Gaining that all-important work-life balance can be a challenge for many business owners.
Working long hours, managing a workforce and keeping up with the many responsibilities that go hand in hand with running a business can hinder your ability to take time out.
For many, this is particularly difficult if your personal phone is your business phone and vice versa. In the same respect that checking your emails in your downtime will impact work-life balance, so will receiving and answering business phone calls.
However, as more and more of us utilise our mobile phones for business rather than investing in expensive phone systems, avoiding business calls out of hours can be tricky. But not impossible. Below we will take a look at how you can separate your business phone from your personal phone (even if these happen to be the same).
Your business phone number
Businesses of all sizes are using mobile phones on a frequent basis, arguably more so than an office phone. However, many use their normal mobile phone number when communicating with their customers and prospective customers.
We highly recommend against doing this for several reasons: it impacts on how your business is perceived, you are left with a whole host of issues should you need to change mobile number, you will have to share your private number on marketing materials and so much more.
Choosing a professional business phone number will not only resolve many of these issues, but it will also serve as a vital tool in gaining back your work-life balance. In addition to this, with countless business numbers out there to choose from, you can capitalise on your number within your marketing efforts.
If you operate on a local level, a regional number is ideal, or if you work nationally, an 0333 number is perfect. Furthermore, if you want to absorb the costs of calls to provide further incentive for a customer or prospective customer to call, an 0800 freephone number will be the right choice.
For Moneypenny customers, our own business telephone numbers service, aptly named Clever Numbers, allows business owners to choose the perfect number for their business and re-direct it to any number they choose. This saves on the cost of a dedicated landline, providing them with the flexibility to work from anywhere and allowing them to stop answering calls outside of working hours. With this, you also gain access to the Clever Numbers app, which allows you to change which number your business phone number is diverted to, at any time.
Your business phone system
With your business phone number in place, you may want to take your business phone that one step further to ensure that it not only improves customer experience, but allows you to effectively separate your business and personal phone calls.
Whilst in the past having a comprehensive phone system required pricey hardware and technical knowledge, in order to gain a whole host of invaluable features (e.g. auto-attendant, call re-directs, etc.), this is no longer the case.
A small business phone system can now be utilised simply by using your mobile phone. This is something that is used by thousands of Moneypenny customers throughout the world, with our Pocket Phone System app.
Transforming your mobile phone into a fully-fledged phone system, the app allows customers to call your business (with your chosen business number), where they are met with a professional greeting and auto-attendant which will direct the call to the appropriate person. Should this call be directed to your mobile phone, you have the choice to answer it, re-direct it to another member of the team, send it to voicemail, or direct it to a Moneypenny PA who will answer the call on your behalf – exactly as if based at your company.
For our clients, this allows them to greatly enhance customer experience, convey a much bigger and more professional appearance, work flexibly across multiple locations and reduce the number of missed calls. But ultimately, what this phone system allows is that all-important separation between your work and your home life, without compromising on service.
Want to learn more about our Clever Numbers or Pocket Phone System? Get in touch with the Moneypenny team today to discuss your requirements on 0333 202 1005.
Your own Moneypenny PA to answer calls exactly as if based in your office.
Discover >All the functions and support of an office phone system, minus the hardware.
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