Have a receptionist. Now what do I do with her?

[RHBlakeman]

This is the advice I give to every couple married or not:

In most cases mixing marriage and most close personal relationships with business is a mistake and should be avoided. That said, there are exceptions, which leads
me into my next point.

Wife and I have worked together well because we each know each other's business and how to take messages for call backs rather than try to take each other's place. I take messages for her sewing business rather than trying to answer their questions or make appointments for her. Likewise she takes messages for service calls and if it's certain specific clients with emergency requirements she knows to call me and pass the info rather than giving them my cell number. Only 4 of my clients have my cell number and they know there are times I am tied up, have no signal, etc and to leave a voice mail.

34 yrs together, we were both military (USAF) when we met and she stayed military till our 3rd son was born. I stayed till retirement. Luckily she is an Army brat too so my different work style (different from civilian 9 to 5 type work) never bothered her and she was used to that with her dad going off no notice to Vietnam twice. 5 yrs between Air Natl Guard and active USAF herself also adapted her to the same work style. Now with self employment the same adaptability for both of us allows us to vary our schedules. My dad was a Chicago Police patrolman all of my life so I had a similar setup at home as a kid though we didn't have the moving thing every 2 yrs that military kids did.

It's all in the couple, their backgrounds and their willingness to adapt to make the business work.

 

[Jeffreynya]

My wife will generally just direct people to call me if there is anything technical. She baiscally just says when I am available and when I can call them back.

I really don't understand the logic of not wanted to talk to the customer. If you are going to be in the service industry you better love talking to people.

If all I ever did was talk over e-mail I am sure I would never get repeat business even If I did a good job. People want to talk to you, to get to know you and then to be able to trust you. If you are unwilling to do that then you need to find a job.

 

[K007]

I see this thread has gotten the attention.
You have to keep it simple.
A receptionist who is not your girlfried, will want to keep her job and will take you as her boss.
A receptionist who is your girlfriend will do her best to have her input taken into consideration, even in matters not related to her qualifications/experience.

You got yourself into a complicated game.
The way I see it, if she doesn't quit, you will either loose your girlfriend or you will loose your business.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

Here is what I did. First I taught her to answer the phone, she would listen to me and write up what I said to about 20 callers and then systematize what I said. We already had scripts as I had a half dozen employees before she came along. She asked why I said something different from time to time and I would explain those differences. In no time she was handing phones like a pro and even updated our scripts that our employees use. Then on slow days, I would make her sit with me and she would do all the backups, updates, virus removals, restores, re-installations and new custom builds of computers. While I looked over her shoulder. You may not believe this but I would show her how to do it once, then she would do it the 2nd time with me standing right there ad then the third time she did it without me in the room but at a phone call away if she had questions. Before you know it, like 6 months or less she was handing just about all software issues with little consult from anyone else. She is very good at screening calls. As a matter of fact if you try to call me you will not get to me unless you are one of a half dozen people with pre-authorization, family or use the code word "pilot." Of course my friends and acquaintances all know how to get through. I suspect that the first thing you should do with her besides learn to answer the phone and maybe even back you up with data backups and virus removals is to go through your shop, clean, organize and systematize everything so that both you or she can work independently without the other. So you both know where the tools are, bills, check book, visa and such. By that time you are going to see some real benefits of the stream line operations, organization, her shielding calls and perhaps her taking some of the lighter software routines off your back so you can do more out-calls and consulting. I would target that if you hire another employee, tech or what have you, she can train them so you do not have to do this all over again. Her training someone else will no doubt reassure her that she knows your processes. good Luck.

So my girlfriend decided she wanted to be part of my business. We have had our ups and downs (I'm very easily irritated when something doesn't go right with my business) but I think things are leveled out now and we are on the same page.

The problem is, she is still referring people to me when they have questions on the phone. I DO NOT want to talk to customers on the phone, PERIOD. The whole reason I have her to answer phones is to get out of doing that mundane task and free up more time to actually get things done.

Do any of you all have a good inbound call transcript or something I could learn from or give her? I want her to eventually do all my communications and scan receipts and keep invoicing manageable. I will do all the technical work, if I can just delegate all the administrative work to her.

How do I get customers to STOP asking for me? Most of the time I think they just want free advice anyway.

 

[nibblesandbits]

Here is what I did. First I taught her to answer the phone, she would listen to me and write up what I said to about 20 callers and then systematize what I said. We already had scripts as I had a half dozen employees before she came along. She asked why I said something different from time to time and I would explain those differences. In no time she was handing phones like a pro and even updated our scripts that our employees use. Then on slow days, I would make her sit with me and she would do all the backups, updates, virus removals, restores, re-installations and new custom builds of computers. While I looked over her shoulder. You may not believe this but I would show her how to do it once, then she would do it the 2nd time with me standing right there ad then the third time she did it without me in the room but at a phone call away if she had questions. Before you know it, like 6 months or less she was handing just about all software issues with little consult from anyone else. She is very good at screening calls. As a matter of fact if you try to call me you will not get to me unless you are one of a half dozen people with pre-authorization, family or use the code word "pilot." Of course my friends and acquaintances all know how to get through. I suspect that the first thing you should do with her besides learn to answer the phone and maybe even back you up with data backups and virus removals is to go through your shop, clean, organize and systematize everything so that both you or she can work independently without the other. So you both know where the tools are, bills, check book, visa and such. By that time you are going to see some real benefits of the stream line operations, organization, her shielding calls and perhaps her taking some of the lighter software routines off your back so you can do more out-calls and consulting. I would target that if you hire another employee, tech or what have you, she can train them so you do not have to do this all over again. Her training someone else will no doubt reassure her that she knows your processes. good Luck.

Wonderful response! Thank you! I'll try to implement some of these things next week! We have actually already started the organizing and systematizing things.

 

[TECHNOWOLOGY]

dont mix business and pleasure unless your girlfriend in going to be your wife