pager or phone?

[scratchy]

I was wondering how many of you guys are running your operation off of a pager, cell phone or both? There are advantages to either but I have had intermittent problems with cell phones unable to call the pager. I will be running both from here on out.

[txbman68]

I did not know anyone had pagers anymore. Most phones have a paging system within.

Regards,

Txbman

[mafsu]

ditto

[JSmith]

I run my business through my cell phone number, (All advertising.)

my local phone company offers distintive ring to my home phone for free so I put my fax to that.

I did put a business line in the home as well because of local compitition I wanted to be put it the phone book (you get a free business insert in the phone book when you have a business line). I never use the business line I just forward it to my cell phone.

I also have a distinctive ring on the business line that does not forward ask the phone company to do that for you..I gave this phone line to my 10 year old daughter and have the phone jack in her room.. I covered my business and gave my daughter some independence

And of course became the best daddy ever in the process

[Zach's Glass]

i run my WSR busniess from a cell phone i have listed my company name and number in the yellow pages. my phone rings constantly i foward my home phone to me cell so i dont miss a call.

[Scott Tyner]

One thing to keep in mind for those of you living in smaller areas and rely on cell phones is "missed calls."

I live in a fairly large area that seems to have adequate towers for coverage, yet I still miss calls. Thinking it may be my cell phone carrier, I started checking with others about their coverage.

I found that the problem appears to be widespread. I can only imagine what coverage (or lack of) must be like in smaller areas. The few calls I miss does not affect me, but for those living in areas where each call is important to you, you might want to consider using an answering service.

A one month trial period would give you a chance to weigh the cost versus the calls. Checking here in my area, the cost is not very high.

Another option is to use a pager (outdated?). I use a pager as a backup. If you list your pager number in your advertisements you're giving your customers another way to reach you if they can't get you on your cell phone.

Several of my business friends also use pagers and swear by them. If you're not receiving calls due to signal loss, it's a pretty safe bet that you won't get a page either on your cell phone.

At $20.00 upfront and less than $70.00 a year, I recover my entire cost on my first two pages for repairs.

Being a service business, one should use every tool at their disposal.

Scott

[scratchy]

I am now running both. My pager service has been having intermittant problems with calls from cell phones! It is the pager carrier's fault. Hopefully it won't go on for long. I am running both from here on out and listing both. The pager will be a cheap backup like you say. I am also going to be listing my website for more redundancy. If both numbers don't work someday maybe they will just ask for a repair by email!!

[Jeremiahswindshieldrepair]

I personally will hang up the phone if I do not get a person who answers, therefore I use a cell phone and always try to answer it... well actually I have an office with people who answer the phone now but when I started I used a cell phone for just that reason.

[Onsite]

One thing to keep in mind for those of you living in smaller areas and rely on cell phones is "missed calls."

I live in a fairly large area that seems to have adequate towers for coverage, yet I still miss calls. Thinking it may be my cell phone carrier, I started checking with others about their coverage.

I found that the problem appears to be widespread. I can only imagine what coverage (or lack of) must be like in smaller areas. The few calls I miss does not affect me, but for those living in areas where each call is important to you, you might want to consider using an answering service.

A one month trial period would give you a chance to weigh the cost versus the calls. Checking here in my area, the cost is not very high.

Another option is to use a pager (outdated?). I use a pager as a backup. If you list your pager number in your advertisements you're giving your customers another way to reach you if they can't get you on your cell phone.

Several of my business friends also use pagers and swear by them. If you're not receiving calls due to signal loss, it's a pretty safe bet that you won't get a page either on your cell phone.

At $20.00 upfront and less than $70.00 a year, I recover my entire cost on my first two pages for repairs.

Being a service business, one should use every tool at their disposal.

Scott

Iam going to open this one back up and ask how many of you are using answering service?

Based upon the statement Scott has posted above I never thought as long as I recieved signal on my cell phone I would miss a call.

Well Iam currently using an answering service and if it is a telemarketer that calls I tell them(the answering service) to just take a message.And if it's a customer wanting a wsr or the insurance networks patch it through to me.
To easy right!

Well for the calls that are generally telemarketers I tell them to just email me the contact information from the company.Well in this list of emails I recieve on a monthly basis sometimes I have potentional customers wanting repairs done and at the time they called and the answering service tried to patch me through I did not recieve the call.

So it does go to show that the 100% of the coverage that appears to be there all the time may not nessarly be the truth.

The answering service company Iam using does a great job but Iam trying to find a company that just sends me a monthly invoice.The company Iam using just bills your credit card and I don't care for that to much.

Any recomendations on a service provider?

[FIX A CHIP AUST]

I live in Australia and when I miss a call it shows you the phone number of the missed call. So I can simply call them back. Does your cell phone providers not offer you the same service over there?