Staying "available" and "in contact" with your clients is an important part of good Customer Service. But sometimes this can be hard to do as we juggle our personal lives along with our business obligations. Being a Webmistress is nearly a 24-hour-a-day job for me, just about
same as being a parent, except that on Web, you aren’t expected to fix lunches. My clients sometimes need close attention and nurturing during development of their projects, some need constant attention, and they all need (and deserve) my immediate and total attention if and when something goes wrong.Let me ask you this....
Have you ever wished you could be at park with rest of your family on a nice Saturday afternoon if only you didn't have to wait in office for that important email to arrive? I have, and I didn’t enjoy it one bit.
Have you put off going on a day trip or even a full vacation because you can't leave your computer and your self-obligated contact with your clients that long? I have, and I didn’t like that, either.
Have you ever tried logging on to Net while you were deep in woods? I have, and now I’m not quite so chained to my home-office computer, thanks to my Sprint PCS Wireless Web Phone & Connectivity Kit :-)
This is a VERY neat piece of technology, people, and somehow Sprint has made it really easy to use. In fact, I'd label it as almost "dummy proof." (And I can almost hear my newsletter’s proofreader squealing with delight, almost 2,000 miles away.) I had myself set up and surfing within 10 minutes of opening box. And most of that time was spent installing software on my laptop. The actual process of getting online is as simple as connecting a cable from your laptop to your phone and logging on as usual.
Honestly, that's all there is to it! I didn't even have to mess with my dialup settings because PCS Dialer software that came with it made "mirror" connection settings for me. All I had to do was select from a drop-down box on computer screen which modem I wanted to use. So now, instead of choosing MSN as I normally would have done, I chose MSN (Wireless). Within seconds I was connected and surfing.
The ability to be almost anywhere--beach, mountain, forest or street cafe, and ALSO be "on Net" brings about a new feeling of personal freedom (even with your laptop in your backpack). You don't have to be chained to your PC in order to provide first-class, immediate service to your customers. After years of conscientiously putting clients’ needs first, a burnout is almost to be expected, isn't it? Perhaps you're feeling same thing--burnt out.
Just think how you are going to feel in a few more months when summer is in full swing and everyone else is having fun and you're still sitting there staring at your computer screen, working, or--more depressing--waiting needlessly for an email to arrive through those land-loving phone lines.
There was actually another good reason--besides giving me more personal freedom and still offering good customer service--for purchasing Web Connectivity Kit for my PCS phone. There are times when I am visiting a client (or potential client) at their place of business and I'd like to show them something on Net. I don't like to have to ask them if there is a phone line available that I can use. Most often there isn’t, or it would become a big hassle to make a phone line available. Any good businessperson knows that causing a "hassle" for a potential client is a sure way to make a bad impression, and just one bad impression tends to last a lot longer than most good impressions.
