If you're good on the computer, there's some easy ways to make this happen. You can keep an icon on your desktop that opens MS Notepad. When a call comes in, just record the info in that note and save it to the transaction file. Granted, you can't do this with one hand as well as writing, but you might want to use a headset for office calls to make this work.
There's some really great software out there for this also. Take a look at Evernote® to see how you can keep notes with tags for easy retrieval later. They're also kept in a chronological database with a scrollable time line.
Again, if you can get used to using a headset at your desk, your record-keeping gets more automated, and you can find your notes easier later.
But what about calls when you're on your cell phone? Actually, this one is even easier to solve. Using two free online services, you can handle cell messages better, get phone call details accurately stored for later, and send yourself notes on the go.
First, take a look at Jott® Jott will allow you to send yourself, your assistant, or anyone else, notes from your cell phone. You simply call the Jott number, which recognizes your cell phone, tell it to jott yourself, and then leave a voice message with your notes about the call you just finished. You get an email with a pretty good text conversion of your voice, plus an MP3 file of the actual voice recording. Both of these can be saved to the transaction file.
What if you get a call from someone who wants to give you more detail than you can comfortably hang up and Jott to yourself? You could use the free messaging service from Callwave® You'll need to set up the free account and let Callwave take over you messaging from your cell carrier, but the benefits are worth it. Callwave takes the message and sends an email with the voice file and a short text summary to your chosen email address. You can also check your messages from your cell phone as usual. For our purposes in this article, let's see how you can use this service for your transaction details. When the caller is about to give you directions, detailed information, numbers, phone numbers, etc., just ask if they could call right back and go to message to leave the information. You'll have a permanent voice record in your email back at the office.
These solutions are either free or a one-time small expense. You'll also need to possibly modify your phone call behavior a bit. But you'll likely be very glad at some point in the future that you had a record of an important phone call.
