Do you believe it when the automated call router says, “Please listen carefully as our menu has changed,” in their friendly operator voice? I find myself drifting into a low attention state. And that is not productive.

Those of you recording those bland messages, try a more productive greeting. Here are some ideas:

1. Get right to the menu… “For customer service, press 1. . .”
2. Initiate with listener benefit.. “Listen carefully so you get the right assistance as quickly as possible… For technical support, press 1″

Please step back from your standard operating procedure for answering the phone and be sure it is up-to-date and relevant to your callers.

A tidy workspace just feels good to some of us. It certainly projects a part of your professional image. Some of us just don’t care… this post isn’t for you. That is unless you have a tangle of wires behind your A/V and home theater equipment. Then someone more than you might care.

What can you do about that abundance of cables? Hide them! I just learned that the things that hide cables are called raceways, wire looms, and wrap-around braid. A great site for this is Cable Ties & More.com. These hiders of cables are smart looking, practical and inexpensive. Fortunately most of these can be do-it-yourself so costly technical or handyman assistance can be avoided.

A really inexpensive and clever option is demonstrated by the Jerry Bruno on YouTube. I would enhance his suggestion by first looping cables, securing with hook & loop (Velcro), then hanging the bundles on the hooks.

For another option, check out this perennial favorite Productivity Cafe solutions for Cable Organization:

Cure Cable Spagetti

Who would have thought that leaving a voicemail would impact your reputation?! This morning Kim @ Bike Virginia commented that my message was the easiest for her deal with because I left my name and number twice at the end of the message. Kim takes care of the customer experience and handles loads of calls every day. That my message elicited a comment prompts me to get back online and share the experience with you.

When you are asking someone to help you, make it as easy as possible for them and you’re more likely to be at the front of the line. Duh! I know. And, I’ve seen people that seem to want to be right more than they want to have their problem solved. They’re demanding, sometime rude, and sometime just missing a couple of bits that would help them reach their real goal – getting help. Sometime the caller (we) don’t realize the customer experience person doesn’t have all the background we do and they need to be filled in – calmly. And trust me, if you’re asking for help, unless you’re the boss, and even if you’re the customer, others can make things tough – drawing out the process, requiring extra steps, putting you on hold just because they need to calm down or think that you need to calm down.

Regarding the voicemail example, which is also addressed in another post here: Good Voicemail Messages Matter. When you give the full details for your call you leave a good impression. You build your brand to be what you want it to be. And, you’re more likely to get the results that you want. A little planning trick many people use is: jot on a piece of paper:

• Your goal for the call
• Supporting point 1
• Supporting point 2
• Supporting point 3 (max)
• What you’re going to ask the listener to do – be specific

This little trick also avoids hanging up, snapping your fingers and thinking, “Oh man, I forgot to mention…..”

Having this record also gives you confidence that you made the first call, what you said in case they miss something on their end, and allows you to move on.

Give it a try – let us know how it works!

When you're communicating via voice mail there is one thing that you can do to make the communication most effective – be complete and clear. For those of you saying, "No kidding," know that this message is prompted by recent messages I've received, voicemails, that just make me nuts on one hand and make me feel like I can be responsive on the other. The bad messages, "Hey, it's me, please give me a call," and "Hi Susan, its Terry, give me a call."

Here's what's missing:

• the full name of the person
  
• their phone number
• what I can do for them
• how urgently they need a call back
• and, if I don't know them, how they got my name

So here are some good messages:

"It's Steve Frank calling about the agreement you said you would send yesterday. I haven't received it. Please give me an update. Again, it's Steve Frank and my number is 416-622-6222 that's 416-622-6222."

"Hi Susan, its Bobby Allen, we met at the Keeping It Real event last week. I have an opportunity for you to write an article for our internal company newsletter. The deadline is in 2 weeks so I need to know if you're interested within the next day. You can reach me, Bobby Allen, at: 919-911-9111, to repeat, my number is 
919-911-9111. "

Have you received any 'remarkable' voicemail messages lately? We'd love to read about them so leave a comment below.

Chances are that you put a great number of your creations in just a few folders. If you’re on a Windows machine, have I got a shortcut for you! You can put those popular folders right in the ‘Look in:’ box. (I will be referring to the image below throughout this post. Double click on it to see an enlarged and readable version.) The ‘Look In:’ box is pointed to by the Red Arrow in the illustration.

Setting things up this way will speed your saving and retrieving whatever it is you put in folders – mind maps, documents, pictures, etc.

Here’s how to do it in 2007:

1. From a program type file open (alt-f o)
2. Highlight the folder you want to put in the Look In Box by clicking on it
3. Move the mouse on top of one of the current locations. In the picture that could be over My Documents.
4. Right click.
5. Select the top choice ‘add highlighted folder’
6. You’re done

In 2003 follow these steps:

1. From a program type File Open (alt-f o)
2. Highlight the folder you want to put in the Look In Box by clicking on it
3. Click on the tools drop down (labeled in pink in the illustration)
4. Click on ‘add to my places’
5. You’re done

After you add a few folders you can right click on them and move them up so the order makes the most sense to you – either alphabetic or perhaps from most frequently used to least.

Does this streamline things for you?

The New York Times Fashion & Style section mentioned some of the advice from ProductivityCafe.com today. Read the article here: New York Time Article on Organizing. We welcome writer Michelle Slatalla and invite you to read regularly via rss feed or email delivery. The article Ms. Slatalla mentions is on keyboard shortcuts. That article can be found here: NYT Referenced Article @ ProductivityCafe.com.

Hope you’re having a Playful & rejuvenating Memorial Day.

What does a red color-coded sign or folder mean to you? Many of us think ‘Urgent’ or ‘Stop’ or ‘Hot’. We know that our attention is needed for something. We can use red to mean that when an emali has arrived in your inbox from a VIP. Usually my clients make the emails from their boss and/or key customers turn red when they arrive. Then, the red-titled emails get their attention right away.

Color-coded inbox

Similarly, team leaders color-code the emails from their team members so they stand out from their general correspondence.

Other times you might want to color-code are:

• Personal messages
• From financial institutions (green representing money for this group)
• Vendors & suppliers
• Particular Projects

Remembers, usually it’s best to move emails into related folders. That’s explained in this post: Moving Emails in Outlook. For those emails that still make it to your inbox color-coding will catch your eye and increase your productivity and effectiveness in handling the most important messages.

Here are the steps to color code your messages in Outlook 2002/3:

1. Click on the email message you want to use as the example for the colorizing. For example,

So you own this program called Microsoft Outlook and it’s been pretty good at getting your email to you and helping you respond or write emails. Your inbox is full. Are your emails piling so that you have hundreds, or even thousands of messages listed in your inbox? You could be using Outlook tools (rules) to automatically move messages out of your inbox and into specific folders. It’s like hiring your own mail management assistant but it’s free and already available.

The benefits of moving messages out of your inbox automatically are:

• The few messages in your inbox need and warrant your attention.
• Those moved out are grouped with purpose. That purpose might be by project or person. It might be things you’re waiting for results or follow-up communication.
• When you’re ready to work your emails related to the task at hand are together. This eliminates searching and sorting and spending time seeking select emails from a list as long as the phone book. For example, all the emails regarding the expansion project would be easy to use if they’re all in the folder named, ‘Expansion Project.’
• Messages that are simply FYI in case you’re later involved are kept out of site leaving you attention for the important things.
• Reading, re-reading, and re-reading again is eliminated. Even if you gloss over emails stored in your inbox they’re requiring your attention over and over again – wasting your energy & time by taking your attention off the important undone things.

Here are the steps to writing your first rule (it’s easy – try it as you read along):

1. Right click on the email message you want to use as the rule model. For
2. example, you might want all messages from a certain person, David
   Henry, to go to a particular folder. Or, you might want all messages
   from a particular company to go to a specific folder in which case
   their emails probably end with the same @companyname.com.
3. A menu will open. Click on Create Rule. This menu will appear:
   

4. Under: When I get email with all of the select conditions Put
   an X in the box corresponding to the criteria you want to use for moving email. For example, to move all message from David Henry as you
   see above, check the box in front of From David Henry to start the rule.
5. Under: Do the following: Put an X in the box next to Move the item to folder:
6. Click on Select Folder to open your list of folders.
7. Click on the folder name you want this email to go to. Or
   create a new folder by clicking on new in the far right of the folder list box and typing in the name of the new folder.
8. Click OK
9. You will be returned to the original Create Rule box. Click OK here. You will see:
   
10. Click on the box in front of Run this rule now…
11. Click on OK
12. Verify that everything was done effectively by verifying that the email you started with is not in your inbox. Then, check the folder you wanted messages to be moved to and find the message that you
    started with there.
13. Congrats – you’ve set up your first rule.

Take a look at July 4^th on your Outlook Calendar – is it marked as a (USA) Holiday already? If not, look at a couple of other obvious dates such as Memorial Day, May 26^th or February 18^th , President’s Day in the USA. If you’re elsewhere in the world, see if 2 or 3 of your big holidays are on your outlook calendar. If not, there is an easy way to populate your Outlook calendar with all the holidays. This will help you set yourself up for a good year with no date surprises.

To get your holidays to appear automatically on your calendar…

• Open the Calendar
• Click on Tools
• Click on Options
• Click on Calendar Options on the Preference Tab
• Click on Holidays (it appear ½ down the block, on the right side in Outlook 2007)
• Check the box adjacent to the name of your country
• Click OK

There you go. Your calendar is up-to-date and you won’t miss a beat.

We’ve found something to help you get off the phone quickly, if you must. It’s one of those funny and possibly useful little electronic gadgets that give you an excuse to call someone back later. It’s a special key ring and audio player. Attached to the ring is a digital sound player. Stored in the player are 10 one-minute sound tracks of believable situations. Situations include:

• Auto Repair Shop
• Aircraft Taking Off
• Emergency Call