Tweet

Does Your Business Phone Accept All Callers?

Guest post by: Denise Griffitts

Article Overview: Quick question. Does your small or home-based business lose potential business or miss connections with a potential client by refusing to answers callers with a blocked number? This article is going to explore how accessible your business phone should be.

Does Your Business Phone Accept All Callers?

Quick question. Does your small or home-based business lose potential business or miss connections with a potential client by refusing to answers callers with a blocked number?

This post is going to explorehow accessible your business phone should be.

Recently I was given a couple of recommendations for (insert service here) by somebody whose judgment I trust. I called both people and hadno problems at allconnecting with the first person on that very short list.

However, the second recommended business personwould not allow my blocked number call to go through. Now understand that my phone number is blocked for some very legitimate reasons, one being that if my direct phone number became widely known, I would never get anything done. That number is given to my clients and team members. Period. My toll free number is published on all my websites/blogs and is embedded into my business emails. We are easy to get in touch with!

Now, I really did want to speak with this person about a project for a client and just kept going down the numbers given me until I reached a toll free number where Iwas relieved to be able to leave a message.That was three days ago.

This is where theaccessibility question comes in.

Today my call was finally returned and when I mildly expressed my concern with not being able to reach this person's business phone I was treated to fairly huffy explanation of their reasons. When I explained why my number is blocked (remember now, I have several reasons, all of them legitimate) the response was, "Well that's weird." Not a great start to a working relationship.

So my question is, why would a business, whether brick and mortar, or home-based block callers who may not want to show their phone number right away? Isn't this where voice mail becomes a wonderful business tool? I have to wonder just how much potential business this person is actively turning away by refusing to accept calls.

Your thoughts?

Related Articles
  Sales Training - How is Your Cold Calling Attitude?
  Answering Service Customer Service Agents
  RingCentral Phone Service Features
  Top Ten Call Center Etiquette For Virtual Call Center Agents
  The Web and the Phone
  Test your Telephone Effectiveness - Find out if your phone practices are winning or losing customers
  Do Auto Attendants Fully Replace The Live Operator?
  Features of Kall8 Phone Service
  How Important is CRM to Your Business?
  Are You Focusing on the Right Thing?
  Industries That Need Emergency Contact
  The Best Answering Service Call Scripts and How to Develop Them
  Entrepreneurs – Are You Working Efficiently Or Are You Just Plain Disorganized?
  How Do You Choose a Conference Call Service?
  What Level Of Telephone Sales And Customer Service Do You Provide?
  Tips for Effective Telephone Use
  Cold Calling Mistakes: Top Tips To Avoid
  An Identity Theft Call Center - A Necessity In Today's Information Age
  Hiring A Call Center Company Can Improve your Business
  Entrepreneurs – Are You The Victim Of The Time Thieves?

Article Tags: business phone, customer service, homebased business
Referred by: http://www.onlinebizu.com



Related Forum Posts
How do i answer the phone? - I learned this technique from a successful businessman who earns over a million dollars a year. He just uses his name like this... Phone rings... " This is Dwayne..." It kind of throws people off who have a preplanned script and gets right into it. Phone rings... " This is Dwayne..." No Hello, no good morning/afternoon/evening Phone rings... "This is Dwayne..."
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: Can you read body language and convert it into a sale? - I can definitely read their mood by how they speak on the phone. You can usually also tell by the way they respond to the things you are saying. Phone sales aren't as easy as when you see them in person, but I still believe their tone can tell a lot.
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: Can you read body language and convert it into a sale? - [quote="mbrand2222":3738chdj]I can definitely read their mood by how they speak on the phone. You can usually also tell by the way they respond to the things you are saying. Phone sales aren't as easy as when you see them in person, but I still believe their tone can tell a lot.[/quote:3738chdj] Hi Mary, Would you have a specific example you could share with us on how you cab turn an unfriendly tone (from a client) into a positive one or even a sale?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Business Coach Explains To You How To Add Value

Let's Skip the Offshore Horror Stories

Are You My Mentor

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.