BORED OF THE RINGS: Answering Calls on Time By J. N. Halm

It is amazing what one can find on the Net. Recently, I chanced on an advertising piece by a serviced apartment agency that provides individual and business clients with temporary and permanent relocations, staff housing programmes, business visits and conferences across Europe and the rest of the worldwide. The company in question manages properties in cities such as London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, New York, Paris and Dubai.

This firm had an advertorial of a sort that was aptly titled “We'll Answer Your Call within Three Rings”. The title of the piece was as intriguing as it was unusual. What kind of advertisement had such a queer title! My curiosity got the better of me and I so read through the entire piece.  I will allow readers to read the first few paragraphs of this write-up. (I have edited the script slightly, so as not to be seen as free advertisement for any company. I will refer to the company as XYZ Company Limited).

A well-known energy provider is currently spending a large amount of money on their advertising campaign. The 30 second adverts tell us that they will answer your call in 60 seconds, and if they don’t, they will call you back. But is this really something to be proud of?

Here at XYZ Company Limited we're surprised that a large company would spend so much money publicising this point.

XYZ Company Limited commits to answer the phone within 3 rings, working out to be an average of 8 seconds, offering clients a quick, efficient and friendly service.

For a company with such clout, that boasts of handling more than 67,000 apartments in over 290 cities, it was surprising that it would pick on the advertisement of another company that was not a competitor.

My first reaction was that XYZ Company Limited was throwing “low blows”. However, after much thought I realised that XYZ Company Limited had alluded to a very valid point. The company was touching on a very important aspect of service delivery, i.e. customer service over the phone. We can never discount the importance of the telephone in business transactions.

The telephone has served as a very important means of communications since its invention and its role in the provision of great customer service is a fact. The telephone permits business transactions to take place over long distances without the need to travel over long distances. This facilitates quick decision making and with the need for speed in these times, that can be a very important advantage. I am convinced that this is why in spite of the advancement in Information Communication Technology; the telephone still holds its position as a very important means of business communications.

Having played such an important role in communication over the years, I wondered what was running through the head of the perplexed onlooker who on March 10, 1876, during Alexander Graham Bell's first public demonstration of the telephone stood back and asked; "Interesting idea, but what good will it be?" That piece of idea he found interesting at the time has proven with time that it had a lot of good in it.

Aside the facilitation of quick decision making, the telephone also has the added advantage of adding a personal touch to any business dealing. It is one thing to get a letter from someone and it is another thing to hear the voice of the one. In fact, short of face-to-face interactions, no other means of communications is as personal as the phone.

The telephone is also a relatively cost-effective means of communication. A telephone discussion will normally cost a fraction of the cost of travel and accommodation for a long-distance meeting. We can never mention the importance of telephones without touching on the convenience the telephone offers. You can take a stroll in your socks across your office while receiving a call. With all these great advantages of the telephone, is it any wonder that customers would want to use the telephone to deal with businesses?

As a matter of fact, businesses tend to push their telephone numbers into the faces of their customers. We ask, beg, cajole, demand and even entice our customers to call us. Take a look around you and you will see clear evidence of the “desperation” of businesses to have customers call them. We have our phone numbers on almost any piece of material we lay our hands on. Our telephone numbers are on our signboards, billboards, print advertisements, letter heads, files, envelopes, calendars and even on our pens. We will not do a radio jingle or promotion without mentioning our phone numbers. We give out toll-free telephone numbers for customers to call us.

Are all these strategies and schemes not just ways of telling our customers that we really want them to give us a call? If that is the case, then why is it that those same customers call and we refuse to pick the calls?  For many of our customers, the telephone is the first contact they will ever have with our businesses.

For instance, a customer who hears of a radio jingle or TV commercial advertising about something that is of interest will naturally reach for a piece of paper or a mobile phone to put down the phone numbers that will be given. If such a customer makes it a point to call the business in question and the calls are not picked within the first three rings, a negative impression is created in the mind of that customer. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so we are told.

I wanted to know what customers felt or thought when their calls to organisations are not promptly picked up. I undertook an informal and cursory survey of some folks I came across. There were some interesting views and I would like to share them with readers. 

•       Understaffed?

When calls are not picked within the first three rings, customers are sometimes tempted to believe that those firms might not have enough staff to handle their customers. In other words, poor customer service is almost a certainty. What will else will a customer think if he or she calls for a long time without getting any replies?

•       Untrained, Unmotivated?

I am sure staff can always find good justification for not picking incoming calls within the first three rings. The pressures of the day, tight schedules and over-demanding bosses and customers might all play a role in ensuring that calls are sometimes left to ring and ring and ring. One lady I spoke with justified her “inability” to pick the call within the first three rings to the fact that she is mostly far away from the phone. But I am of the opinion that highly motivated and well-trained professionals will always handle any situation with great professionalism. No matter how tight they are, they are sure to pick up the calls and do the right thing.

•       Everyone out for Lunch?

Anytime I place a call to a business, especially in the afternoons, and I do not get anyone answering the phone at all, I am tempted to assume that they might all have left the office and gone out for lunch. Although I know that might actually not be the case. It was therefore not too surprising that some of the folks I spoke to felt the same way.

•        The Wrong Number?

When a customer dials a number of a business and no one picks it up after a number of rings, the customer might be tempted into thinking that he or she might have dialled the wrong number. The customer will naturally check to confirm that the numbers are correct. If he or she finds out that the numbers are correct but the calls keep going through and no one picks them, the customer becomes unnecessarily frustrated. The last thing you want is a frustrated customer.

•       Out of Business?

If you came across a magazine, newspaper or any printed piece that is advertising a business’ offering and you happen to call but no one picks the call, you will not be faulted if you think that the company might have closed down.

•       Not Care Enough?

I was once with a friend of mine who tried calling a company he does business with. The call went through but no one picked it-not even after several rings. Interestingly, my friend claimed that he was sure there were people in the office but they just did not care enough to pick up the phone. I naturally asked him how he came about that conclusion. He insisted that there were a number of times when he had visited that particular company and the phone rang but staff just refused to pick the call. He knew that that same fate had befallen him that day. I thought that if what my friend was saying was true, then it was sad reflection on that company.

• Not Needed?

Some customers have complained that when they place calls which are not answered promptly, they sometimes feel that the organisation in question might not be in need of their custom or money. The customer has no other choice than to look for alternatives-and there are a lot these days.

• Too busy for me?

Many of the folks I interacted with on this matter gave this as their first thought when calls are not promptly answered. They felt that if it took more than three rings for their calls to be answered, then the staff in the company might just too busy to offer great service.

As with perceptions and feelings, it is possible these perceptions are not founded on any valid truths. These customers might be getting it all wrong but you and I know that perception can many times be reality. Someone has even said, "There is no reality - only perception". 

I would be in a hurry to discounts these customer perceptions. Personally, if I call a company and the phone rings six or seven times, I have one of two choices to make. I can keep on calling and calling until someone picks up the phone. On the hand, if I get bored of the rings, I just hang up and go looking for the competition.