In our office, we have never had a receptionist and our
automated voicemail system is typically only turned on after regular business
hours. Everyone who works here is
expected to answer calls when they’re in the office, and all calls are to be
answered by the third ring.
As you can imagine, it gets chaotic at times. It can also make it hard to concentrate when
you’re trying to focus on a complicated project. As a staff, we have talked about this a
lot. The conversation always comes back
to two essential points.
First, there is no cheaper or easier market research than
hearing directly from your members about their latest and most pressing
concerns. I am always learning something
new from these conversations that helps me better understand how to address
their needs, and develop ideas for new services.
Secondly, as an association (in our case, we work for
multiple associations), we need to remember that our primary function is to
serve our members. We all get pulled in
multiple directions every day. But as a
membership organization, everything else is second to meeting our members’
needs. We try to remind each other that
a bigger problem than incessantly ringing phones would be no ringing phones.
How does your workplace handle calls? What works best and what hasn’t worked for
you?
Kim
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