Phone stuff

[Corey Cohron RIP]

Originally Posted by JackandJanet

I don't suppose you want to consider an answering machine? I suppose its capacity would be exceeded in about an hour, right?

- Jack

We HAVE an answering machine for the business line. Anyone who has called today knows that it gets filled up WAY too quickly. The other issue is that -- literally -- we're on the phone (or cell phones) all day long, and it would probably take a couple of hours to return all the messages. Then it's like e-mails... a customer has left a message, and if you can't get back to him right away, he feels ignored. We're going shopping in the morning for two new phones, and customers will not have the option of leaving a message anymore for the sole reason that I don't want someone to think that by leaving a message, we can get back to them right away because the reality is that sometimes we can't. The emergency number is always available, though! (Some people have odd ideas about what constitutes an emergency, I've got to say.... )

If this gives you any idea of what it's like here...

Billy came to bed about 5:30 this morning (but he did finish 8 customers' custom tunes before retiring! ). When I got up about 8, I took the phone off the hook so that it wouldn't ring and wake him up. I put it BACK on the hook at 11:58, and within about a minute, it rang for the first time. I was on the phone with that first customer for 5-10 minutes, and call waiting beeped with 5 or 6 different callers! BTW, call waiting should be gone, gone, gone by 7PM tonight! The phone hasn't stopped ringing. But that's a very good thing, so I'm not complaining.

We've debated getting a $600 phone system where you can push whatever button for gas vehicles, another button for diesels, etc., but aside from us being out $600, we can't see how it would help. For now, we've just got to keep answering the phone when it rings and hope that if someone gets a busy signal, they'll call back.