Three Reasons Why Using Your Personal Cell Phone Number is Bad For Business and What To Do Instead

Your decorative concrete business is just that. It’s a business.

It’s not a hobby, and you want to install jobs for people you don’t know, so stop using your personal cell phone number as your business line.

But you don’t need a second cell phone or a complicated and expensive installed phone system. Today we'll talk about why using your personal cell phone number is bad for business and what to do instead.

Reason #1: It's unprofessional.

The first reason why using your personal cell phone number is bad for business is because it’s unprofessional.

In order to run a real business you need to set up a business phone and have a business listing.

As you scale your business and increase your marketing efforts, this number will be on websites, social media posts, and other marketing materials -- even your truck.

You don’t want your personal cell phone number in all of these places.

Pro-tip: You can grow this business into something really successful. If you have a business line to start, when you scale your business you won’t have to uncouple your personal line from the process.

And It’s more affordable to do it early on so that you won’t have to reprint marketing materials or truck wraps.

Reason #2: No separation between your private life and your business life.

The next reason why using your personal cell phone number is bad for business is because there is no separation between your private life and your business life.

One of the benefits of owning your own business is freedom. Not having a business line means you don’t have the margin to unplug from your business and have the life you always dreamed of when starting the business in the first place.

Reason #3: You're missing out on the features and benefits of a business solution.

The final reason why using your personal cell phone number is bad for business is that you’re missing out on the features and benefits of a business solution.

Benefits like professional voicemail, auto-attendant options, and filtering phone calls are all features of a business solution like the one we use.

What To Do Instead

So, assuming you want to be more professional, keep your personal life separate, and take advantage of efficient business solutions, what should you do instead of using your personal cell phone number?

Our preferred solution is a cloud phone system like GoTo Connect. You may have also heard it referred to as Voice Over IP.

With a cloud solution like this, you don’t need a second phone or a complicated landline system. You will have a business phone number with this solution that you can use with business phones or an app on your cell phone.

One of the main benefits of this solution is you can return business calls from your phone without giving away your personal phone number. This means that you look more professional and are offering separation between your business and personal life. When you dial out using the app, your customer sees your business line -- adding to the legitimacy of your business and protecting your personal information.

Another feature is the ability to set up business hours. During the day, you want to take calls, but at the end of the day, customer calls can be routed directed to your professional voicemail system included in the service giving you the margin to spend time with family or just decompress from the work day.

You may choose to take advantage of the auto-attendant feature with dedicated extensions/mailboxes. This feature allows you to record a professional greeting directing callers to choose the option that best represents them.

For example, your auto-attendant message might greet them with your business name and then say:

• Press 1 to schedule an estimate
• Press 2 if you are an existing customer needing service
• Press 3 to leave a voicemail for Ron

Then, in the system, you can set up how you want the calls to be handled. Maybe calls for estimates will ring through to your phone during business hours, while calls for service can leave a detailed voicemail that you’ll return at a later time.

Let’s say you’ve done that. You’ve set up requests for estimates to ring through directly to you. The line will ring through the app on your phone indicating clearly that it’s from the business line and the caller ID from the caller.

This means you can answer the phone professionally even if you just turned off the drill from mixing product.

Another great feature we have on the package level we’re subscribed to is voicemails sent to your email as an audio file. You don’t have to log in to get messages. You can listen to it at your convenience, archive it in your customer’s file in your Customer Relationship Management database, or forward it to another team member to handle.

One more feature.

Let’s say you have a partner. You can set up a ring group that will allow the line to ring both of you at the same time and whoever can answer first takes it.

BONUS: Tips to Sound Professional When Answering Your Business Phone

Before we wrap up I promised to give you some tips to sound professional when answering your business phone.

Tip #1: Use your company name.

You’re building a brand, so be sure to use your company name every time you talk to a customer.

If a customer is calling me, I answer, “CTI of Acadiana, this is Ron, how can I help you?”

When calling a customer, I always say, “This is Ron with CTI of Acadiana…” and the purpose of my call.

Every chance you get. Use your company name.

Tip #2: Use professional language.

You can be friendly without being too casual.

And it’s never appropriate to curse when speaking with customers. Even if they do.

Tip #3: Return phone calls promptly.

I know our tips are to “sound” professional when answering your business phone. But it will be music to your customer’s ears to have a phone message returned promptly. You will always sound more professional when returning phone calls within 24 hours.

So there you have it.

3 reasons why using your personal cell phone number is bad for business and what to do instead.

It’s a bad idea to use your personal cell phone number for business because:

• It’s unprofessional
• It mixes your business and personal life
• And you’re missing out on the features a business solution offers

What you want to do instead is utilize a business solution like a voice-over IP cloud solution like GoTo Connect.