From a business perspective, NEVER, NEVER screen your calls, and never
reject a call because it come from an unknown, blocked, or private #
(ever). This is the absolute kiss of death in any small business.
Very often business owners use this as a clever tool to screen calls and
will require caller to unblock their numbers to let the call come
through, but what they end up doing is loosing customers... lots of
customers.
If you have one of the new smart phones or gateways where you can set it
up that if someone is in the directory so that every time they call you
get a special ring to them, or a picture of them or icon so that you can
screen calls better. (I go one step further so that if an E-Mail comes in
from a particular person an alert is fired off to my cell phone and I can
retrieve a copy of the message via an encrypted connection).
Also, when you are away try to forward your calls to a cell phone, or a
secure gateway for a cell phone (your PBX system gets a designated
"cell forward" line so that any call that gets forwarded to
your cell phone is encrypted from your outbound office line to the cell
phone/iPhone/BB/etc). Make sure that if your phone is not available that
the calls get routed back into your office voice-mail, and not the cell
phone voice-mail (which are more likely to get lost or delayed). I have
the gateway here set up so that it tries to reach me when a customer
calls, and that if one cell phone/PDA is not available it tries a second,
and then dumps the customer into VM on the 5th ring.
I use a vibrate only mode quite often, and the vibrate with an
"S" in morse code (for "Special or Screened Calls"),
and the phone never actually vibrates or rings. I also flag calls coming
in from known customers or contacts so that I can give them priority
pickup. When someone calls me who I know, I get a regular vibrate
or normal ring depending on if I am a situation where a ringing phone is
appropriate (not in class, not in a meeting, not on a sweep, etc). I also
have an over-ride for emergencies, where any call from certain numbers
breaks through this and the phone chirps away audibly and makes all kinds
of noise.
I never bring a live cell phone registered to me within 1000 yards of any
place I will be performing a sweep, and usually kill all regular cell
phones at least five miles away. I also try to use certain cell phones
only in certain cities so that I have a set of phones that I only
use/charge/power up when in DC, another for DC, Philly, Chicago,
etc. I handle all of the call forwarding via the office PBX system
so that the calls go though the PBX/Gateway, and not directly to the
phone. I can also divert specific callers to a specific phones based
either on caller ID, or typed codes (ie. a caller from DC goes to a cell
phone set up as a DC account)
While on site I tend to have a single phone (sometimes two, each on a
different carrier), that is totally disposable, prepaid under an alias,
and only use the phone in an emergency (the battery stays out of or
disconnected from the phone if I am within 5 miles of the site). The only
time I would use the phone is in the event of a medical or security
emergency, or when I need to ring in from outside the premises. The
sterile phone is often obtained by the customer in advance of my arrival
so that in a worse case situation every thing would lead back to them
(this phone is only used inside the 5 mile radius, but not
outside).
I am also still a fan on not carrying any kind of operational wireless
devices, using public transportation to get to and from meetings
downtown, getting lost in a crowd and quietly taking care of business in
a manner so as to be invisible to the spy.
Be very careful in screening calls, it can really harm your
business.
-jma
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James M.
Atkinson
Phone: (978) 546-3803
Granite Island
Group
Fax: (978) 546-9467
127 Eastern Avenue
#291
Web:
http://www.tscm.com/
Gloucester, MA
01931-8008
E-mail:
mailto:jm..._at_tscm.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmatkinson
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No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the
enemy until it is ripe for execution. - Machiavelli, The Prince,
1521
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:16 CST