Answering the phone: expedient, or distracting?

This question came up and garnered a spirited discussion:

When a client calls, should I answer it (because it’s more efficient than a twelve-email exchange) or do I let it go to voicemail (so it doesn’t interrupt my deep work time)?

…

I offer an answer in the form of three questions, and in a different plane:

What if the phone ringing was a downstream symptom of an upstream problem?

What if your clients had questions answered before they ever needed to call?

How might you design your business so that clients needing to call simply wasn’t a thing?

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