How To Stop Wasting Time On The Phone

A huge number of business calls are a waste of time. Fortunately, there are ways of making phone calls more productive, as well as reducing unnecessary calls. Here are just some of the ways to reduce wasted time spent on the phone.

Create an online FAQs page

Fed up of answering the same general enquiries from callers? Creating a FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your website could help to reduce some of these calls. This could give people the information they need without them having to ring you up.

This guide at Social Media Today offers some great tips on creating a killer FAQs page.

Schedule calls where possible

Scheduling calls has lots of advantages. It can be frustrating having to interrupt other tasks to answer impromptu calls. When you schedule calls, you also have time to do any necessary research and assemble any necessary documents for reference. Being prepared allows you to get to the crux of the matter without having to search for documents or ask questions that you’ve already got information on.

Many types of calls can be scheduled by simply sending an email in advance. You may even be able to schedule calls with new customers by encouraging customers to set up phone appointments via a form on your site. You can’t schedule all calls, but there are many that can.

Put a time limit on calls

Some people can chat for hours on the phone. To prevent yourself getting stuck in a two hour phone call, try to always put a time limit on calls. If it’s getting near the end of that time limit, try to find a quick resolution or tell them that you’d like to reschedule another call. You may even be able to ask them to send extra information via email. You can tell them that you have another appointment scheduled if you need an excuse to end the call.

Make appropriate use of automation

There may be ways of using automation to help make phone calls more productive. If you’re cold calling customers, you can minimize the time spent dialing by using an auto-dialing service (such as Call Cowboy – Not endorsed). Such services allow you to call multiple numbers at the same time, connecting you only to the callers that pick up so you’re not wasting time ringing people with no-one answering.

You can also free up time spent transferring calls between departments by setting up an automated phone attendant to answer all calls. By asking questions and getting callers to press buttons corresponding to the option that they want, calls can be transferred directly to the relevant person they need to speak to.

Automation shouldn’t be used to completely replace humans when answering or making calls. Many people get frustrated when speaking to a robot and it could do more harm than good.

Outsource a phone answering company

One simple way to spend less time on the phone is to outsource a phone answering company to take all your calls. This could help to filter out general enquiries and sales calls – only the most urgent calls can be relayed to you.

Some phone answering companies operate 24/7 allowing you to constantly having someone there to take calls. Rates may vary depending on the company you choose and the amount of calls you tend to get.

Encourage other forms of communication

You may also be able to encourage other forms of communication in order to spend less time on the phone. Telling people to get in touch via email could allow you to respond in your own time and not get interrupted. It could also be easier when communicating large amounts of information that you’ve already got written down (having to discuss it all on the phone could take forever, while you may be able to easily copy and paste the information into an email or send it as an attachment).

Instant messaging could be another form of communication to consider. While such messages require a more urgent response than emails, it’s still not as invasive as a phone call and you can more easily link to information if necessary.

Meeting in person or communicating via videoconference could meanwhile be more appropriate if you think visual cues will speed up the conversation. For instance, if a customer wants to describe a product flaw, you may be able to set up a video conversation in order to see the product flaw for yourself rather than having it described to you via phone call. 

This is a contributed post.