Growing up, my image of a business owner was someone dressed in smart attire, with a phone constantly glued to their head. I mean, owning a business is tough. You constantly have to deal with phone calls and it’s difficult to get any work done. It’s one thing if you’re talking to important clients, but another if you’re getting nuisance calls on a regular basis. Owning a business comes with the inevitability of being bombarded with services, and you don’t want that wasting your time. Let’s discuss how you can get off the phone and focus on what’s important.
The first thing to be aware of is just how much time you’re spending on the phone. Make sure you have a voicemail set up in case you can’t get to it. You don’t have to accept every single phone call! If it’s that important, they’ll leave you a message. Clients are aware of how busy your life will be, and they won’t lose any respect for you just because you don’t pick up the phone at the first time of asking.
Show your employees some respect by not answering your phone when talking to them. This doesn’t always have to be the case, especially if it’s an informal chat. However, if you’re talking about something important, those phone calls will have to wait. Your in-house team is more important than whoever is trying to reach you. If you’re not treating your employees with the right amount of respect, they won’t do the same for you.
Managing your calls is very difficult and takes a lot of your time. Places like Your Virtual Office London can manage those calls for you instead. These services will allow you to employ dedicated staff outside of the company to represent you on your behalf. Not only will this sound particularly professional, but you can decide what happens with each call. They can take messages, leave voicemails or simply transfer the call to you directly.
Of course, if you’ve got other employees in the business, you can ask them to take calls on your behalf from time to time. Ensure they are equipped with the proper know-how to answer them professionally and take detailed messages for you. You could even leave a message on your voicemail asking people to email you instead of calling you if they can’t get through. Sure, it’s not the same as speaking directly, but at least, you’ll have a chance of getting back them quickly instead of finding the time to make a call.
At the end of the day, you need to find a method that works for you. You should strike the perfect balance between conversing over the phone and being able to manage your workload. Use any combination of tips that we’ve mentioned today to help you along the way. By spending less time on the phone, you’ll find that you’re much more effective in the day-to-day running of your business.
