What Does Your Telephone Say About You?

What Does Your Telephone Say
About You When You Are Away?

Your Small Business Image
can be Shattered by Your Phone

by BIG Mike McDaniel

Business to Business relationships come to
expect a certain level of professionalism,
from the first telephone call to the
final delivery.

Your business can be on the Really Big
500 list, employ only a handful of people,
or be a business of one but what is said
by that business to other business customers
will reflect the personality of that business.
It can be a PR boost or a PR blowout.

Have you called the telephone company or
your long distance provider lately? Chances
are you will get a machine telling you to”
listen closely because the menus have changed”
(as if they know you called last year).
When you do listen closely, chances are there
is not a choice on the menu that sounds like
the reason you called. Worse, you could choose
a selection and be directed to an area
that does not answer with no way to get
back to real people. What does that
say about the company? Terrible impression.
Only the company’s bean counters will
argue that all that “select and press”
boogie-woogie is good for the company.

Word of mouth is faster and cheaper than
any other form of advertising, and very
widespread. Have you talked with anyone
that thinks voice mail menus are nifty?

Same if you have to call an insurance
company, or credit card company. Now, it
seems, more and more calls are greeted
with the “all our agents are busy, please
hold” message. Can you imagine how that
one got started? “Look, Herb, if we
put the main line on voice mail, we
can trim our customer support staff in
half, just have the machine say ‘everyone
is busy helping other customers’, we
can save really big bucks!” Not much for
PR is it? Even worse if they ditch the
800 number and make you pay for the call.

For years I have told my clients to look
to the big boys to see how they do things.
Now I hedge my advice, by pointing them
at the big boys that are doing it right,
because so many have made more than one
wrong turn on the road to a professional,
caring image.

The telephone is only one part of the
puzzle, but one of the most important parts.
I tell my clients with small to mid
size businesses to call the office from
time to time to see how the phone is
answered. I cannot count the number of
times I have had to ask to person answering
the phone to repeat the mesh of words
that just flew by. Hundreds of times
I have been ka-thudded on hold with
not so much as a “Hang on Bub!” It is
true, you can hear a smile on the other
end of the phone. You can also hear
indifference and the easy one to spot
is outright disgust. One bored telephone
person can do more to undo what took years
to do more than any other company
asset (or liability).

What if your company is you? Staff of one
with a home office. What happens when a
call comes in and you are not there to
put on your best voice? Does a machine
get it? In how many rings? What does
the machine say? Does your machine make
sense if you call from a pay phone? It
only takes a few minutes to draft a
script for the answer machine. So much
better than an ad lib. Even the pros
write it down. Forget about that
“I’m not here…” stuff, any moron
can figure that one out. No need to
lecture them with “..say your phone
number twice” or “talk slowly,
I am not a stenographer”. Record
it over and over until it sounds bright,
happy, and clear enough for Grandma to
understand.

How do you feel when you make a
business call and a machine answers
to tell you “if you want to send a fax,
press start now!”? Makes you question the
quality of the business, doesn’t it?
Can’t they even afford a separate fax
number? You see it on printed material,
too, for fax, “call first so we can
turn on the machine”. It is hard to
imagine such a setup being used for
more than one or two faxes a year.
The impression that a lack of a
separate fax number gives is negative
in every respect.

The ultimate professional faux pas
is to use your home phone number as
your business number. This might work
if you are the only one ever to answer
the phone and your machine always
answers if you are away (even if the
house of full of kids and an in-law
or two). What usually happens is a
child, or grandchild, will answer
“ha-whoah?” “Is this The Acme Company?”
“I’ll get my Mommee (clunk) Mommeeee ”.
Neat first impression. Consider the
ramifications if a teenager in your
house has figured out how to dial out.

Here are two simple ideas to help give
your business a professional front,
telephone-wise.

If you already use a separate line
for the fax machine, but still use your
home phone as your business line, start
using the fax number as your main
business number. Make sure no one else
answers it. Put your answer machine on
it and leave the home phone alone.
Put your new number on everything and
send email to those that may have the
old one. The transition won’t take long.

You won’t lose any faxes because you can
get a free fax number from several sources
that sends the faxes to your computer.
No banner ads to read, just free fax
service. I have had one for years.
I have a dedicated fax number and
don’t pay a penny. My fax number
converts any fax to an eMail attachment
and sends it to my eMail box. I can read
my faxes from any computer, worldwide.
In my office I can read and pitch,
or print and read. I don’t buy fax
paper anymore. Some folks call them
electronic faxes. The point is, you can
get a fax number all your own,
without extension, that anyone can
use, 24 hours a day, for free. No hidden
costs or startup fees. The two most popular
are www.jfax.com and www.efax.com but
any Internet search for “free fax numbers”
will bring up a bigger list.

If you don’t have a fax number at
home, call the telephone company and
order a second residential line. Tell
them you want a second line. No need
to explain. Once it is installed, make
it your main business line and get a free fax.

Now your business card can show a main
line, a fax line and a cell phone and
your mother-in-law can’t run off new business.

If it walks like a pro and acts like a pro…

Copyright 2003 BIG Mike McDaniel - All Rights Reserved
BIG Mike McDaniel is an Author, Professional Speaker
and Business Consultant with Advertising,
Promotion and Publicity ideas that really work.
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at http://BIGMikeOnline.com
Reach BIG Mike by eMail at McD@BIGMikeOnline.com