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 phone is a tool that can be a wonderful time saver, or a great time waster. You need to remember to make it you servant, not your master....you can and must take control of it, 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.

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.

It is best if your secretary should be located far enough from you that you never hear the phone ring, or hear him/her the conversations.

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 at www.liveops.com works through 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.

Avoid answering in a social manner like "Hi, John, how are you?" Get right to the point: "Hi, John, it's good to hear from you; what can I do for you?

If John starts socializing or getting off topic, you might say: "John, it's a really busy day and I have a phone call to make in three minutes. What can I do for you?"

If John is really, really off course, you might say: "John, it was nice to hear from you, but I am late for a meeting, I've really got to go."

By way of review:

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 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 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.

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Sgt Carpenter has taught many Marines and soldiers how to be more productive in less time. You too can learn to work less and accomplish more
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