If you aren’t talking on your phone, it is ringing. All while it continually dings and bings from text messages and emails. This can only mean one thing - it is sale season. Seasoned breeder, Rory Duelm, owner of Duelms Prevailing Genetics, has managing communication in the bag. Here are a few of his tips.

Phone calls vs. Texts and Emails
Duelm said they try to do most of their communication through phone calls. For his business, one to two minute phone calls are the most effective. “It just works,” Duelm said. “It seems like you can get to the point a lot faster instead of texting or emailing back and forth, four or five times.” Whether you communicate via phone or email and text, find the method that works best for you and stick to it. It can get tricky to manage all three ways and do it well.

Answer Your Phone
Duelm can receive 80 -100 phone calls a day during this time of year, and tries to answer every one. He said he doesn’t like to wait to call people back because buyers can get in their mind that they are not good enough for you to answer your phone or return calls promptly, and will go buy from someone else. “We try to treat people the way we like to be treated. No matter if they have $300 or $3,000 to spend, we will answer the phone.”

Keep it Short and Sweet
With a large volume of phone calls, Duelm said it is important to keep everything short and sweet. Make sure you have all of your facts and figures straight so you can answer questions quickly.

Managing Communication Volume
Keeping an updated website, can help alleviate some calls, texts and emails because buyers can visit the website for information instead of calling you. “During this time of year, we update information every seven to 10 days. We try and keep current information on the websites to keep people aware of what age of pigs we are selling and when they will be ready.”

Support Team
It is extremely hard to do it all by yourself. Duelm credits his successful communication to having others around him to answer calls, facilitate visits and take care of the pigs. It is extremely important though to make sure everyone is on the same page. “We go over things like where pigs are priced, when certain age pigs will be ready, and when they can pick up, at least once a week sometimes even more, so others are telling customers the same thing I tell them,” Duelm said. Juggling it all during this time of year can get tricky, but learning to master communication is key in delivering customer support that keep people coming back year after year.