My PA is trying to invest some money with Marks & Spencers (M&S) money. The phone has not been answered and they have been soothing her ears for 27 minutes with, “Here Comes The Sun.”
But the sun isn’t coming. And the phone isn’t being answered. And, frankly, we’re not amused. I’m sure that they have an excuse. I’m sure that they are “experiencing high call volumes”. And I’m sure that they think there is little they can do about it.
But answering the phone isn’t hard, is it? It’s the easiest thing in the world to do. It shows you actually care about your customers. It shows you have an interest in your customers. Leaving people hanging on for 29 minutes is just not on. It’s inexcusable. And someone should be diverting resources to answering phones. They’re big enough and they have the resources.
But this isn’t about M&S really. They’re a pretty good company… most of the time (30 minutes 13 seconds). This is about you and your business. Because, in my experience, most people forget to do some really obvious and simple things in their businesses. Like answering the phone. They let them slip and their prospects and customers suffer. They don’t keep their eye on the ball and they disappoint people. And that’s not good.
So tip for the day…
Answer your phone, keep your eye on the ball and make sure that little things are getting done well in your business.
32 minutes 13 seconds…
34 minutes 58 seconds…
36 minutes 25 seconds…
37 minutes 54 seconds. I am now officially flabbergasted. My PA wants to ring United Bank UK. I want to hold for an answer just to get a time…
39 minutes 47 seconds. But fear not “someone will be with you shortly”…
42 minutes. Now listening to “Me & Mrs Jones.” Are they trying to be ironic? Lyrics, “We gotta be careful that we don’t build our hopes up too high…”
44 minutes. Even for the purposes of this blog, I cannot ask my PA to hold much longer…
1 hour. And that’s it. Sorry M&S, my PA has better things to do. Someone else is getting the business.
As I said, business is easy but not if you don’t do the basics.
Out of interest, Allied Irish Bank answered the phone in under 30 seconds.
“Your call is important to us” – er, clearly, it isn’t!
No, clearly not!
I see what you mean. To have a good company, people should focus on entertaining their customers well. Customer satisfaction is very important in any business or any organizations because they are the ones which we provide our services to and they are the ones that keep the company alive.