don’t let the telephone interrupt you. Let the answering machine or voice mail take the call.
If all of this sounds like a lot to remember, be thankful that you can do it all with your hair uncombed and your feet on the desk. And pray that video phone never hits it big.
