Checklist for Being Reachable

When you started out as a freelance, I bet you had all sorts of good ideas about how your customers would be able to reach you. Just in case that was a while ago, follow our reminder guide on how to ensure you are able to be contacted by your ever increasing client base, and what to do when you’re not actually going to be available.

Telephone calls.

• Answering Machine. You should have an answering machine at the very least, giving your client the option to leave a message, and if possible, giving another number for you. You may also wish to offer the caller the chance to press some buttons to choose to be send through to different ‘mailboxes’ on your answering machine, but this can leave callers unsure of what to press, and then not leaving a message for you. If you do use an answering machine, record the best and most professional message you can, ensuring you are clearly spoken and able to be heard (you’ll have to phone your own number to do this properly) and giving a clear message about what you want your caller to say (name, reference number, phone number and best time to call back etc), as well as any more details.
• Call Forwarding. You may be able to forward your calls, using your telecoms service onto your mobile phone. This has advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that you will likely be able to receive all of the calls that you would have otherwise missed, and therefore be able to deal directly with things as they come in. The disadvantages of this are that you will forever be bothered with calls being forwarded from your standard phone line, which can be very intrusive and ruin your concentration! It also means you may not give your incoming calls the time and patience they deserve, which may lose you custom. Do this with care, if at all. And if you do it, and your mobile is going to be busy/switched off, make sure you also have a message on your mobile telling the customers how to leave a message.
• A Secretary. In an ideal world, we’d all have someone to take our messages, who knew about what we were currently trying to sell/push to our customers, and who was able to diligently charm and then accurately record our customers and their requirements. However, you may be able to rent secretarial or administrative services in the same way you can rent office space, so this one is worth looking into. This is an ideal solution, and one you should definitely look into if you can afford it. If you use a small service, on a regular basis, they will soon be aware of your needs and those of your customers.
• An Answering Service. This is a very similar option to that above. A call centre in any country can take your call, and then deal with it in an appropriate manner. This is often used in situations where sales campaigns are being run. A big sales campaign may require many phone calls to be received, and purchasing the use of an answering service can help with dealing with this. However, this will require careful monitoring. Calls should be answered within a certain number of rings, a script should be provided to the company to ensure they take the correct details, and that they can offer the customers the right information based on the details they give. On a smaller scale, you may be able to purchase an answering service just to take your standard everyday calls. If you use this option, it’s important to check that you are getting what you are paying for, and that the correct information is being taken or given. Check this yourself by calling them in ‘disguise’ and being an awkward customer, and then check that the information you should get is being filtered back to you. If you are not satisfied with the results, remember to shout up – after all, you’re paying for this, and your customers deserve a good service from you.

Others.
If you do have other methods of contact (email for example) and you aren’t going to answer straight away, use an ‘out of office’ auto responder message to tell your customer when you’ll be back. Include your contact telephone numbers here, as well as the details of anyone else they can contact (if you do have a work partner/colleague).

Finally, check your business card will work in the way it was meant – as a prompt for people to contact you and containing all of the methods that they can use to do so (email, fax, telephone, mobile, intergalactic radio..).