Is it just us, or are you finding it takes more follow-up phone calls to get even little things done these days? Years ago, we could make one phone call, maybe two, and get a question answered or a sticky situation ironed out. Today, it takes dogged determination and a computer tracking system to help us follow up on long drawn-out tasks.
Here are some recent examples.
Congressional Red Tape Daughter Becky is going to receive her bronze and silver medals from the Congressional Award organization. It’s a personal development, physical fitness and community service award for teens. She’s worked hard and we’ve been working with our US congressman’s office to schedule a time for her to receive the award. It’s taken five months of phone calls — about three calls each month — to get the issue resolved. 5 months / 15 calls.
Got Gas? Our local natural gas provider offers low-income rate payer assistance. We wanted information on the program so we could research it. They promote the program through flyers in every bill they send out in the winter. We’ve called four times. They’ve sent us information for a totally unrelated program two times. Finally after six weeks, we received the information we wanted. 6 weeks / 4 phone calls.
Track Calls Becky joined the track team at her college. She could receive one credit for being on the track team by signing up for a particular section number — but the time slot they gave it in the catalog conflicted with another class she had already signed up for. We finally got it resolved. 2 weeks / 4 phone calls
Nursery Help What could be easier than volunteering to rock babies in the nursery at church? A friend has been wanting to go through training so she can give back to her church. It hasn’t happened yet. 2 months / 4 phone calls
Can you relate? Everything seems to be a hassle these days. How can you keep your head from spinning trying to remember to follow up? Here’s what we do.
Files We create a file folder or envelope for any phone task / research project that goes beyond two phone calls. We track the conversations with the date, person’s name and summary of the conversation. It saves much time and makes us sound really credible when we can say, “Yes, I’ve called three times in the past month. First, on the 12th, then on the 23rd and today.” Or, “I’ve spoken to Wade and Brad and they’ve both said that they would send the information right out — I haven’t yet received it.” Who can argue with facts like that?
Manners When the other person is being difficult, unresponsive or just toeing the party / company line, we’ve found that being firm but polite achieves better results. If we run into an unreasonable person, we just ask to speak with their supervisor and further up the ladder until we achieve resolution.
Brace Yourself If you’re planning on dealing with a large corporation or the government, it will help your mental state to prepare for a long battle, or at least more phone calls. If you happen to get your answer quickly, you can celebrate. But if it takes a long time, and you have well-organized notes, you stand a good chance of staying the course to the end and winning.
The Cause We talked and debated about what has caused the change from customer service to customer dis-service. Is it company policy? Treat people badly and they’ll stop asking for refunds? We’ve experienced insurance companies regularly losing paperwork we send them. Thank goodness for copy machines. Is it lack of training? Lack of manners? Are the customer dis-service people overworked and underpaid? We can’t answer the questions, but we can encourage you to hang in there.
Persistence always pays off, especially if you have good notes and strong fingers to continuously dial the phone. That is, unless you’re trying to reserve a spot at a military base for a scout troop weekend visit— the jury is still out on this one 5 months / 30 phone calls — and counting.