One business stopped answering the phone. 162 people argued.

A man who runs an appliance repair business posted a question that upset a lot of people.

He is busy. He is booked up. He has online booking on his website. And he asked whether there was any real need for a customer to ring him at all.

A hundred and sixty people replied. It is one of the most useful arguments about small business you will read, because both sides are right.

The case for switching the phone off

It is stronger than it first sounds.

A call arrives whenever it arrives. Usually while you are under a sink, or driving, or with another customer. You cannot take it properly, so you half take it.

Then you write the details on something, and sometimes that something gets lost. A booking form does not lose things.

And if you are already full, every call is work you cannot take. Answering it costs you time and gives you nothing.

The case against

Also strong, and it came up again and again in that thread.

You lose the urgent work, which is often the best paid. Nobody fills in a form when water is coming through the ceiling.

You lose older customers, and people who do not trust a form. For some trades that is most of them.

And you lose the sales conversation. Some jobs are won on the phone in ninety seconds, by sounding like someone who knows what they are doing.

One reply put the risk simply. Being full today does not mean being full in March. Turn the tap off and you may not get it back on quickly.

Both sides agreed on one thing

Silence is the worst option.

A phone that rings out, with no voicemail and nothing on the website, does not read as busy. It reads as gone out of business.

Nobody in that thread defended silence. The argument was only ever about what replaces it.

The middle most of them landed on

Keep the number. Stop pretending you will answer it.

• A voicemail that says something useful. When you pick up messages, and where to go for a faster answer.
• Booking online as the easy path, offered rather than forced.
• The common questions answered in writing, so most people never need either.
• One window a day where you do actually answer. Many said 8 to 9am works.

Which side you are on depends on one thing

Not your trade. Not your age. Whether you are full.

A booked-out business is protecting its time. A business that needs work is protecting its next customer. Same phone, opposite decision.

So the honest answer is that this is not a rule. It is a choice you should make again whenever your diary changes.

Written by the team at hailera — we help small businesses answer customer questions without being there.