Do You Really Need to Answer That Phone on the First Ring?
Or with a live person?
. . . or at all?
There are some pieces of "wisdom" that keep getting passed around year after year - even after it's no longer true.
Unless this is the first newsletter you've read from me, you know that I don't answer the phone. Ever. Really. And I finally looked up the actual year that we stopped answering the phone in my IT business: 2006. In other words, we haven't answered the phone live in sixteen years.
Okay, that's not 100% accurate. Mangers and technicians stopped answering the phone. We did allow administrative assistants and sales people to answer the phone and enter tickets for awhile. But eventually we just decided that phones are for outgoing calls. There are many reasons for this, but one is supreme: FOCUS.
Everyone in the company has work to do and should be focused on that work. The chances that a given phone call is the single most important thing they need to do today are basically zero. So we let people leave a message, and we call them back in a reasonable amount of time.
I've had exactly one client get angry that I didn't answer my phone live. I fired that client.
Don't get me wrong: If you want clients to feel that they can interrupt whatever you're doing anytime, then go ahead and answer your phone. You get the behavior you reward.
But consider this . . .
Every service you provide costs you something. Time is more valuable than money. But answering the phone costs something: Time, money, or both.
Answering the phone - or not answering the phone - is a choice. And it should be an intentional choice, not just something you heard from someone who heard it from their great grandfather.
Do you expect to call Google or Facebook or YouTube and expect someone to answer the phone? I hope not. They're busy making money. Service costs money. This is the 21st Century.
If you give people good service, they won't care that you didn't use 150 year old technology just because somebody told their great grandfather that that's what service looks like.
If you want clients who expect to call you any time, answer your phone.
If you want clients who send requests in email, answer your email.
If you want clients who use your service portal, engage them in the portal.
You can attract any clients you want. Decide who you want your clients to be. Then determine how you want to serve them. Build a business around those clients, doing business the way you want to do business, and there will be a great fit.
You will never be spectacularly successful following someone else's dream, or vision of good service. Build YOUR service business and attract clients who want that kind of service.
