I am always in a quandery (sorry my spelling is pants) about how to answer my mobile (cell) phone, should I use my company name ie hello love and bride can i help you, or should I say hello steve can i help you, or just can i help you and wait for someone to say "is that the photographer" I use my mobile socially as well as for business and would like an all around greeting that convays friendliness, professionalism and yet doesnt have my mates saying shut up its me you great wazzock. How do you answer?
Just a sunday afternoon querie whilst I start processing some photos
hope you are all well
steve

"Good morning, this is Bill" or "Good afternoon, this is Bill" or "Good evening, this is Bill" or "It's the middle of the freakin night! What's the emergency?"

;-)

Funny! I wonder the same myself. I use my mobile as well, and when I answer "DWR Photography" my friends & family laugh. But just answering "hello" i don't think is professional enough. Hmmm... I've thought about just answering "this is courtenay" but i don't quite know about that, either....

Glad to know I'm not the only one pondering this

Last year I added another cell to our plan. Only an extra $10/month, shared minutes. When I'm "working", I keep the business cell with me. Friends and family know to call this number to reach me "at work". When office hours are over, I drop that cell on my desk and switch to my personal cell. No one has that number except for close friends and family, so if my phone rings in the middle of the night I know it's okay to answer it; it won't be a client!

In the meantime, I agree with answering, "Hello, this is -name-".

Everybody that I know, even casually, is in my address book on my handy. If a call comes in, and it's a number instead of a name that I know, I answer professionally.

what cell phone company are you with? I like that idea!!!

I use my cell for both business and personal - when the caller ID comes up and I don't recognize the number (or if there's any question), I either answer "Hello! This is Autumn!" or "Thank you for calling Autumn Photography" (rare because I feel like this is too corporate). If I know the number is a friend or family member I just say hello. I have realized that no one even listens to how I answer though - I almost ALWAYS say "Hello! This is Autumn!" and people will either say "can I speak to Autumn?" or "Is this Autumn Photography?" No you, dipshit, I just like saying that I'm Autumn... and the chances of you getting the wrong number while trying to call Autumn Photography and still getting an Autumn are just ridiculous!

We're with Sprint. We have three phones sharing one plan for a total of like $140/month including all the fees and taxes. Not a bad deal, IMO! And we're in Atlanta, so service is pretty consistantly good. We don't even have a land line (except for fax).

When clients call my toll-free number, which sometimes forwards to my cell phone, they hear something along the lines of, "thank you for calling Dillsworth Wedding Photography, please hold while you are connected with the studio." When the call forwards I answer, "hello, this is Brady" so it works no matter who is calling because the clients got the tolll-free intro and non-clients get the semi-professional answer