THANKS FOR CALLING, NOT!

I would rather be infested with fleas, bed bugs, cooties, and/or head lice than have to deal with another spam phone call! I’m sick of it. I’m on all the “no call” lists, and I still receive nearly 20 calls a day from automated callers, call center solicitors, or telemarketing agents. Heck, it even spills over to texts. Don’t you love/hate when you get a text that says something like, “Hey, it’s been a while, let’s have lunch today.” But they don’t say who it is. Most of the time, it’s a machine phishing for a response; other times, it IS a friend who completely believes I have their number memorized and should know who it was. We disconnected our home line years ago and use our cell phones exclusively, yet we receive more “nuisance” calls than ever. It’s an incredible waste of time and frankly a major pain in my backside to try to deal with these calls constantly. 

The Catch-22 is that occasionally, one of these calls might be essential to grab. And yet, if I tried to screen every call that came in, that would be all I could accomplish in a day… every day. 

These knuckleheads behind the communications scams have been training us.  Over time, they have brainwashed us with an ingrained, knee-jerk reaction to answer the phone when it rings. But don’t you feel like kicking yourself when you do answer and get stuck taking some inane survey, or listen to a vacation property pitch, a drone rambling on about health insurance, or saving the whales, or even worse, having dead air on the other end, while the random dialer was sending you to the first available operator. Most of us are just too nice to hang up. Even though some calls may take less than a minute to handle, they can still add up to significant losses of time and opportunities, and frustration. 

But alas, I’m here to tell you that you can control this daily tele-plague that rears its ugly head all day, every day.

Proclaim your freedom and reclaim a couple of hours a week, or more. Just decide not to answer any call. That’s right, do not answer any call unless you are sure who is calling. And, even then, it may be that friend or colleague who wants to waste your time with unimportant blather.  

So, there are a couple of things you can do. One, you can answer every call. (Good luck in maintaining focus and getting work done.) Or, if it’s a telemarketer of any kind, you can take the time to mess with them using some cute line like, “Oh golly, I was just waiting for you to call. I’m pretty busy right now, but if you’ll give me your home number, I’ll call you this evening, and we can talk then!” 

Many of your phone carriers have a service to intercept spam and nuisance calls. It’s free and can be set up by calling the carrier. We did that. I still get the calls—and I think we’re getting more than ever as telemarketing technology becomes more sophisticated. 

After pulling most of my hair out, I’ve settled on a strategy that works perfectly. Most phones today allow you to create or select custom messages to send to any incoming caller. The message can be as simple as, “Sorry, but I’m on a call right now. Please leave a message, and I’ll return the call as soon as possible.” This message alone will run off 90% or more of all nuisance calls. My strategy, and yes, I consider it a strategy, is to let 100% of my calls, without caller ID, get a message. If the caller is a client or a known business contact and leaves a message, I will return their call immediately. I encourage everyone I know to use caller ID, as it immediately tells me who’s calling and lets me address them by name when I answer. 

This approach will save you time and effort and eliminate much of the frustration. You’ll quickly see its value. The bottom line is that to be effective at whatever you do, you must master the art of managing the noise. I manage this noise by not answering calls immediately. I am now in control of the nuisance and my time.  

Phone calls, in the end, are nothing more than interruptions to my focus. And we have become “addicted” to interruptions. If you don’t believe me, try this experiment. Turn your phone to the loudest vibration setting. Then sit at lunch or in a meeting and wait for your phone to ring. Once it vibrates, watch as everyone grabs their phones and checks whether it’s theirs that’s “interrupting”. It’s actually funny, but the deeper point is made. We are addicted to interruptions and crave more. Research shows that after you experience a telephone or text interruption, it takes your brain 17 minutes to get back focused. If you allow your phone to ring, vibrate, or play a rock ‘n roll anthem (mine was Back in Black by AC/DC) whenever someone calls or texts you, you will never be focused entirely on your job. 

I’m not suggesting you get rid of your phone, but you must manage the process. If you don’t, the process manages you. The best solution is to set a time to check your messages and turn off the ringer, vibration, or notification sound. Put it on mute in two-hour increments. Trust me. Most of the calls that you’ll get, you don’t want to talk to anyway. 

If you have any questions, give me a call.