A rumor I'd like to read:
The president of the American Management Association announces support of a two-minute telephone-hold policy. Quips an executive of the association, "We'll forward your call to a custodian before we make you wait more than two minutes."* And, "If we make you wait longer than 2 minutes we'll gift you $25.00 for your time, money we should use to hire more receptionists."
Background for this rumor:
Here's the essence of a year-after-year, typical telephone-hold message from our nation's CEOs,
"We apologize for the delay . . . we're sorry . . . unusual number of customers . . . we value you as a customer."*
This is followed with the non-verbally communicated, ". . . however, we're not sorry enough to add more receptionists so as to save you from having to wait for service." In other words, "Our time is more important than yours. Time and again a fix for this issue has been suggested by our organization's newest board members (i.e. Fewer pay raises for executives, more operators, more service) but I, the CEO, purposefully invalidate them. I continue with our frustration-generating, unhealthy, abusive, thwarting policy of making you wait for customer service so that we can continue to live at a higher standard of living than you. We ignore the karmic consequences (missed goals, "accidents," lawsuits) from abusing others."
"As you know, our board members are profit-driven; any extra expense, such as additional telephone receptionists, would cut into our investor's profits and our own salaries. We know our policy has not felt good to you but our stockholders live at a significantly higher standard of living than most of our customers so they demand higher profits. The policy is not ecologically green. Part of your upset stems from the fact that we've led you to believe we can't do any better. You know that all it would take is several calls from investors insisting upon the 'Two-minute hold' policy."
Management Trainers nationwide are adopting the "Two-minute hold" telephone policy. Our truly sorry, "We apologize for the delay . . ." telephone-hold messages have frustrated, irritated, and thwarted customers for ages.**
Customers nationwide should now ask, "What's your telephone hold-time policy?" The answer should be, "Two minutes or less, no excuses, no reasons."
While it's easy to see the benefits for customers who've dreaded such call waiting, companies will also benefit greatly by acknowledging the consequences of their abusive, arrogant, (negative karma-generating) policy of making customers wait once they have your money. Most employees go home exhausted rather than energized from a day of service--all are withholding one or more significant thoughts from their boss; an employee can't feel good if they know their policy has abused customers. "Work" in such a company does not generate the aliveness that comes from service.
Offering a service and then thwarting a customer who calls, for whatever reason, has always produced less-than-desirable results for everyone. It's not just the negative karma a company CEO generates for everyone, of consciously choosing to thwart another, it's that the consequences for premeditated abuse have affected everyone's health, prosperity, and happiness. Few CEOs make the correlation between consciously choosing to abusively thwart another and the org's missed goals, employee-sickness, job accidents, pilfering, and their child's grades and behaviors.
* Within a period of 30 days most homeowners are on hold for 1+ hours, such as home/car insurance calls, bank/finance-related calls, medical appointments, auto-related calls, product service/inquiries. Picture the cost of electricity for millions on hold for 15+ minutes, all at the same time. It's not very green.
Example of Service: Starting with your very first customer, they call and you answer (you're so appreciative of their money you can't do enough for them). As you add new customers you begin to notice that some are having to wait longer than you would want to wait, so, you add a service representative so as to give all new customers the same prompt respectful treatment you gave to your very first customer. The very first time you, as the CEO, make a conscious choice to make a valuable customer wait on the phone is abusive; with coaching, you would see that your decision affected all and everything and everyone with whom you relate. The consequences of conscious abuse affect all concerned. Making survival more important than another's well-being and serenity produces less-than-desirable results. Receptionists have agreed to say at the beginning of each call, "If we get disconnected I will call you back immediately."
** "We're sorry" are just words if one consciously/unconsciously chooses to repeat the upsetting behavior. "I'm sorry I hit you." "I'm sorry I hit you again." "I'm sorry I hit you a third time, but ... (reasons and excuses).
Note: My personal preference would be to eliminate the ads and, "This call may be monitored for training purposes." We know/assume every merchant does so; so. there is no need to waste our time or the 2 seconds of electricity by millions and millions at any given moment nationwide.
Last edited 10/6/24
