Cyber criminals are just like criminals in “real life:” they’ll always take the easiest route. By using your personal cell phone for business, you’re not only revealing business secrets, but you’re providing them with the bonus of accessing all your personal information! This causes big problems not only for you, but for your contacts, as well. No one wants to do business with someone who takes such a lax approach to security.
2. You’re welcoming robocalls and spammers
While it’s true there are apps designed to limit robocalls, who has the time to sort through which calls are business leads, and which are pesky telemarketers? The fact is, cell phones aren’t set up to handle large numbers of junk calls.
According to a 2015 Consumer Reports study, three out of ten calls made to cell phones are unsolicited marketing messages. Do you really have the time away from your business operations to deal with them all?
3. If you change your number, you’ll lose leads
There are many reasons why you’d have to change your cell phone number. No one has time to go through every contact they have and let them know about the change. Plus, clients and customers will think you’re disorganized if you keep changing contact numbers.
A dedicated office phone system allows you to change numbers at any time and automatically forward calls. So, if someone calls an old number, they’ll be re-directed to the correct number. Most customers won’t even know they’ve been transferred!
4. You won’t have a record of client conversations
It’s illegal to record conversations without informing callers. Most cell phones are not set up to effectively record calls, and for those that are, you risk an employee forgetting to read a prepared disclaimer.
Why risk it? Go the professional route and set up call recording for your business calls. This way, you can reference the conversation and never miss a potential sale or customer question.
5. You might give the wrong impression
Using a personal cell phone for business use opens up the possibility of confusion. No customer wants to hear an impersonal and unprofessional greeting. With an office phone system, you eliminate that risk. In addition, a dedicated system offers you the ability to begin with a pre-recorded message, to ensure consistency with every call.
6. Your cell phone can’t scale with business growth
Even if your personal cell phone is meeting your business needs today, what about next month? Next year? What if you hire new employees? It’s unrealistic to think you can all use the same cell phone.
The fact is, cell phones weren’t decided to scale. Serious business people take the time and research necessary to find and purchase a dedicated business phone system.
While using a personal cell phone may seem like an easy way to streamline communications, the risk greatly outweighs the benefits. It’s important to secure a dedicated office phone system. Let Atlantic Communications Team help you find the best solutions for your growing business.