Good customer service starts with answering your telephone

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Trackback URL

You know what annoys me more than anything when it comes to dealing with businesses?

Voicemail!

I don’t mean the typical big company telephone menu selection (although that annoys me, too), where you keep hearing a robot saying how much they love you and then proceed to make you hang on for another 10 minutes.

No, what I’m referring to here is the practice of employees to switch their phones to voicemail, usually for no other reason than to avoid answering calls from pesky, time-wasting, irritating…customers.

Voicemail is abused left, right and centre. Not long ago I did an assignment for a large bank and saw first hand the improper use of this technology. It was a common practice for staffers there to turn voicemail on even when they were at their desk. More recently, I had an unpleasant experience with a law firm during which time all but one of my calls went directly to voicemail. It was as if the staffer was never at her desk. Mind you, given the prevalence and love of meetings in the hallowed halls of corporate world, that may actually have been the case.

Seriously though, if you have a telephone on your desk do yourself and your company a favour: answer it!