How We Avoid "Phone Spam", "Email Spam", "Brain Farts" and Other Distractions & How You Can Do It Too
You may have noticed that we make it a bit more difficult than the average business for people to get hold of us.
Our "non standard" policies regarding email and phones may seem a bit wacky at first and it's certainly not something many other businesses do.
In fact, before you know what our reasons and motivation are for doing it, you may have jumped to the conclusion that we're:
- Getting Too Big For Our Boots
- Unfriendly B*ggers Who Don't Give A Whit About Their Customers
- Completely Unaware of "Customer Service Best Practice"
- Destined To Starve from a Lack of Business!
We don't mind if you think this because we know the truth...
First of all - we used to follow all the "accepted wisdom" (which was invented by academics and business thinkers rather than real entrepreneurs) and were renowned for answering the phone within 3 rings, responding to emails the day we got them and generally jumping when anyone - clients, prospects, telesales people and any old time waster clicked their fingers. And doing this we managed to grow quite big. Too big in fact. At one point we had a large team around us and big offices in the centre of the UK's second biggest city. We'd grown because we'd let demand determine our direction rather than our own will.
Well, we soon came to our senses, got rid of the staff, the premises and any clients who were more of a liability than an asset and set about designing a business that works for us.
So, are we too big for our boots?
Probably - but if you don't prize your time as absolutley sacred then who will?
We know that what we offer is unique. Our marketing is designed to attract all the clients we need. Our publishing and book selling business is as automated and customer friendly as possible (and we're always looking to improve it!) Our Lean MarketingTM approach completely turns the role of a marketing consultancy on it's head - there is no competition here.
So, we're sure, without having to spend all our time waiting by the phone that the people we really want to work with, will respect our time and get their chance to talk to us. The rest? Well they can work with any one of the "average" businesses all jumping to answer the phone within 3 rings!
Today, we don't even sell our time so we make sure that every minute we do spend in our business is as productive as possible. That means taking control back from the phone and email.
Who said when the bell rings we should respond like one of Pavlov's puppies?
Unscheduled phone calls are a big culprit. "Phone Spammers" (people calling to sell you stuff you didn't ask for) will waste your time and interrupt you. So called "friends" (people who believe that because they're not busy then you're not busy either) will suck up your time, "just for a chat", without even getting a single hint that you have other things to do.
Other time vampires too - including needy (or bossy) clients (who we had a habit of sacking) literally suck all the value from your day.
There's an easy way to avoid the phone. Don't answer it and don't take messages.
But how do you do that with email?
Spammers aside, some people have regular "brain farts" (a term coined by Dan Kennedy) and send you mail after mail with questions and things to do in them. And they expect an instant response so send you even more emails about their emails if you don't answer within an hour. You can't ignore email forever - it just keeps piling up leaving you with a bulging inbox and loads of work to do. While we train people who work with us not to do this - some people find the "brain fart" habit hard to kick. That's why we insist people (unless they're temporarily in our inner circle) complete a form. It forces them to think a little longer before making contact rather than just firing off an email whenever they have a thought.
So what about our commitments?
The people we make commitments to - our clients, authors, partners and friends get a better service as a result of our attitude to stopping needless interruptions. We have more time to work on their projects and we ensure that we'll be able to dedicate planned, uninterrupted time to achieving their goals.
Now I'd like to ask you a question.
Do any of the following things drive you mad in your own business?
- Spending longer and longer sorting through junk email (even after your spam filters have done their best) looking for the few genuine emails that need your attention.
- Having a week off only to return to thousands of emails, phone calls to return and other messages - meaning it takes another day (or longer) to get back into the swing of things.
- Constantly dealing with petty telephone queries (and having to write notes) when the caller would have saved you both time and misunderstanding by taking the time to send an email.
- Returning "missed" phone calls, because you were on another call, only to find that the person you're trying to call is now busy "on another call" themselves!
So, who said you had to put up with it. Our approach cuts this hassle right down, makes us more productive and ensures we get maximum return on our time investment.
We had a choice, and took it, aware that some people would criticise us for it. The choice is worth it.
You have a choice too!
Our Contact Policy In A Nutshell
- We accept no un-scheduled incoming calls
- We don't accept or listen to answer phone messages
- We have a series of forms designed to help people contact us in the most appropriate manner
- Most of our email addresses don't receive email and have an autoresponder directing people to these forms
- We only check enquiries sent via our forms once per week
- We have a small list of "inner circle" contacts who can email us direct while we're working on their projects
- Our businesses that require faster customer service (www.bookshaker.com for instance) are built with FAQs and a "customer helpdesk" which is checked regularly throughout the day
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