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Home | Communications | Voip The telephone is a tool that can be a tremendous time saver as well as a time waster. The key is to make it your servant, not your master....you must take control, or suffer the wasteful consequences. You need to schedule time to deal effectively with phone calls, not take them on a chance basis, at the caller's convenience. Step one is avoiding the knowledge of an incoming call. Choose a method that suits your personality and your work situation. Ask your secretary to hold all your calls, then ask for a review or message slips at a time of your choosing, once or twice per day, allowing yourself time to return those which are important, or to give instructions for your secretary to handle the response. If possible, your secretary should be located far enough away from you that you never hear the phone ring, or hear him/her talking on the phone. Use voicemail/answering machine. Should be located where you cannot hear it and phones should be silenced. Create a courteous voicemail message that simply explains that in order to work effectively and serve each person with undivided attention, you return phone calls between (for example) 10:00 and 11:00 A.M. And 3:00 to 4:00 P.M. You will also find it is wise to encourage the caller to contact you via email, instead. Of course, you check email no more often than twice daily, just before or after you handle your phone calls. Customer service and order taking should be very responsive. Farm this phone task out to a company which that charges per minute and specializes in these areas, such as: 1. Jim Buck at Direct Connect at 402-758-1200. Just follow the voice mail instructions to speak to Jim 2. Live Ops www.liveops.com utilizes home based reps for lower cost 3.West Teleservices these folks can be found at www.west.com 4. InPulse can be found at www.inpulseresponse.com All the services to put together a direct marketing campaign and handle the response. To cover all the bases and not miss important calls, establish a second phone number (I use a pre-paid cell phone) Share this number only with a few special people...the ones you can trust to call only for important business. This allows the few truly important calls to get through to you directly. Few of my friends, associates and customers know the number for my cell phone. For those calls that do get through at times other than your scheduled phone time, be courteous, efficient and businesslike. It is best to not answer in a social manner like "Hi, John, how are you?" Get to the point: "Hi, John, I'm glad you called; what can I do for you today? If John gets chatty you might say: "John, it's a really busy day and I have an appointment/meeting/phone call to make in three/five minutes. How can I help you?" If John is really, really chatty, you might say: "John, it was great to hear from you, but I am late for a meeting/appointment/phone call, I've really got to go." To summarize: 1. Turn off the phone's ringer to and keep your distance, avoiding its distractions. 2. Delegate: give your secretary specific instructions and leave the phone to him or her. Then get a report at your scheduled phone time 3.Establish an "urgent" line. Give this number only to people you can trust to respect your need to work effectively. 4. When you must get on the phone, or if a call slips through your defenses, be businesslike, direct and to the point. Determine the purpose and scope of any call before you answer or return it, then take care of business and bring the matter to a swift conslusion. 5. Encourage all who may contact you to use email instead. You can then better prepare your responses and be more effective in the use of your communication time. Article Source: http://www.articlewheel.com
Sgt Carpenter has taught many Marines and soldiers how to accomplish more in less time. You too can learn to work less and accomplish more
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