♦♦ SAFETY CULTURE & SAFETY PERFORMANCE ♦♦ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Mar 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
“The number you have called is not available. Please try again later.“ “I can’t take your call right now, I’m in a meeting.“ “I’m not available at the moment, but please leave your name and number, and I will call you back, as soon as possible!“ My personal favourite: “Your call is important to us. Please hold for the next available consultant“, followed by Beethoven’s 9th Symphony alternating with advertising / information messages … over and over and over again. And let’s not forget this important message: “For Quality and Training purposes your call may be recorded“. For heavens’ sake … If quality was important to them they would answer my darned call and not put me in a queue for ages! [1] I’ve heard these and similar voice messages a hundred times, or more, and every time I asked myself: Really? Is the client really important to you? Are you really not available, or just in another meeting? Or is it just a question of you being unable to prioritise the urgent and important stuff? Recently, for one of my projects, I tried to contact about 30 people. I say ‘tried’ because 80% of them couldn’t be reached on their mobile number and either don’t listen to their voicemail or don’t return calls. Why are we sitting with this endemic corporate sickness? At one stage, I used to say to myself (as I’m sure many still do): “I am busy, if YOUR call is important to YOU, then you can call ME back!” That changed radically when I became self-employed. Every missed call is now, for me, a missed opportunity. Even when I am in a meeting, I will take a call from my wife, Heidi. One of the reasons for carrying a mobile phone is instant connectivity. Even if circumstances dictate that you can’t immediately take a call (driving is a good example), you should still acknowledge the call by phoning the person back later. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
[1] Rod Jones, of Contact Centre Consulting CC |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright: Jürgen Tietz Terms of Use |
« prev
next »