In the wonderful world of the home office, time is money. There is little opportunity for frivolities like personal telephone calls and telemarketers. However, I found that simply telling my friends and family members I was working at home during the day was not enough to thwart their desire to ring me up every time they thought of something “important” to say. And there is no stopping the telemarketers that are trying to sell me products or convince me to participate in surveys. I needed caller ID phones that would help me screen calls during business hours and keep my home business motoring along smoothly.
There are plenty of styles of caller ID phones to choose from, so it was easy to find a great design with cool features to meet my needs. Some have displays right on the receiver so I can keep track of incoming calls no matter where I happen to be in my home. Others offer stationary display bases with screens big and bright enough to easily be seen from across the room. This was a great choice for my actual office space to help me track calls throughout the day without having to answer every single one during working hours. I even moved my answering machine upstairs so the voice of my mom or best pal wouldn’t be able to distract me from important work at hand!
Once I selected a particular caller ID phone for my home, the next step was to order the actual call identification service from the phone company and I was good to go. Most companies will offer a package that includes this service and numerous others, like call waiting or voice messaging. Once the service was set up, the name and number of the person calling appeared on my caller ID phone after the very first ring, so I could grab calls from important clients right away and let my answering machine handle the others.
The other advantage to having caller ID phones is that my evenings are not taken up in conversations with telemarketers. During family dinners, I can easily see who is on the line to determine if I need to pick up right away or wait until after our meal to return the call. My family time is now filled with fewer unwanted interruptions, just like my workdays.
Now I can choose which calls I want to answer and which I to leave for the answering machine until later. For the ultimate in convenience and time management, caller ID phones are definitely the way to go!