Consulting Tip: Easily Track Billable Calls On Your Smartphone
As a former support tech, I know two things for a fact about support calls to my cell phone:
- I can never remember later who called
- I always underestimate how long the support call was
I am experimenting with my team at work with a new process that I thought might come in handy for other consultants. We have provided all of out techs with smartphones. We have also installed a little freeware app on all of the phones called PhoneLog. The purpose of this software is to monitor all incoming and outgoing phone calls and then transfer the information to the phone’s calendar. It also puts into the calendar the name of the person who called from the contacts, their phone number, when they called and how long the call lasted.
Now, the next time the smartphone synchronizes with our Exchange server back at the office, the information about the call is also there. The tech then calls the admin team who takes the information from the tech’s calendar and fills in all of the details from the tech. By time the tech gets back to the office, the invoice is ready to go.
