I’m sure somebody is likely to notice that I’m a little late posting today. It’s not that I forgot. At least, not in the traditional sense. I had been mulling over a particularly interesting topic to talk about over the weekend, and for some odd reason it exited my brain today, and I have been trying to conjure it up again. I will confess that as a sufferer of Attention Deficit Disorder, it isn’t hard for me to forget things. Should have written it down.
In the meantime, I’ve been busy juggling phone calls and trying to get other people to call me back. Many years ago, pre-motherhood, I was a telephone secretary; I worked at a telephone answering service, something I think should come back again. It is so frustrating to call a company expecting service, only to be presented with the dreaded voice mail. It’s bad enough when you are given a number of options, none of which quite seems to cover the problem or issue you want to talk about. What is worse, or maybe not, is the cheerful, “Please leave a message and we will get right back to you.” Maybe I’m wrong, but right back, means pretty quick, like a few minutes. Even an hour would be acceptable, but when the day is over, and someone still hasn’t returned your call, that is not.
It seems to me a switchboard operator with a working knowledge of the business’s services, could not only answer right away, but direct the call to the proper person. Yet, it’s cheaper to continue with the dreaded voice mail. Hasn’t anybody noticed that people who don’t get called back often go elsewhere?
And that’s probably exactly where they should go.
Bonnie Gardner, Author 