I’ve made my money by making sure every customer and client feels like I really care about them. Sometimes I don’t, but that’s not the point.
One sure fire way to make a customer feel like you don’t care about them is to ignore the people standing in front of you in your store or business so that you can help someone on the phone.
God made hold buttons for a reason. Talented musicians make hold music for a reason.
My biggest complaint about you putting the people in the store on hold instead of the people on the telephone on hold is that I’m one of those people in the store.
Not helping the warm body in front of you at the expense of some long protracted conversation or order being placed over the phone is not only bad business sense, it’s just bad manners.
It all makes perfect sense. I’ve made the effort to physically visit your business so I win. Some lazy ass calling on the phone to see if you have the right size or the right part can wait.
When I’m standing in your line waiting to check out, I don’t have to suffer through hearing the conversation you are having with the person on the phone if you help me first. The person on the phone would never suffer like this if you put them on hold because, as I said earlier, God made hold buttons for a reason.
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ohh don’t poke your eye with your cigar!
Mark on August 30th, 2007 at 2:30 pm | Link
I agree…That happens to me all the time!
Jill on June 9th, 2008 at 2:57 pm | Link
I so agree - and it’s not just for a customer calling in. As I stand there waiting to check out clerks hold entire conversations with EACH OTHER while I am standing there waiting. Ot they are listening to another clerk talking to a customer while I am waiting. And their attention span is nill - After I have retrieved the requested dollars I stand there holding it out and hey are in lalalal land somewhere. Sometimes I have to wave it in front of them to wake them up. What the heck? But here is my favorite and it happens all the time. I’m waiting to check out and another clerk comes up and grabs my clerks attention for change or price check or whatever and then they get a third party into some minor thing - next thing you know you have 4 cashiers gathered around some poor clerk who is having trouble with her machine and all other customers are on hold.
go figure
Becky on April 27th, 2009 at 6:06 pm | Link
Have any of you ever worked in retail? I don’t even know where to start…I’ll try to make sense. AZ requires its employees to answer the phone by the 3rd ring, and we can’t say “thank you for calling az can you please hold?”. Other than that it’s a judgement call on our part, I prefer to have rules. My priority is cash register, then parts counter, then phone, then parking lot. But you watch the person waiting to have their check engine light read blow a gasket. The person on hold will call back three times before I finish with my customer at the counter thus causing me to take even longer cause I have to keep answering the phone. Becky, you should NEVER have to wait to pay for your stuff! As far as helping another employee it should be a manager helping them and we as managers are usually trying to do 3-4 things at a time when the store is busy. Again, it’s often times a judgement call…who needs my help first. Phone customers are very important to AZ, they even “phone shop” us all the time to make sure we are properly kissing ass.
azgirl on June 7th, 2010 at 12:17 pm | Link