I recently needed my chimney cleaned. It had been a while, and I'm one of those people who forever worry about chimney fires. I'd never had it done in this house before, so I did a Google search for chimney sweeps in my town. I found five names. The first four calls, I got an amateurish-sounding message. "We're not here right now, please leave a message."

I realize that tradesmen like this are on the road during the day and generally don't employ full-time administrative help. But in these days of call forwarding, "find me, follow me" service, etc., why is it so hard to remain connected to prospective customers while on the road?

On the fifth call I made, the tradesman picked up the phone. We set a time and a price for my chimney cleaning. He got my business. All because he'd thought to have his calls forwarded to his cell phone.

TES