3 Ways to Make the Most of Your Phone

There are many ways a potential client can contact you today, ranging from Email to Twitter to Contact Forms. However, in this blog post I will be sharing some tips on how to make the most of when you are contacted via the Phone. Specifically, I will be sharing three key elements of managing your phone interactions – The number clients dial, the voicemail that they hear, and how you receive and check the messages.

What’s Your Number?

I highly encourage keeping your personal and professional phone lines separate. However, I realize that this may not always be possible. For example, I don’t have a land line. All of my calls are managed using my iPhone. So fear not – I am going to share with you how to manage different numbers on one phone. First, there is a service called Ring Central that allows you to create a toll-free number that can be forwarded to your existing phone line. It also has various voicemail options that you can set-up, i.e. for Wedding Photography press 1, for Portraits press 2, for Stock Photography press 3, etc… Ring Central also has an iPhone app that is available to download in the Apple App Store.

After The Beep

Before I begin this section, let me state that if you are able to answer the phone when someone is calling, I highly encourage you to answer it instead of letting it go to voicemail. However, I realize that this is not always the case. Since potential clients will be going to voicemail, this is a great opportunity to share with them your USP , any news about your business, or inform them on any specials that you may be offering at the moment, i.e. “Hi this is Ryan from Ryan Photography. Please leave a creative message and I will get back with you. In the meantime, feel free to check-out our work in the latest issue of Shutterbug Magazine. Thank you for your call, and we’ll talk soon.” Basically, use this opportunity to somehow stand-out from the crowd, and be creative with it. As Jerry Seinfeld has stated, “There are people on phones and voicemails still telling you to leave your name and number. Are those necessary instructions? Is anyone getting messages like, ‘This is a woman. Good-bye’?” And his thoughts on the beep, “I know people who are still telling you to wait for the beep. It’s the 21st century – I think we’re all up to speed on the beep!”

Press 2 for Awesome Service

Finally, I want to let all of you know about an amazing service that Google is offering, called Google Voice. This service used to be GrandCentral before Google bought them on July 2, 2007. Google Voice allows you to select a specific phone number in an area code of your choice, and when this number is dialed you can determine what phone you would like to ring, i.e. your personal phone, your business phone, your cell phone, etc… This is a great way to provide potential clients with a different local number than your personal number. A great feature of this service is that all calls are stored in your Google Voice Account. This makes it very easy to check messages and manage your calls. Currently, Google Voice is by Invite Only, but I highly encourage you to sign-up to get on the wait list for this service.

In closing, remember that the phone is simply a tool for conversation. The main thing is to make it super simple for clients to contact you – how they want to contact you. Some may feel more comfortable via Email, whereas others will only dial a toll-free number. The key is to have these options available to them, and provide them with superior service.

About the Author:

For the past five years, darkroomRYAN has worked with Fortune 500 clients. As the owner of Darkroom Branding, he now provides marketing and branding strategies for photographers. Feel free to follow him on Twitter at: @darkroomRYAN