I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually, at least on that number it won't be a moron from Manchester telling me about my PPI loans that I've never had. I will see if I can find one of those sorts of books for my Kindle. It'll at least give me something to do on the bus - instead of twiddling my thumbs whilst reading rubbish fiction, I could be bettering my brain instead of battering it.

If you want to get used to it then that's fine, especially if you think it will seriously affect your business, but do remember that just because lots of other people do something a certain way it doesn't mean that you have to as well. Whilst I think you need to try it, if you decide it isn't for you, then just don't do it .

I virtually never answer my any of my phones unless I know who the caller is or am expecting confirmation calls - I set a particular time of day for these so I know, and everybody else is welcome to ring provided the timing is pre-arranged so I know it's them and why they're ringing. I don't answer the door if I'm not expecting anybody either, for that matter.

I don't object to talking on the phone per se, I just prefer initial contact to be made by email or by text, and whilst I do require a confirmation call from every new client to prove they are an adult male, I don't find that I learn any more about them as a person than I would have from an email, and I've had plenty of occasions where I've made assumptions about a client based on his phone voice/manner (age, for example) and been completely wrong. Provided a punter can communicate with me clearly and politely in English, in terms of 'compatibility', I'm just as happy, if not happier, with the written word and I wonder how many punters have been misjudged during phone calls just because they aren't very good on the phone?

To be fair, I'm partly deaf which doesn't make things any easier. But you really don't have to show your number on AW if you don't want to - I'm stuck with it most of the time because I tour a lot and they won't show your ad unless you do (and there are places I tour where most of the bookings come in by phone and you just have to get on with it, although I still manage fine by text a lot of the time and I have planned 'phone breaks' for myself too) but unless you are wanting lots of same day/short notice appointments it is possible to get away largely without it.

I've just looked back through my phone, and I have taken precisely two of this weeks/last weeks' bookings from an initial phone call; the rest (ten so far up to this coming Saturday) have all been by email .

That's good advice, Amy, thank you. I only have it showing because otherwise they won't let me put my website link on there as well. I *could* put all my website information onto AW, but it's not like they read any of my profile there anyway. I think they actually read four words and then scroll to the phone number.  I might make a long bold paragraph simply saying "rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb" eleventy thousand times and see if anyone notices...

This leads me on to - is there any point in me having a website? Might as well keep it in one thread.

Well I'm not bothered about having my website linked on there - I have tabs on my profile and FAQs to make it less unwieldy, and I prefer to know where my enquiries are coming from anyway, especially as AW isn't particularly busy for me compared with my own site. As you said, the ones who don't read it won't anyway no matter what you put (and they certainly won't bother clicking through to your site so they can not read that too), and the ones who are interested will happily do so provided it's not War and Peace.

I may be wrong, but I think you can subscribe to something else (like the Local Escorts thing which is only another 50p) if that's the main reason? As for whether it's worth having a website, it's been discussed before but if you want to discuss it again please start a new thread, or anybody who might be interested in that but not in this will miss it .

I don't think being rude to callers is good business practice, is it? Why not just politely tell them you're busy (instead of running the risk of antagonising them) and then just save the number under 'twat' or whatever? All they need to do if they're annoyed and decide to mess you about is get a new SIM card and make a load of hoax bookings, or worse.

I do think it's worth pointing out that the OP (and I) was specifically talking abut initial contact being made by phone. I don't think many of us would give our location or open the door to somebody we'd never spoken to ever, or at least I know I wouldn't.

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Why not just politely tell them you're busy (instead of running the risk of antagonising them) and then just save the number under 'twat' or whatever

I do that too.

Yeah, I do that a lot .

Most of whatever I'd say has been said above, but one great tip I was given years ago was to use a mirror. Looking into a mirror and smiling whilst on the phone is a technique which can automatically relax and lift you.

For now, I have just changed my voicemail to "Hi, this is My-AW-Name. This number is for confirmation calls only, please message me on AW if you're interested in making a booking." and the phone is just on divert-all-calls. I have an sms template which is along the same lines although I have to actually press buttons to make that work. The horror! 

That's an excellent idea! I think your voicemail greeting can be used to great effect. You've not only explained why you haven't answered the phone AND let genuine clients know what to do to book (while filtering out some TWs who were just calling to try to annoy you), but you've probably sounded very friendly and smiley in your recorded message so genuine clients who wanted to check your manner by chatting to you will get a sense of that even if you're not feeling up to talking to them yet. Three birds with one stone is a very good hunting season.

I agree that I absolutely *do* need to hear their voice before seeing them but, for me personally, I'm happiest dealing with them via email before a phonecall so that's what I'm going to stick to. I need to stay within my comfort zones for now and take things slowly. Once they've actually contacted me then I will be less terrified to speak to them. I'm weird, I know, but if it works for me then that's how it will be for the time being.

If scheduling a phone call means you can still check their manner/attitude over the phone as well as testing their genuine-ness by having them follow a simple instruction ("Call me at 10am on the day" etc), AND avoid your feelings of panic from answering random calls when you're not feeling up to it, then that's another three birds with one stone and you're on a roll here!

To be fair, even though I don't mind answering random calls on my work phone, I still take most bookings by email as I only do one incall day per week and am too busy with other stuff to have my work phone switched on on the other days. I schedule all my confirmation calls for 9am on the day, too, so rarely actually *have* to answer unexpected calls. And you can also see from the work routines of Amy and others above that you can manage contact from clients in whatever way suits you best without needing to sacrifice income. Even if you're ace at talking to randoms, it's pretty exhausting to do that all day long so I think most escorts do find a way to reduce the stress of taking calls.

I think you said earlier in the thread that you're still very new to the industry, too? Once you've met a few dozen clients, it may well be automatic that you lose your nerves about talking to them on the phone. Things always seem much more alarming when unfamiliar - tis the natural way of our brains and whatnot - so once you're accustomed to clients being regular blokes you'll probably forget all about the earlier nerves.