After five + years, I’ve finally been able to get service out to the barn to get a telephone line (and also dedicated internet). For those of you who call to make sure we have something in stock before coming, you can now actually get an answer.
The way it was in the past was my personal cell phone was the store number, so people would call me to ask if we had:
- A gallon of milk
- Ribeyes in stock
- Is my wife there
- Etc
Of course I’m usually knee deep in cow poop, getting parts for a tractor, or simply over at the house and don’t actually have visibility to the store. Usually I have a decent idea of what we have on hand but I always answer with the caveat that, “we had X when I looked, but that was several hours ago. No promises.”
Now when you call, you’ll be dialing directly into the store so whoever is working can look in the freezer/fridge and tell you exactly what we have and even hold it for you if you are coming shortly. A much better system.
We were also able to get a new dedicated voice mail so I was able to put things like our store hours, our website address, and my email address in the message. Those three pieces of information probably answer 1/2 of the calls I receive.
I know, welcome to the 19th century. Alexander Bell would be so proud of us.