Recently, I got up in the morning and found a voice
mail on my iPhone.
It was from a doctor from the East Coast, asking me to call him.
Now, this is no surprise: I regularly get calls from doctors,asking for advice about their business and how to market it for maximum exposure and maximum R.O.I. (If you don't know what R.O.I. stands for, make sure you're a member of my FREE newsletter that comes out each and every Tuesday.)
Anyway, when I called him back, around 8am EST (I normally at work
at 6 am), he answered the phone in a hoarse, dazed voice ... and I
knew I had woken him up.
I immediately felt guilty ... but I shouldn't have.
After all, why is it MY responsibility to know or think about whether he works at home, is at the office or is off work that day?
And what difference should that make to clients, prospects, or anyone else who calls him?
Sure enough, he told me, a bit grumpily, "It is early in the am where I am."
And I felt vaguely scolded ... as if I was supposed to figure out his location and time zone from the area code in the phone number he had left on my voice mail!
A major component of your small business marketing is the professional impression and image you convey ... and that requires businesses to have two separate phone lines: one for home, and one for business if need be.
The telephone rules are simple....
* Always answer YOUR business phone promptly, clearly, and professionally. Always, always, always, pick it up on the second ring.
The first seems too needy, and by the fourth, the prospect is getting annoyed by the long wait.
* Identity yourself and your company in your greeting, e.g.,
"Dr. Carney's office, this is Cindy speaking."
* The business phone should ONLY be answered by people from the business - never children, parents, or the cleaning lady. I know this is elementary, but some people need the basics.
* When the business phone rings after hours and you do not feel like talking to business callers, patients, clients, customers, don't answer it. Let the voice mail pick it up. I say you give your C.A. or other person who works for you a bonus, every time they answer it and sell something over the phone (after hours). You never know who calls unless you monitor it, 24/7. If your name is NOT attached to the business, like Dr. Carney's office, then by all means, you can answer it yourself. A doctor should never answer his own phone during business hours.
* If you work at home or refer the phone to your home after hours, make sure you keep the business phone in a private office or other area shielded from the sounds of home life. Business callers should not hear kids, dogs, etc. fighting or babies crying in the background.
* Do not require the caller to think about your situation, e.g., that they are calling late or reaching you at home. Honestly, they don't care. They may not have expected someone to answer, but when you do, be on your best behavior.
That's not their concern or responsibility ... and having to worry about that is a turn-off for your clients and prospects.
For instance, I once called a fellow marketer at 5pm; I suspected he worked at home, but I didn't know that for certain.
When he answered, he sounded annoyed and didn't hide it well; clearly, I had done something wrong in his books.
"Is there something wrong?" I asked.
"I am eating dinner," he replied testily.
Apparently, he required me to be a mind reader or have surveillance cameras in his house. Oops!
Or maybe he was living in the 1950s, when most people actually left work at 5pm on the dot!
Another faux pas that can damage the professional image you want to convey....
If someone calls and the person they want to reach is not available, take a message and promise to have that person call back promptly. And please, if you say you're going to do something, write it down, and leave it in plain sight until that goal is finished.
Don't let your staff say, "He's not here right now. Can you call back tomorrow?"
This adds another task to the prospect's to-do list for the day and people forget. I know when people are in pain, they want to talk to someone now.
And your job is to make the prospect's life easier, not add more work to it. If you do, they'll move on.
Finally, here's the "technology" set up I recommend:
* Separate phone lines for home and business.
* Another separate, dedicated phone line for the fax machine.
It's annoying and amateurish to tell prospects, "Let me hang up
on you. I will unplug the phone, plug in the fax, and then you
can call back and fax your document." It is disrespectful because
it wastes the prospect's time.
* And yes, yet another dedicated phone line for the modem if you have a dial-up connection to the Internet. I hope you're past that in your life, because if you're still a dial up doctor, you're way behind things.
However, I recommend high-speed broadband access, which is faster and does not require its own phone line.
The point: you are in business and you are a business professional.
Therefore, you have to convey a professional image that says you
are serious about business, not a dilettante playing around
between jobs.
Life is good when you know what marketing can do for you!!
It is a GREAT LIFE!
