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edenfallingToday I managed EPIC FAIL at basic common sense and customer relations.
See, a woman lost her cell phone at the smoke shop sometime in the morning. She apparently didn't notice until about 5:30pm, when she began calling her cell from another phone.
Her ringtone was abominably annoying, and I was very tired, but neither of those factors comes anywhere near justifying my reaction. I picked up the phone, took the call, and said, "The owner of this phone lost it at [Store Name] and can't take your call. Please tell him or her to come pick it up."
Then I hung up without waiting for an answer.
The woman called back, and I did the same thing -- though this time I made sure to say the street address of the store -- and I know my tone was getting very irritable.
The third time she called, I did the spiel again, and then finally caught on that this might be the phone's owner and not just a random person who couldn't figure out that the owner wasn't available to take the call. So this time I waited, and the woman -- who was understandably upset and frustrated by my rudeness -- said that she wanted to pick up her phone, but she didn't know where it was. Where on earth was this store that she'd supposedly left it in?
I repeated the address. Twice. "Just off the Commons," I added.
"So you're downtown?" she asked. "On the Commons?"
"Yes," I said. "[Street Address], just off the Commons."
"So you're that little store?" she asked.
"We're a magazine and tobacco shop. We have orange awnings outside," I said, trying (too late) to be helpful instead of brusque. Honestly, 'little store' describes almost every business within a block or two of the Commons! But still, my tone was too rude. The customer is always right, and I'd started off very much on the wrong foot by hanging up on her twice.
"Oh, I bought a lottery ticket there," she said. "So you have my phone?"
"Yes," I said, managing not to say that this should be obvious from, you know, the fact that I had answered it and was talking to her on it.
She asked how late we were open; I told her. She asked if we'd hold the phone; I told her we were already holding it for her, we'd continue to hold it, and that she could pick it up at the counter. (Again, this seemed obvious from the context of the conversation, but... politeness never hurts anyone. And rudeness drives away business.)
So I managed to salvage minimal functionality from the incident -- I did get the necessary information across to the woman, so she could pick up her lost property -- but the minute I hung up the phone I was kicking myself for being such a snappish, thick-headed twit. I hate rudeness, and I especially hate the way I consistently fail to live up to my own standards of politeness. I dread to think how rude I'd be if I weren't always trying to bite down on a lot of my first, impulsive responses to people who annoy me.
...
I asked ET to give my apologies to the woman when she shows up for her phone. I hope he remembers.
See, a woman lost her cell phone at the smoke shop sometime in the morning. She apparently didn't notice until about 5:30pm, when she began calling her cell from another phone.
Her ringtone was abominably annoying, and I was very tired, but neither of those factors comes anywhere near justifying my reaction. I picked up the phone, took the call, and said, "The owner of this phone lost it at [Store Name] and can't take your call. Please tell him or her to come pick it up."
Then I hung up without waiting for an answer.
The woman called back, and I did the same thing -- though this time I made sure to say the street address of the store -- and I know my tone was getting very irritable.
The third time she called, I did the spiel again, and then finally caught on that this might be the phone's owner and not just a random person who couldn't figure out that the owner wasn't available to take the call. So this time I waited, and the woman -- who was understandably upset and frustrated by my rudeness -- said that she wanted to pick up her phone, but she didn't know where it was. Where on earth was this store that she'd supposedly left it in?
I repeated the address. Twice. "Just off the Commons," I added.
"So you're downtown?" she asked. "On the Commons?"
"Yes," I said. "[Street Address], just off the Commons."
"So you're that little store?" she asked.
"We're a magazine and tobacco shop. We have orange awnings outside," I said, trying (too late) to be helpful instead of brusque. Honestly, 'little store' describes almost every business within a block or two of the Commons! But still, my tone was too rude. The customer is always right, and I'd started off very much on the wrong foot by hanging up on her twice.
"Oh, I bought a lottery ticket there," she said. "So you have my phone?"
"Yes," I said, managing not to say that this should be obvious from, you know, the fact that I had answered it and was talking to her on it.
She asked how late we were open; I told her. She asked if we'd hold the phone; I told her we were already holding it for her, we'd continue to hold it, and that she could pick it up at the counter. (Again, this seemed obvious from the context of the conversation, but... politeness never hurts anyone. And rudeness drives away business.)
So I managed to salvage minimal functionality from the incident -- I did get the necessary information across to the woman, so she could pick up her lost property -- but the minute I hung up the phone I was kicking myself for being such a snappish, thick-headed twit. I hate rudeness, and I especially hate the way I consistently fail to live up to my own standards of politeness. I dread to think how rude I'd be if I weren't always trying to bite down on a lot of my first, impulsive responses to people who annoy me.
...
I asked ET to give my apologies to the woman when she shows up for her phone. I hope he remembers.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-09 12:32 am (UTC)And if you had to repeat the address and name of the shop 3 times amongst the other obvious things, she was none too bright.
A good trick to try is looking at the call log, both incoming and outgoing. Call one of the recent numbers and leave a message with that person regarding the location of the phone. There's a reasonably high chance you'll reach a friend/relative who knows how and where to contact the phone owner. Did that at a convention once and it worked out well for all parties.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-09 12:49 am (UTC)When I first picked up the phone, I'd already let it ring through to voice mail once; then it rang again not thirty seconds later. I didn't want to sit through the ring tone again -- it was a loud and incredibly grating bit of pop music, and the clip was so short it looped before the voice mail picked up. My dislike of the ring tone was the real reason I answered the call, and I'm sure it colored my attitude toward the caller.
I'm not sure why I jumped to the assumption that the caller was a twit who wanted to leave a message -- maybe because the first call did produce a voice mail message that I could see on the little view window visible through the closed back of the phone, and because I don't always think clearly when I'm tired -- but still. Tired or not, it should have been obvious that when someone has lost a cell phone and isn't sure where she lost it, the first thing she'll try is calling her own number. *sigh*