SERVICE TRUTH (?)
Saturday Jan. 19, 2019
Changing routines (or should I properly label them habits?) is difficult for me.
I don’t even like mine disrupted a tiny bit.
I can control them to some degree with technology – no need to answer phones or reply immediately to text or email messages.
Yet I often do …
As much as I hate my routines/habits being disrupted, I grind my teeth a bit when I have unreturned calls or messages – because I feel a duty to respond promptly.
I long time ago I found I was using my in-box and voice-mail as mini-filing-cabinets – so I stopped.
… all of which leads me to my pet-peeve du jour:
People with voice-mail messages which say some variation of: “Please leave a message – I promise to get back to you by the end of the day”, or within one hour or one day … etc.
Some companies won’t let you call them – they insist you leave your query, however urgent, on their website or submit by email which generates an auto-reply saying they will get back within the next business day. I had such a situation recently – on a time-sensitive website problem. My hosting service is in a different time zone. My call was ‘after hours’. I left a voice mail, sent an email and opened two ‘tickets’ on their website with urgent messages to call me, regardless of the time, because I had an urgent problem to solve. Yes, in case you wondered, they charge me money every month for website hosting services which include ‘service’. I solved the problem myself the next day but chose not to advise them – I wanted to see if/when and how they respond. In response to the first ‘ticket’ I opened, I got an email two days later telling they are available 24/7, but it came with a list of departments and ‘office hours’ for each. A call to numbers given after hours got only a recording advising of their office hours but without the possibility of leaving a message. Regarding the second ‘ticket’, no response. To the email and voice-mail, no response. It’s been more than ten days so I doubt I’ll ever hear from them.
I realize I’m tilting at some windmill here, but really?
I wonder if companies like that one could calculate the cost of lost clients and lost future business because of those tactics, if their shareholders and directors would be happy????
