When it comes to being successful, consistency is key. I see a lot of situations where too much is just too much. What I’m referring to starts with your contact information.
When you operate your business, contact information can change. Some people start using something that does the job, like G-Mail for business emails. Then, when they build on their website, they change information and their email becomes something like “info@mybusinessname.com.” It looks good on paper, but are people already using your previous email? When they reach out, do they use either one or the other? If you’re regularly checking one, you might miss pertinent information that was sent to the one you don’t check as often.
When you make an order for a product, sometimes the company selling you their product wants to email a receipt. If you use a dummy email, you might never see it. Use your business email and the search feature in that email when you need to find things like receipts, quotes, or follow-ups. Keep it all in one place. Consistency is key.
Another good thing to do is keep ongoing emails in a chain. When you send a quote to a customer, they will respond to it. when you need to follow up with them, don’t start a new email, find the original thread and respond through that. What this does is it keeps all the information about the conversation in one thread, you can easily refer back to things either you, or they said.
As for business calls, use one number. Don’t call customers from your personal cell phone number, make the effort to use your business number. If you don’t, that customer might be calling you at 7pm on a Sunday to discuss things you just don’t want to deal with on the weekend. Companies like Vonage allow you to have a number that goes to your cell phone, but is answered by your business line. You can shut it on a weekend, or let it roll over to your business answering machine to respond to on Monday. It does, however, keep them on one line for business, and responding to calls should be from that same number. They’ve dialed it, they’ll recognize it and are more likely to pick it up when you call so you aren’t playing telephone tag.
Consistency is key to running a successful leak detection business, like logos and branding, color choices and tag phrases. People recognize the familiar and trust in consistency. Keep it in mind when you’re taking calls and emails, and especially when you’re making responses.
