| If you have an office telephone system, the chances | | | | systems have only a limited amount of storage space |
| are that you are not using it to its full capabilities. | | | | for numbers. You need to put priorities on these |
| Either the initial training was insufficient, people have | | | | numbers and just store the most used. |
| forgotten some of the features over time, or new | | | | If you have a newer model telephone system, you are |
| employees have arrived since the initial training was | | | | in luck! You can probably store up to 250 names and |
| conducted. | | | | numbers. Often you can store multiple numbers against |
| One feature often under utilized is the Personal | | | | an entry, so for example you could store an office |
| Directory. | | | | number, a home number, and a mobile phone number |
| The Personal Directory is used to store often used | | | | all for the one contact. If your system is IP based, you |
| numbers in your telephone or in the telephone system. | | | | may find that you can login at another extension to |
| This is of course a great time saver, and everyone | | | | gain access to your own Personal Directory. |
| with a mobile telephone will be familiar with this feature. | | | | As well as saving time, you can often save money by |
| My studies have shown that only around 10% of office | | | | using this feature! This is particularly true if your |
| staff use this feature! | | | | company supplies mobile telephones to it's executives |
| I guess that your people are not totally to blame if they | | | | and staff. Many times these people will make |
| don't take the time to setup this feature, as some | | | | expensive calls from their cell phones, rather than a |
| telephone systems assume a PhD in electronics! | | | | cheaper call from their desk. The reason? It is simply |
| My suggestion to make this process relatively pain | | | | because it is easier to call a pre-programmed number |
| free, is to make a list of your most called numbers, | | | | from their mobile, than it is to look up the number and |
| both business and private. Keep a small notepad | | | | dial it. |
| beside your telephone for one month, and write down | | | | Encourage your people to use their Personal Directory. |
| the most called people. You can then just put tick | | | | We believe that your staff should work smarter not |
| marks beside each name as you call them. At the end | | | | just harder, but I guess smarter and harder is ok too! |
| of the month, you can decide which numbers to store | | | | Anything that you can do to make things easier and |
| in your handset. | | | | quicker for them will result in increased productivity |
| The reason this helps, is that some (particularly older) | | | | over the long term. |