The Phone Lady's Blog

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business processes

The Many Skills of Conversation

By Mary Jane Copps | March 11, 2023

Here are some statistics that caught my attention this week: Worldwide, 23 billion texts (Forbes 2021) and 333.2 billion emails (Zippia Oct/22) are sent each day. Of those emails, only 18% actually get opened. And we know that “opened” doesn’t automatically indicate “read” – and … Read more

Celebrating 500: It’s All About Process

By Mary Jane Copps | December 5, 2020
woman working at table

This post is my 500th blog post! I’m amazed. Blogging sparked my curiosity about 10 years ago. When I began to write the stories and bits of advice, I had no clear vision of where I was going or for how long. In the early … Read more

Serious About Creating Consistent Revenue? You Need CRM Software, Not a Spreadsheet!

By Mary Jane Copps | January 31, 2020
man talking on the phone while checking his laptop

Almost every small business owner I’ve worked with starts out keeping track of prospects using a spreadsheet. They carefully choose and set up the columns. Then they add to it weekly, sometimes daily, listing all the people they’ve spoken to and a bit of information … Read more

7 Ways to Showcase Your Persistence

By Mary Jane Copps | January 18, 2020

To reach your financial goal, build your business and create consistent revenue, you must embrace persistence. In last week’s post, I used a couple of different dictionaries to create a simple comparison between persistence and pestering and shared with you the value of continuing to reach … Read more

A Hockey Legend’s Inspiration

By Mary Jane Copps | December 7, 2019
making a sales call

In our house, CBC Radio is on most of the time. Sometimes I listen intently, sometimes bits of information enter my consciousness while I’m focused on other things. This is what happened on November 28. The Current was on and a panel was discussing the … Read more

7 Questions to Maximize Your 77 Days

By Mary Jane Copps | September 1, 2019
planning

Welcome to September! While it does have that “fresh start” feeling, it’s important to recognize that, for most of us (depending on your work week and upcoming vacation days), there are approximately 77 days until year-end. January has that “I have a whole year” feeling; … Read more

Our Aging Customers: Are You … and Your Staff … Prepared?

By Mary Jane Copps | July 7, 2019
senior customer

This week’s post is from Rosanne Burke, a dementia care consultant, trainer and speaker. She offers dementia training workshops for business owners who want to learn how to make their business dementia-friendly and helps family caregivers feel more confident and competent by creating a personalized … Read more

What Astronauts Know … and You Should Too!

By Mary Jane Copps | June 16, 2019

My life as “The Phone Lady” is filled with amazing moments and opportunities. One of these arrived as a thank you a few months ago from Lee Babin, CEO of Gingerly.ai. It was a one-year, all-access pass to Masterclass, an online learning platform featuring some … Read more

What’s Your Post-Sale Process?

By Mary Jane Copps | March 3, 2019
receptionist speaking on the phone

There’s no doubt that it’s great to make a sale. Tons of work and effort go into the moment when a prospect finally becomes a paying customer, so it’s definitely something to celebrate but … what comes next? Do you know? Does it bring value … Read more

Keep Your Team “In The Loop”

By Mary Jane Copps | November 4, 2018

Florence Anderson is a customer service aficionado and a regular reader of this blog. She’s responding to the October 6 post with an insightful story about email assumptions and the chaos that can result. When should an email be accompanied by a phone call? What’s … Read more

Lessons Learned From “Is That Me?”

By Mary Jane Copps | September 2, 2018

Throughout August I’ve been working on a project that’s had me navigating a huge learning curve – one I’ve been procrastinating on for quite some time. I’ve been “uncomfortable” throughout the process and it’s made me think about both my mother-in-law and the many people … Read more

What I’m Reading: The Checklist Manifesto

By Mary Jane Copps | July 15, 2018

In April of this year, after doing a podcast about cold calling on SalesTuners with Jim Brown, he thanked me with a one-year subscription to ReadItForMe, which delivers book summaries specifically designed for entrepreneurs, executives and business coaches. I was very pleased; book summaries are … Read more

5 Steps to Answering Your Business Phone

By Mary Jane Copps | February 25, 2018

Recently The Casper Agency of Saint John, NB sent me a question via Twitter. Much to my surprise, it turned out to be a subject I haven’t featured in this blog. So, without further delay, here’s my best advice for how to answer your business phone. … Read more

The $11.8 Million Phone Call

By Mary Jane Copps | September 9, 2017

On August 31, Edmonton’s MacEwan University revealed it had sent payments for long-time vendor Clark Builders to a bogus bank account in Montreal. The payments, later transferred to a Hong Kong bank, totalled $11.8 million. How does this happen and why did no one pick … Read more

Radio New Zealand logo
How to tackle your telephone hang-ups. People with bad cases of telephone anxiety can experience nausea, increased heart rate and shortness of breath at the sound of a ringtone. Listen in...
Why it’s completely normal for a phone call to fill you with dread (and how to get over it). Read the stats and Mary Jane's advice.

Phone Phobia Hits the News

Phone phobia, or telephobia, has been getting a lot of attention in the news recently. See what Mary Jane has to say about it...
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
22 Minutes correspondent, Brandon Hackett, figures out which end is up on this thing called a telephone, with help from The Phone Lady. Watch Telephone Lessons for Millennials.
The Wall Street Journal.
Banks Curtail Employee Use of Voice Mail: Voice mail is viewed as an expensive vestige of a bygone era. See what The Phone Lady has to say.