Advice on dealing with businesses and phones

[Stephen]

Just this week I've had:
A phone # given to me with a bad digit, so I had no way to return the call. Customer was a little miffed that I didn't get right back to him.

A fax # given to me as a phone #. Hard to return that one.

Ring no answers, these aren't as bad but after I try 2 or 3 times on a ring no answer, it usually get shuffled to the bottom of the list.

Garbled messages on the answering machine. Again, unusable phone #'s.

Moral of the story, even if you left your phone # with us or any other place, we may not be able to do anything with it so call back if you don't get what you wanted. We do get a lot of callbacks (which is why I ask if you've called so I can cross you off the message sheet) which is good, I just wanted to throw this out as good information to keep in mind.

 

[k5gypsy]

phones....

lol, I know where you're coming from....

We've owned a bar for 5 years now, and you can only imagine the phone calls we get....

The best one's always...

"I'm looking for my husband/wife"....

or

"what do you do there...."

well, we're a bar, we serve drinks... here's your sign, etc....

 

[Burt4x4]

I too know exsactly what your talking about.
I am in The Technical Support industry and SO many time will people neave a message with there wants and needs expalining everything and then when it comes time to leaving a call back number #@$*(#@$*(@#$*@$)@$(@ they blurt it out as fast as possable...HELLO I can't call you back if you say the phonenumber that fast. I play it again and again and sometimes I can get the whole number but most of the time the word doest sound lik a any number so all I can do is wait for them to cal again....Say your number s-l-o-w...

 

[mrk5]

Luckily our business is small enough that we don't get many after hours calls. Plus we have someone who answers the phone, and if for some reason they can't there are usually at least 2 other people who can. But like I say we don't have a huge call volume. Maybe 30 calls in an 8 hour day. But then we are not retail either.

One possible idea. I know that there are businesses around here that use an answering service. When they are closed it goes to this service where a live person answers the phone.

 

[1-ton]

Often times the problem I have when dealing with the many companies I do business with (for parts for my two old Chevy's) is sales representative impatience. Often they just want to get me off the phone as fast as possible. I know I am in trouble when either the person taking my information is too impatient to verify and read it back to me, reads it back (but) reads it wrong, or makes excuse (or even flat out refuses) to give me the information I need to have, in order to process a mistake free business transaction.

When I was a sales representative, one of the big reasons I had for customers giving me incorrect information was because they were giving me some friend or relatives' residence or place of business address and phone number , which they were not completely familiar with, as their contact information. Many times when they where angry with me for not being able to contact them, I got them to reluctantly admit this to me.

 

[gravdigr]

It's called caller ID, costs around $7 a month. 9 times out of 10 it will get the callers name and number. We use it for our business. We also use the option to make anyone that has their number blocked to unblock it using *82 before the call will go through. Even unlisted numbers show up.

This comes in very handy when we get 'anonomous' callers complaining that the cemetery needs mowed after we had 3 straight weeks of rain (can't mow in the rain folks). It really freaks them out and they hang up when you call them by name "I'm sorry Mrs. Jones. There has just been too much rain to mow. One sec lemme double check that your perpetual care is up to date." *click*

 

[mrk5]

Caller ID, I was going to mention that. We just got it with our new phone system and it has saved me several times. I hang and realize I didn't get the person's number. Now I can just check caller ID. Anymore I've gotten into the habit of writing it down as I'm speaking to the customer.

 

[Stephen]

We've been technologically disadvantaged (I still can't get any kind of high speed internet other than satellite or a $T1) here but I should check, I'm sure we could get it now.

I'd have to talk to qwest though. I think maybe I'll wait till I feel the need for self mutilation and just call them instead.

 

[jekbrown]

another reason why phones are the devil! I never like using them... and other than talking to my wife, I hardly ever do. Businesses that offer web ordering always get my order over those that don't... in fact, I can't even remember the last time I actually called someone to order something.

j

 

[mikey_d05]

another reason why phones are the devil! I never like using them... and other than talking to my wife, I hardly ever do. Businesses that offer web ordering always get my order over those that don't... in fact, I can't even remember the last time I actually called someone to order something.

j

Damn right, that way I have printed records and order numbers that are already written down.

 

[NorthWestFab]

Damn right, that way I have printed records and order numbers that are already written down.

Two problems with web ordering:

One for the vendor, the rates for internet sales are horrible.

2nd for the customer, If I'm not directly talking (PM'ing will usually do), then it is hard to make suggesgions/recomendations for the sale of a product. I like to know exactly what vehicle the product is going in, to make sure everything will be 100%.

 

[jekbrown]

Two problems with web ordering:

One for the vendor, the rates for internet sales are horrible.

rates for....?

2nd for the customer, If I'm not directly talking (PM'ing will usually do), then it is hard to make suggesgions/recomendations for the sale of a product. I like to know exactly what vehicle the product is going in, to make sure everything will be 100%.

yeah, i can understand what you're saying on this one... but some stuff just doesn't need any consultation. If i want a 1410 yoke for my ff14b... thats what i want, don't really need more info on some things. Of course, if someone was buying a complete doubler set up from ya, there would be questions. I dunno, all i know is that i hate phones and avoid them at all cost. There are other people like me... prolly why Amazon.com makes $.

j

 

[NorthWestFab]

rates for....?


j

Oh sorry - Credit Card rates - they jack them sky high for internet use, I suppose simply due to fraud. Somthere where they skimmed $5 out of my pocket they're not skimming 10 or 15! But I suppose that goes with saying I would rather them skim 10 and make the sale than none at all. Thats more from a vendors standpoint, somthing that shouldn't nessisarily be taken into account from the consumers standpoint.

The best way to do it if there is an online shopping cart is to have real time 'this product is in stock', otherwise with some, you place your order, sit and wait wondering where the parts are only to find they're out of stock. Internet shopping can work great, however I would only dabble if I thought I could provide the proper service to my customers.

I would eventually like to have a website that is that interactive in both tech and sales...one day....one day...

Your right, some parts are cut and dry, and some are complex. A lot of the adaptors require 20 questions or more, here your right, a yoke is simple.