10 Time Management Tips for Handling Phone Calls in 2024

The practice of handling phone calls is simply the way a business manages inbound and outbound phone calls. This includes several processes depending on size of the team or nature of the organization.

That means we’re talking about how a call is answered, how issues get resolved, what kind of information is logged during and after a call, and many more.

Though handling phone calls is crucial for any business, they are often time-consuming. The inbound process can take a lot of your time and seriously cripple your productivity because it takes you away from your other tasks.

No matter how much contact centers focus on the quality of the customer experience rather than the speed of those interactions, there is no denying that good time management remains a primary indicator of efficiency.

The good thing?

Just like there are ways to improve your time management in your workplace, there are ways to reduce the time spent on handling inbound and outbound phone calls.

Think about it when you have multiple tasks every day; you don’t just work on them randomly. Prioritizing, sorting, and completing your projects based on your priorities is what you do. Time tracking tools such as TimeCamp can help you with managing your work time.

Transfer the approaches for handling phone calls, and the results will be high productivity as well as high customer satisfaction.

Here are some time management tips for handling phone calls that can help you accelerate your workflow and make you more efficient and productive.

1. Prioritize your calls

You may want to let a call that does not require immediate attention go to voicemail, or you may wish to ask the caller when it is convenient to catch up later with them.

There are also times when you have a free moment to make a call, but you also need to attend to other matters. As soon as you receive the inbound phone call, decide whether it would be better to arrange the call at a later time.

In addition to prioritizing the calls, pick the best time to pick them. Say something compelling and let the caller know specifically what time you will reach out.

2. Respond to phone calls with an appropriate greeting

Whenever you receive a phone call, make sure you start the conversation politely, efficiently, and quite informatively. Answer the incoming phone calls with your name, your business’s name, and most importantly, offer assistance.

For instance, customized phone greetings like, “Welcome to KrispCall. This is Sujan. How may I help you?” will help you avoid customer queries on whether they’ve reached the correct business line and let them jump directly to the purpose of the call, thereby saving your time.

3. Prepare for your calls in advance

Keep the contact information handy during a telephone call and take note of important details for future reference. It makes sense to keep a pen and a notepad close at hand when you answer most business calls.

It is important to take notes on meeting times to remember important pieces of information and to remember names, especially when dealing with new clients.

Having as much information as possible on hand during the call will help to reduce the need for you to rehash details that have already been discussed. This is beneficial for time management and staying focused during a call.

Though a CRM phone system can easily do this, not everyone has that privilege. Go for a notepad and a pen if you don’t have one.

4. Summarize the calls

To ensure phone calls are useful, you need to understand the reasons behind a person’s call and whether or not the information he or she needed was provided in the call.

As you end every call, ask your caller if you answered their question or rephrase what their call was about. By doing this, you’ll ensure that you’re both on the same page.

5. Eliminate Unnecessary Calls

A customer may call you asking common questions such as your location, opening time, or closing time, and you don’t want to waste your time answering common or unnecessary questions, do you?

If no, set up an Auto Attendant to answer calls automatically, greet your callers, and route them to the appropriate extension. You may also want to set up a written script for Frequently Asked Questions to save time by answering a particular request.

6. Use voicemail wisely

Voicemail system makes it easy to catch any of the calls you miss. It is indeed an excellent way to manage your time while handling phone calls if you’re using it efficiently.

For that, delete messages you don’t need to keep from the voicemail. Of course, this can be easily done through the software that offers voicemail.

Filtering out the unwanted message will help you easily find important information when you go through the voicemail later, thus saving your time.

7. Make your messages as detailed as possible

Give as much detail as you can if you need to leave a message on a voicemail. By doing so, you will be of great help to the individual you’re calling.

This will further help them get organized before calling you back, so your conversation will go smoother. Depending on what you have specified on your voicemail, they may be able to answer your question without waiting much of your time.

8. Automate your phone calls

A good cloud telephony system offers you a plethora of phone features to automate your communication process and saves time. Here are few features and their use in real-time:

• Call Transfer: Routing customer calls to another line of an agent who is more qualified to answer their questions immediately.
• Call Recording: Automatically keeps a record of each conversation so that you can refer back to it later on.
• Voicemail Drop: Allow clients to drop you a voicemail, so their queries never go missing. You can also customize your voicemail greetings to save time.
• Phone Trees (IVR): With a virtual receptionist, you can effectively handle large volumes of inbound calls improving handling time and waiting time.
• Contact Tag: You can easily identify the callers when you label them with the tags. You can access the key information related to clients placed in the tags and make yourself organized.
• Business hours: Automate call routing to pre-selected locations, so customer calls are automatically routed to offices that are open.

9. Update your contact information

You’re surely going to get a headache if you’re trying to reach a person who is unavailable. Failing to update the contact information may lead you to a number that is no longer in service.

Add as many details as possible to your contact information. Make note if a contact is in a different time zone from you. This will save you the hassle of having to call them before or after their work hours.

10. Never mix personal and business phone calls

If you run a home-based business, you should have a second phone with its own voicemail that is not for personal use. Besides being more professional, you will also save yourself the time it takes to sift through messages and determine which ones to consider.

Handling phone calls effectively is a process that needs to be treated importantly. Consider it as one of your responsibility. After all, you must ensure that current clients remain happy and that prospective clients get your full attention in order to succeed.

Read Also: Reasons Why it’s Not Good to Use Your Personal Phone Number for Business

If you want to be on top of the game, follow these time management tips to handle your inbound phone calls. And if you want to better productivity, sign up for KrispCall to automate your phone calls. Contact us to learn more.

The Bottom Line

Customer calls are crucial for businesses to survive and thrive. But managing a high volume of customer calls can often be challenging. So businesses should always concentrate on handling a high volume of calls without losing efficiency.

Every business has designated office hours to carry out the business works. Such businesses should also handle customer calls in the same window without breaking it into a sweat. So the main objective to ensure efficient call centers and contact centers lies in proper time management to get the optimum results.

There are several time management tools and software in the market as well. Although such software may ease in managing the workflow, it doesn’t help much when it comes to efficient call handling.

And that’s where KrispCall comes in handy.

Only a telephony-related tool/service can help you deal with overflowing customer calls. And KrispCall being one of the best cloud telephony services out there can help in managing time despite the bountiful call volume.

To ensure an efficient workspace, KrispCall comes aboard with an abundant set of call handling features. It’s got all sought-after features like customized phone greetings, auto-attendant, automatic call distribution, IVR, etc. for automation.

For better call management, there are features like skills-based routing, call transfer, and call forwarding as well. KrispCall also supports integration with several businesses and CRM software.

And most important of all, there is a dedicated dashboard that displays the insightful call center data, agents’ stats, and productivity charts.

KrispCall is a cloud-telephony service with an opulent set of call management features. But what makes it even more compelling is its affordable pricing.

KrispCall’s subscription plans cost less yet incorporate a ton of features. If you are a first-time user, you can even try it out for free. KrispCall is offering a Schedule Free KrispCall demo now, so you can get started even with a zero investment.

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Head of Content @ KrispCall (or, in plain English, I'm the guy responsible for ensuring that every blog post we publish is EPIC).