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TECHNOLOGY
The Weak Embrace of Tech in Small Business
I’m surprised to see so little enthusiasm for tech
I recently mentioned working with a contractor who doesn’t like text messages.
That really surprised me. It truly baffles me. Phone calls suck up much more time and interrupt your day much more. If you let them go to voice mail, you consume more time accessing them, going through them, responding, and keeping track of anyone who you didn’t reach and couldn’t leave a message.
If your voice mailbox fills up, your customers tend to get annoyed. Text or email is so much better. You can glance at the messages and triage them quickly, responding to those you must answer now and leaving the others for a more convenient moment.
Other than having a personal secretary handle all customer contact, I simply cannot understand why any small businessperson, especially the one person business, wouldn’t like texts!
Texts have advantages and disadvantages over email. I told my customers to use email if the explanation would be more than two sentences, but to follow up with a text or a voice mail telling me about the need. With anything that seemed at all urgent, I’d at the very least respond to the text to let them know when I would expect to be able to call…
