Business phone calls are daily bread to every company, big or small. After all, businesses need to interact with their customers and partners; otherwise, they’ll miss opportunities and eventually fail to grow and prosper. That’s why an effective communication channel is necessary for this line of work.
Reliable services, such as Weave phone systems, can help you make your business calls more organized by improving customer service, reducing pressure on you and your employees, facilitating workflow, and promoting the growth of your company. It also helps you reduce performance costs over time. If you don’t have a phone system yet, consider getting one as soon as possible.
However, there’s much more to business calls than meets the eye. A phone and an answering machine are not enough! Fortunately, there are many strategies and smart solutions that will facilitate this important activity.
If you want to learn how to make your business communication more efficient, using a single cloud PBX communication service that unifies business phones, video conferencing, texting and collaboration under a single phone number is your best option.
Keep reading to learn why an effective communication solution is indispensable for your business.
Invest in a Reliable Phone System
Proper communication is key to every successful transaction, agreement, and business activity. A day at an office can turn into chaos if the communication channel is disrupted and there’s nothing to keep it in order. Fortunately, there’s an excellent solution – a business phone system based on SendMyCall Virtual PBX.
Prioritize Your Calls
Big and small companies deal with clients, partners, and other people on a daily basis. If you want your business calls to be organized, you need to figure out who needs your attention first.
Some business operations won’t happen until you resolve an issue with other partners. A good rule of thumb is to keep a schedule and note down people and places that require a phone call from you. Then, start making calls from the most to least urgent.
Keep Track of Your Business Calls
In every company, employees must know who’s responsible for each task. If you work with multiple clients and need to make several phone calls every day, you should specify who takes care of which ones. To improve the communication channel, you may consider creating a system where you’ll keep track of all the calls you and your employees make. This way, you’ll be able to oversee progress, analyze results, and delegate tasks.
Keep a Message Pad Nearby
You know how it is with clients and business partners – they all have thoughts, opinions, questions, and ideas they want to share and hear your response. A message pad is a great tool that will keep you focused during a call, help you organize your thoughts, and allow you to note down important remarks you can use for reference later on. Sometimes the old-school pen and paper method is the best and beats digital notebooks hands down.
Remember About Phone Etiquette
Making and answering phone calls can be challenging – not everyone knows how to do it in a professional manner. However, you need to be sure that you and your employees can communicate with your clients effectively. For that, you must be familiar with the phone etiquette.
Here are some of the best practices you should follow:
- Be prepared for each conversation
- Answer promptly
- Announce yourself
- Stick to your agenda
- Be an active listener
- Be mindful of your tone
- Recap your conversation
- End the call on a professional note
Send a Follow-Up Email
When you’re finally done talking on the phone, you can sigh with relief and go about your day. However, if you managed to take notes in your trusty message pad, you may realize your job is not done just yet. Many important decisions and things happen over a call. Your client may have a specific request or come up with a question or an issue that requires you to do some research and prepare an elaborated written response. As such, you should send a follow-up email containing the most important points and information, as well as declarations of your future actions.
Don’t Forget About Time Management
All of the tips mentioned above will help you organize your business calls. However, you shouldn’t forget about another essential aspect of this activity – time management. You can delegate the tasks, have the best phone system available on the market, and multiple clients who need your services, but all that will be for naught if you lose track of time.
You need to know when to make your phone calls, who needs your attention first, and how much time you can spend talking on the phone. The best thing you can do is to be prepared before you dial a number. Make sure you know what needs to be discussed and what kind of questions may appear. Having a document with frequently asked questions and answers can speed up the process – feel free to come up with one if it applies to your line of business. Additionally, answer in a timely manner, be precise, and keep your calls short. After all, you don’t want to make people think that your phone call could just as well be an email.
The Bottom Line
Business calls are a crucial part of every company’s usual functioning. Not a day goes by without phone calls, emails, and messages. You need to communicate effectively with your clients and business partners – otherwise, you’ll never get the results you hope for.
There are some strategies that will make this task go easier. In this case, proper management is key, and an efficient phone system can work wonders in your company. Hopefully, the tips mentioned above will help you organize your business calls better. Feel free to implement the changes in any areas you think need improvement and wait to see the results.