Let’s face it: no one answers phone calls any more.

At least not an unrecognized number. And even when it’s someone you know, you’re probably like me and think that an out of the blue call is either annoying or an emergency.

Businesses are still making calls which show up as a number, a number their recipient probably won’t recognize, and won’t answer.

I recently participated in an experiment. A local political candidate had callers reaching out to likely voters to get them to vote for the candidate.

Out of a random 50 calls, a grand total of three actually answered. Less than 10 %. The rest of the calls went to a voicemail, and in many of those cases, the mailbox was full.

So if you’re depending on phone calls for business, you’re likely in trouble. But the situation is not hopeless.

It’s become a standard joke about people texting someone to ask if it’s ok to call. That’s no joke – it’s a very good idea. Obviously, it’s easy to do if you’re an individual calling a friend. But if you’re a business, you can do the same thing.

There’s a variety of apps that allow you to send texts from a office based landline. Get one of those. Very likely your phone provider already has it in your plan. If not, get one.

Next, get permission from your customers to allow you to text them. Promise that you’re not going to annoy them or flood them with messages, and assure them that messages will only be used when they have to be used.

When there’s a problem and you need to contact your customer, text them, say you’re having a problem (or whatever the issue is) and ask when would be a good time to call, or ask them to call you when it’s convenient for them.

Even better: email. If you’ve got a specific thing that you need, email your request, and if they’ve given permission, text them to let them know that you’ve emailed. If your customer can enter the information on your website, tell them where, and encourage them to do so. Of course, some won’t respond but a good number of your customers would prefer to take care of a minor issue themselves.

Phone etiquette has changed and it does no good to grumble that it has. Stop imagining it’s 1999, and adapt. You will probably find that not only are your problems resolved more easily, but your customers are happier as well.