Do you have a dedicated phone number for clients?
It’s important to have a clinical number separate from your personal one. Most clinicians do. It’s still worth mentioning for those who don’t.
With one personal/work number:
–> You’ll find yourself avoiding lots of calls. If you don’t recognize the number you don’t want to pick up. Occasionally, you may end up answering accidentally…
–> Sometimes you’ll be expecting a work related call. When the call comes in, though, you don’t know who it is. Do you say, “hello?” or a more professional greeting?
–> You’ll be neurotic about letting other people use your phone. All your clients are saved as contacts in your phone. Of course, you’ll need to also make sure that no one else is ever answering your phone.
So now you want to set up a new number for work. How do you shift? It’s pretty simple. You just need to give yourself and your clients a few weeks to transition.
- Set up an additional phone number that you’ll use for work.
- Contact any referral sources to give your new number.
- Record a new VM greeting to say that clients should call the new number.
- Continue ignoring calls on your old number for a few more weeks until you believe that most callers have shifted.
Now you can enjoy a better work-life balance. You’ll decide when and how you answer the phone for work calls.
Good luck.
Mrs. Elana Robinson
