Connecting: Multitasking can save time, cost customers

So, you're a new business owner. You are the president, the CEO and the janitor in fact the one and only employee. Whether you decide to open a hair-styling salon or a consulting business, there are problems that are unique to the business owner who operates without an administrative assistant learning how to multitask and still make the person in front of you feel important.

When it comes to multitasking, we have to ask ourselves an important question: Are we saving time at the expense of relationships?

Observing several solo business owners in the last several months, I noticed several common yet costly communication mistakes. See if you recognize any of these scenarios:

Scenario No. 1

You call a local businesswoman to give her some hot leads for her business only to hear her infant squalling in the background while she obviously struggles to attend to business with you.

Politely, you ask if you've called at a bad time, to which she replies, "No, I work out of my home and I also have a child." Then she asks if she can put you on hold so she can change phones. By the third time you're put on hold, you are not sure you want to give her the leads after all.

Scenario No. 2

You have scheduled a one-hour meeting with your new accountant to go over your files. After getting started, he pauses to answer his phone. He stays on the phone more than five minutes, scheduling his calendar, making other appointments and taking care of old business.

This happens at least four times through the course of your meeting. You wonder why he doesn't put his calls on an answering service while you are in session.

Scenario No. 3

Every time you call your friend and business associate she puts you on hold to answer one of her three phone lines. She assumes you understand because, after all, you are friends.

Multitasking can be expensive

All three of these scenarios are results of our obsession with multitasking making the most of every minute. Multitasking compromises accuracy and can be costly in mistakes and customer service. Sandy Higgins, professional speaker and co-owner of Joy Works, said that often, multitasking results in mistakes and compromised customer service.

"Recently I went to have my license renewed and the gentleman taking care of me was working with customers online, talking on a headset and taking my money at the same time. I was frustrated when I asked him a question and he was distracted by the many activities he was trying to accomplish. It was confusing trying to figure out who he was talking to."

In the midst of doing business we have to be aware of the real message we are communicating to the client in front of us. Kathy Iman, of KJI Enterprises in Nixa, said, "If I'm talking to someone, they deserve my total attention. That is why I have call notes and a separate business line from my home phone line."

Iman said that several years ago she had a cosmetologist she adored, but he continued to answer the phone while he cut her hair. "At 40 bucks a pop, I felt as though he could afford to give me 20 minutes of solid attention. Eventually I left him for someone who wasn't so committed to multitasking."

We must separate our professional lives from our personal lives.

Many business professionals are starting businesses in their homes because of the flexibility it affords them, however there has to be a clear separation between business life and family life. Joyce Barbatti, personal development and communications consultant and president of Barbatti Communications in Cedar Falls, Iowa, teaches phone etiquette. She has this advice for professional mothers working at home: "If you are a mom working from home with kids, it's important that your callers not hear your kids in the background and that you don't allow them to answer your business calls. These things give the impression that you lack credibility in your business and that you are not a responsible businessperson."

Barbatti added that it is important to train ourselves to give full attention to the person on the phone. "It's irritating to me when I can hear someone typing on a keyboard or shuffling papers while I'm speaking to them. It makes me feel like I am boring or not important enough to listen to," she said.

After interviewing dozens of customers and several small-business owners, I suggest saving the multitasking for the projects that don't require attention to human beings. Multitask by stuffing envelopes while the computer is booting up; clear your desk while using the copying machine; address letters while sending faxes.

If you work out of your home, get call notes or voice mail, don't put people on hold, keep your kids quiet and, for goodness sake, pay attention to the person in front of you!

(Marlene Chism is president of Icare Consulting in Springfield.)