I'm Sorry, Were You Talking To Me?

How many times have you walked into a store, bank, restaurant, or office and the employee that should be helping you is on a personal call? Or, have you been the customer on the phone on hold while you hear the employee finishing up with another customer in the store? Both of these situations can be very frustrating to a customer and research has validated that people have discontinued their business with a particular company due to one of these scenarios.

When we are calling or frequenting a business establishment, we want that one-on-one service time. Of course we need to wait our turn but when we "are up", we want to feel that the employee is giving us their full attention. Taking personal calls at work in front of the customers is more typical in entry-level jobs that some inexperienced people hold, but I have also experienced this in atypical positions in the medical, banking, and even professional sales-related jobs.

I was recently talking with a potential client who was a restaurant business owner over the phone. Since they were the "customer" in this situation, I could deal with being put on hold several times during the call while they helped customers, but I can't speak for the customers that they were helping on the other end of the line. I could actually hear the transactions taking place; this person could not be giving their customers one-on-one attention or good customer service when they were having a conversation with me. I experienced at least four customer transactions during this call and couldn't help but feel for the customers they were giving about 50% of their attention to. Unfortunately, this potential client was not seeking my services for their business but more for their social life, so I could not convey how many customers they may lose just by their lack of attentiveness to the most important people for their company's bottom line-the customers!

Customers want to be listened and paid attention to. People pay for products and goods but they also want to have a positive experience. Not all customers want someone in their face with a big grin and an over dramatic, "Hi, Good Morning!", but they do want to be acknowledged. Acknowledging someone is more than just a glance, it is when both parties share a moment of eye contact. If you are a company who has received complaints about employees taking personal calls, understand that they are part of your company's brand. If you are an employee guilty of working with customers in person while on the phone or not placing a customer on hold while you handle another, then you should strongly consider how the person on the other end is feeling about you and the company you work for.