Your Call Is Important To Us

by Richard A. Cheatham, Press Media Group, LLC

How many times have you gotten that message when you called some business or government office and a recorded message told you they couldn’t talk with you at the moment? Isn’t it maddening when that becomes the message you actually expect when you call a certain number?

The next part goes, “Call volume is especially high right now and all staff members are busy, but we’ll get back with you as soon as we’re available.” Then the elevator music comes on. It’s common to expect that message when you call a government office. They’re always in unusually high demand aren’t they? It couldn’t be that they’re grossly inefficient, poorly administered and aren’t particularly eager to talk with another darned caller (who has to pay for monopoly services whether they like it or not), could it?

You also hear that message and get to wait when you call many large organizations and companies, especially those protected from competition by government in one way or another. The fact is, the less they’re subject to competition and to withdrawal of customer support ($), the more likely they are not to give a damn about you.

If those who chronically put you on hold (and provide other service in a similar dismal manner) really cared, they’d find out about the problem, acknowledge it and then fix it. In all situations where such problems are common, either the CEO knows about it and is incompetent for not being able to fix it or doesn’t know about it and is incompetent for not knowing or he/she just doesn’t care and thinks he can get away with it without any personal consequences. In the last case he just hides within the complexity of his operation, an organization not really focused upon offering quality to customers, platitudes notwithstanding.

I expect poor service from government. You should too, given the nature of its involuntary and threat-oriented funding method and its monopolistic operation. I’m particularly disgusted, however, by corporate “leaders” with high incomes and even higher (though unjustified) self-esteem who impose bad service and corporate hypocrisy upon their customers.

For them your call really isn’t important. They suspect or know you can’t or won’t go to a competitor. They don’t mind at all if you have to wait and become frustrated. They don’t mind having their operation seen as hypocritical through its empty profestations of caring for customers. The problem is so common in contemporary America that it’s what consumer/citizens have come to expect.

Many “leaders” in America have come to view citizens as sheep satisfied with whatever scraps are thrown to them. Americans have brought this sad situation upon themselves. Systems that encourage this sort of hypocrisy and inefficiency are our reward for our failure to lead. Ultimately we consumers are at fault. We’ve come to accept so darned little of our servants.

©2006 by Richard A. Cheatham. All rights reserved. Mr.Cheatham is a professional speaker/writer and is syndicated through Press Media Group, LLC. Contact him through, Living History Assoc., Ltd., at www.LHALtd.com or DrawBackVeil@aol.com.