The number one tip for businesses is to keep in touch with your customers. Hardly surprising therefore that the number one criticism of business is poor or nonexistent communication. Whether your customers are the general public or trade, keeping in touch is vital to your business, and in this day of Internet ready mobile phones, you can’t leave it all to the answer phone in the office!
Most people have a mobile phone, and even if the only people who have your number are friends and family, you can’t deny how useful it is sometimes to just ring someone, rather than hunting for change for a phone box (if you can find one!) or trying to remember who it was you wanted to call and why when you get home. You may be concerned that a work mobile phone will become intrusive and will be ringing every ten minutes with calls from customers who have discovered they can contact you at home on the weekend – however the flip side is that you can prioritise communications with important clients, providing a gold standard service to those who’s business provides you with your bread and butter.
Most of us listen to what our accountant says, though we don’t always agree. He’d love you to keep your paperwork tidier, but that’s easier said than done – and a business mobile is another favourite accountant idea. Whilst you can claim for business calls made from your personal mobile, picking through your phone bill, trying to remember if that call was to a customer or a friend, and then apportioning monthly rental rates is a pain. Ok, maybe that is what you pay your accountant for, but how much easier if you didn’t have to sort through that itemised call list every month?
Business mobiles are normally paid directly out of your business bank account, so no worrying about whether you’ve run up a big bill you can’t afford this month from your personal account, and can of course be used by any member of your staff. If you don’t fancy being “on call” this weekend, give it to someone else!
Another benefit of a business mobile phone is that you can consider models that maybe as an individual you would consider to have features you don’t need. The boom in Internet connectivity has led to a range of phones specifically tailored to business, where you can check your emails on the go as well as fast access to the Internet and networking tools such as Linked In and Facebook. This could be a valuable addition to your company if you or a key member of your team spend a significant amount of time away from the office, but really need to be in tune to what is happening.
Having a business mobile is more than just another way to contact you, it’s another opportunity to communicate with your clients, by text, by email, by social media. There are an extensive range of suitable phones, and a specialist company like A1 Comms can make sure you have a phone and tariff that suits your business.