If you’re a solopreneur and you’re the one answering your business phone, this post is for you. Going into business by yourself is certainly an undertaking, but it’s far from impossible.
The key to making it work is delegating time-consuming tasks to third party providers or freelancers who can lighten your workload while ensuring no task goes ignored.
As the owner of your business, answering your business phone is a bad idea for a few reasons. Find out why below.
When you own a business and you’re working to get it off the ground, it’s natural to start off wearing every hat within your company - receptionist, accountant, salesperson, customer service representative, etc. At first, your budget is limited and hiring full-time employees can be daunting.
But acting as your own receptionist and answering your business phone can actually hurt your business and productivity.
First, each phone call that you take, no matter how short, is a distraction from your work. Distractions take an average of 23 minutes to recover from, so if you take just 5 phone calls per day, that’s nearly 2 wasted hours spent just recovering from distractions!
Answering your own phone doesn’t look very professional. If you absolutely must answer your own business calls, don’t introduce yourself as the owner - simply offer your name and the name of the business. While you might think callers would be impressed to know that they’re speaking with the owner of the company, that’s not usually the case. Answering your own business phone looks a bit unprofessional, and while it won’t necessarily deter customers, it won’t create the right impression.
Speaking to a customer service representative or receptionist makes a caller feel like they’re dealing with a legitimate business. Speaking to the owner or CEO of a company - especially if the contact number is a cell phone number - has the opposite effect. It makes your company appear smaller. It lets callers know that you’re probably the only employee at your business, and although the solo business model can work just fine, it doesn’t really inspire confidence in consumers.
As a business owner, there are countless tasks on your daily to-do list. When you add answering your business phone to that list, things get harder. As we mentioned above, not only does the time you spend on the phone add up at the end of the day, but so does the amount of time you spend recovering from each distraction. If you receive regular phone calls or have a high call volume, you might find yourself glued to the phone all day and unable to take care of other, important core tasks.
With all this in mind, there is a cost-effective solution available. A virtual receptionist answers phone calls on behalf of your business, making you appear like a larger and more professional company. This improves your reputation with your customers and potential clients.
A virtual receptionist uses a custom script that you approve when answering your phone and greeting your callers. They can help you:
We know that signing up for a virtual receptionist can be a bit intimidating - after all, most business owners have never used a remote receptionist or allowed someone else to represent their business over the phone. That’s why we offer a free 30 day trial of our service for new clients. We want you to take one month to try our service so you can be sure it’s right for you before you sign up. You’ll get 1,000 free receptionist minutes when you sign up for our free 30 day trial, and you can start immediately. Click the blue button below to sign up!
Source: https://www.conversational.com/why-you-should-stop-answering-your-business-phone/
Publish Date: November 13, 2017 |
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