You’re a small business owner, so you wear a lot of hats. If you’re a one-person show, you’re everything from CEO to CFO, secretary to data entry clerk. If you have a couple of people on your staff, it’s important to keep in constant communication about logistics. Today, most small business owners don’t bother with a landline because it’s an extra expense, and you never want to miss a call from a potential customer when you’re not at your office or it’s after hours. The downside to using your personal number for everything is that it’s incredibly difficult to maintain any semblance of work-life balance. Yes, even an entrepreneur needs to find a little balance so that they don’t burn out in the grind of growing an incredible business model. This is especially difficult when you’re the person that everyone reports to, but here are a few reasons why screening work calls from personal calls is actually good for business.
- Know Who Is Calling
Most people get a lot of calls from unknown numbers in the course of the day. If you’ve ever picked up a number you didn’t know, hoping it was a customer, just to have to back your way out of a survey or an offer to extend the warranty for a car you sold three years ago, you’re wasting precious time—personally and professionally. If you are able to screen your calls, you can decide whose call to answer, who can go to voicemail, and who you can block. Even if the call is a legitimate client, you can’t always answer in the moment. If you know who is calling, you can send a text saying that you’ll call back, send them to voicemail and update your to-do list, or forward the call to a team member who can answer the client’s question.
- Track Client Data
How do you share and track client data? If it’s just you, the system need only fit your needs, but if you have a team, it’s important to know who is answering calls, how the client information is being tracked, and who called that person back. Some call forwarding apps for your smart phone give you a second phone number and the ability to keep track of all the incoming client information in an organized and secure way. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to categorize calls and texts from each of your clients so that you never have to wonder when it was or how you talked to them last?
- Share Information with Your Team
It’s also necessary to be able to share client information with your team. Without an organized system for tracking data, you run the risk of client inquiries going unanswered, which is bad for business. Choose a call forwarding system that not only allows you to track calls and texts, but also allows your team to see this same information and for you all to be on the same page about who picked up a call, who returned a call, or who did intake for a new client’s information.
- Make Your Phone Work for You
The big calls usually come at the most inconvenient times. Apps like Ninja Number are created for the go-getter entrepreneur who never wants to leave a client hanging. Sure, you can set up an informative voicemail message, but big clients are looking for answers now, and you yourself have wondered, “Will anyone actually get this message?” Choose an app that allows you to set up an AI text message answering service for frequently asked questions and sends responses confirming that their call has been received. Some apps even allow you to connect with an answering service so that the potential client talks to a human being, giving them greater confidence that they’ll get that call back.
- Get Your Privacy Back
The final reason to screen business calls by using a call forwarding app is that you can get your privacy back. If your personal number is also your business number, your clients have a lot of access to you at all hours, and you feel obligated to answer everything immediately.
Get your life back by separating work and home with a call forwarding app. You’ll be refreshed, and business will be better for it.
