Are You Kidding Me?
How easily will you get worked up? Like warm face, quick pulse, shaky hands-agitated?It takes a lot for me. Didn't used to, does now. Thank goodness.Having stated that I was literally in disbelief this week. Returned a phone call to a lady who wanted to rent an apartment. All she left on my voicemail was her work phone number. No big deal. I call her work number and according to the gent that answered she has gone to lunch. OK fine, I have lunch occasionally, I get that. Can I leave her a voicemail? No, she doesn't have voicemail.Keep two things in mind:1. This is a place of business. Business, that's right, a living, breathing entity where if not fed sales will no longer be here in a very short amount of time.2. He has no idea I'm not her biggest customer of the year, the reason I know this is because he did not introduce himself or ask who might be calling.So no voicemail, still I understand. Times are tough. Turns out he is NOT able to leave her a message and have her call me back, he is leaving for the day. Alright, now he has my attention. He is on the phone and still in the building but cannot get a message to the her for when she returns. Apparently he has not heard of or is not capable of running email. Or skype. Or IM. Or text. Or Chatter. Or direct message on Twitter. Or any of the other hundred different methods of communication we have at our disposal these days including the old fashioned hand written note.He did give me one helpful bit of information. I may call back. Ah ha, now there's an idea! He didn't know when of course, but yes, I could call back. Apparently he knows nothing of his coworker's schedule or she takes very unpredictable lunch breaks.No I didn't get agitated on the phone. I said fine and hung up. I will tell you though if I were trying to buy something from this mystery woman I would not have called back. Took me a week to call the second time as it was and I was the one selling to her!Made me wonder, how often do people say 'fine' to me or my team over the phone and hang up but are far from satisfied. I would submit to you there are a lot more people out there that will accept your poor salesmanship, communication and service and not raise a fuss about it to you. However, that weekend when they're having a cold one with their friends it will come up. And they won't buy from you again. They will fade quietly into oblivion and you will have lost your next easiest sale, a repeat customer.So how bout it, next time you're on the phone or helping someone in any way give them the satisfaction you would expect, because they deserve it, it will feel good, and unemployment is high right now. If you don't want to do your job to the best of your abilities there are a hundred other people that would love to take your place.And yes, my pulse did quicken a bit but that's about it. Mostly I felt sorry for the fellow.Have you had a unbelievable experience recently?
