Dealing with the Public Over the Phone

By Heather

I'll start with the personal call I had to make at work today. I have a medical condition and I ran out of medicine over a month ago. But since I changed jobs, gas prices keep on increasing, and many other random occurrences that have happened, its been very difficult to schedule an appointment. I live in PA but my specialist is in WV where I used to live and since its been over a year since I last saw him he can't just write me up a prescription. So I have to make an appointment. I have had to cancel several that I've made over the past year just because its been to hard to get from PA to WV to have the blood work done and the doctor's visit. So today I try to schedule one up here. So I take a 10 min. break and this is the awesomeness I had to put with.

This is me and Margret, we went on a journey today. I called, what I thought was the doctors office. But apparently there's not just one and Margret was my navigator. She asked me who I'd liked to see. I say, Dr. Bob (not going to say actual doctors names). "For what reason are you making an appointment?" I tell her why and that because of being unable to keep up with my appointments because of the move and change in jobs thus the changes in insurance I have been unable to keep up with it. This is the reason why I have to change doctors and I'll also have to get a script for blood work prior to the appointment. (as you can tell I've done this before so I know what I need to have done) I was referred to Dr. Bob's office by one of his patients. "Alright well we'll need your paperwork from your where your transferring faxed to us." Okay, what's your fax so I can call them and have them send it. "Okay let me put you on hold to get you the number." So she puts me on hold, I found this strange since it was going to be faxed to her office there. Wouldn't it just be on a business card at least? She took five minutes to get back to me and give me the number.



"Alright, what office would you like to see him in?" There are many branches all over the city. I tell her anywhere near where I work would be fabulous that way I wouldn't have spend an hour in traffic  getting to inner city or trying to find it because I'm still unfamiliar with this city. So she puts me on hold for about 8min. at this point the assistant manager is looking at me as if to say I need to be getting back and just as I'm about to give up on Margret she gets back to me. "Alright I got you an appointment with Dr. Fred".



....wait what? I said I needed an appointment with Dr. Bob. I've been through hell finding a good specialist and I got his name from a very trusted source. "I'm sorry, I'll try his office." To late, I have to get back to work.



Now onto the idiot contractor that would not stop calling. So after this you can imagine how great of a mood I was in. I ended up calling my mom and asked her if she could do me a favor and just make me another appointment at the one back home in WV and I'll just have to make the time and keep to it. We had a good flow of customers today and we had to get receiving cleared out because we get trucks on Tuesday and we barely had last weeks packed away. So needless to say I and my boss were very busy. My boss was dealing with other issues which included other employees (delivery men) not doing their job and him having to deal with very angry customers, customers that were very large accounts. So I tried my best to take care of the customers coming in the store, getting things put away, and answering the phone. I'm waiting on a few customers (painters) and this contractor keeps calling asking if we could give him a price on our five gallon drums. Now I've only been there two months and I've been told not to price accounts I'm not familiar with. So I tell him the my boss is with another customer, took his name and number and said he'd call him as soon as he was able. At this point I feel that vein in my head begin to swell and it feels like a tumor at this point.



Again, waiting on four customers, mixing paint and additional questions from everyone in the store, the contractor calls again. Again I take his message and any additional information he had to add. Of which I can barely hear him because he's talking to multiple people over the phone not just me, there is a ton of echo and he's giving me lip because he's not being waited on that second. I apologize for the inconvenience and explain to him that we've a high volume of calls and customers in the store that day. So I get off the phone and finish with my current line of customers. My boss finishes his current phone call briefly and I tell him about the contractor that kept calling and his reaction was just about the same as mine. He informs me that this contractor never buys from our store and is not in our system. But him and his workers consistently come into our store for free shirts, and with coupons for free roller covers and brushes. We lose money on them. And now they want us to lower our prices on our paint to the point were we'd see little to no profit on it. He said that they can wait and that he has some emergency calls to take care of first of which if he says I can do it and won't get in trouble for it I have no problem telling this contractor that they have to wait. So the store fills up again while I'm trying to get the truck on the shelves. Again he calls while I'm working on custom matching someones paint, asking them the necessary questions. He calls and is very ticked off and again I play it off apologizing trying to balance between him, my current customer and the ones behind him.



Finish that customer, he calls back and asks me a few questions about another paint and then said that the price was to much and complained about that and that he wanted to talk to my boss, I told him he was still dealing with an emergency and that he knows about him and his pricing questions and would get to him as soon as he could. He begrudgingly hangs up and I continue with my customer.


I'm still with this customer and he calls back not five minutes later and said that this was unacceptable and that I am terrible at my job. I tell him that I am currently waiting on customers and doing as much for him as I can. I am not authorized to do pricing since I am only a DIY Specialist and have only been there for two months. He is content with that answer and hangs up. I finish with that customer and finish out with the rest of my customers. I start with changing out the shelf tags because it has to be done by the end of the month and he calls back again and while dealing with him another rush comes in. I look at the clock to discover my shift ended fifteen minutes ago.