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How To Conquer the Interruptions of the Telephone

First, I hope you understand that my job is to help you learn to re-arrange your work systems to enable you to get more done in less time. For that reason, you will find my articles to be short, to the point and without frills. You don't have time to waste reading a bunch of excess fluff...you just need to learn what to do to get more done in less time. If you do not fully understand, or just need more information, just go to my web site and fill out the contact form and ask your question in the comments section.

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.

A good idea is to schedule time to deal efficiently with all phone calls as a group, not take them individually, at unexpected times. First, you should avoid the knowledge of an incoming call. Choose a method that suits your personality and your work situation.

1. Get your secretary to hold all your calls. Ask for a report or paper message slips at a time of your scheduling, once or twice each day. Allow yourself enough time to return those which are important, or to give instructions for your secretary to handle responses.

If possible, your secretary should be located at a distance from you that you never hear the phone ring, or hear him/her talking on the phone.

3. Use voicemail or an answering machine. It should be located where you cannot hear it and phones should be turned off. Your machine can offer a courteous voicemail message that simply explains that in order to work better and serve each person with undivided attention, you return phone calls between 10:00 and 11:00 A.M. And 3:00 to 4:00 P.M., for example. It's also a good idea to encourage the caller to contact you using email. Of course, you check email no more often than twice daily, just before or after you handle your phone calls would be a good time.

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. Direct Connect at 402-758-1200 follow the voice mail instructions to speak to Jim Buck

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 at www.inpulseresponse.com Offers all services necessary to put together a complete direct marketing campaign and handle responses.

You may want to establish a second phone number (I use a pre-paid cell phone) whose number you share with only certain special people whom you can trust to call only for business; those who will not call for personal reasons. This allows the few truly important calls to get to you . Most of my friends, associates and customers do not have the number for my cell phone. For those important calls that do get through at times other than your scheduled phone time, your only reasonable option is to be courteous, efficient and businesslike.

Don't answer in a social manner like "Hi, John, how are you?" Get direct and to the point: "Hi, John, it's good to hear from you; 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."

By way of review:

1. Distance yourself from the phone or turn it off

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 a special "urgent" line. Give this number to a few select people you can trust to respect your time.

4. When you must get on the phone, or if a call slips through to you, be businesslike, direct and to the point. Know the purpose and scope of a call before you answer or return a call, then take care of business and get off.

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.

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