…“You are due a large repayment for your PPI claim as well as compensation for that 5 car pile up, remember.”
Your shoulders drop and disappointment quickly turns to frustration; this is a business headache you wish you could avoid. Whilst cold calling can be a nuisance that ties up the line and wastes your time, it’s not the only villain when it comes to unwanted calls.
There are also the ‘talkers’; those particular individuals who unwittingly offer up more than the required information. Building strong business relationships with clients and suppliers is one thing, but getting caught by someone telling you what they had for breakfast last Wednesday can result in more important calls falling by the wayside.
Arranging to catch-up with a partner about a project is important, as is looking at projections with your accountant, but when the phone lines are flat-out with customers wanting your service, those sorts of calls can take a timely backseat, especially when priority calls you really need to take get stuck behind all these other less essential conversations. Keeping potential clients or existing customers stuck in a queue or on hold is frustrating for everyone involved and can lead to missed opportunities.
Thankfully, cloud communications technology and cold calling software can come to your rescue. Here are just some of the actions that can save you from reaching for the headache pills:
- If a caller is not in your contacts or doesn’t have a Caller ID displayed, you can automatically screen the call and sift out the nuisance calls before any conversation begins.
- Apply call handling rules so you can focus on conversations that matter the most whilst others take care of the rest.
- Send priority calls to the front of a call queue to avoid important opportunities walking away.
- If you are tied up, simply forward calls to another number, such as a main company number, a department call group, or send it straight to voicemail.
So the next time the phone rings, you know exactly when to be genuinely excited and when to be conveniently ‘in a meeting’.
Originally published May 25, 2016, updated Aug 12, 2020
