Out of Touch or In the Zone

Technology is a wonderful thing, and sometime a curse.  I often find myself working on a project when the phone rings or an envelop appears at the bottom of my screen signaling that I have a new email.  Do I stop what I am doing, switch gears and answer the call or do I let the caller leave a message and get back to them when I am done with what I am doing?  I will easily lose 15 minutes of work making the transition from one task to another and then back to the original task.  But, if I wait to respond there is always the risk that the potential client (or current client) could move to on to someone else or become dissatisfied.

In today's world of smart phones and instant access our society's patience for a response is growing ever so thin. On the not so rare occasion, I have received follow up calls from people wanting to see if I have received their email they sent less than an hour ago.

Our mortgage broker has never, not once, taken our phone call.  Instead, we are always left to leave a voicemail and hope that he will return our call.  He generally returns our call in a couple of days. This leaves a bad taste in my mouth and a feeling that our business is not worth his time or effort.  The only reason we have not jumped ship is because our builder will only pay our closing costs if we stick with him.

I like to think that while he is not at my beck and call, he is being productive and making magic happen for his clients.  But does that 15 minutes of magic outweigh the cost of losing potential clients and upsetting your current ones?