Thoughts that run through my mind while I hold the (phone) line

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s always a pleasant surprise when I call my mechanic’s office to have the receptionist pick up on the second ring.  It’s like icing on the cake when she asks, in a voice most pleasant, how she can help me. Best of all, she actually goes out of her way to get me the answers I need, or she never fails to keep her word when she promises to call me back on something not immediately fixable. Her  professionalism nearly always catches me off guard, so used have I become to sloppy and uninterested personnel whose job it is to keep their firm’s patrons happy.

Even in the chilled confines of an air-conditioned office we appear to be dragging our feet as if tired from trudging around in the sun all day. So much so that getting to the phone seems damn near impossible for staff at most local establishments. Think about it. How many phone calls have you made in the hope of clearing up a simple problem, only to be told, after holding on for what seems an eternity, that the person you wish to talk to “just stepped out?” Stepped out where? The voice at the other end casually lets you know she doesn’t know. The same answer will be offered should you ask when the absent individual will likely return to work.

Banks, government ministries, privately operated businesses, public sector agencies, you name it, most of them demonstrate the same lack of respect for consumers. I remember calling a local hospital and asking the receptionist to transfer me to the public relations department. In a most disinterested tone she said: “Hold on.”   I was then stuck in transfer purgatory until finally I hung up. I called the following day, only to receive the same treatment. I tried again the day after fully expecting to be left holding on. But this time a female voice actually answered after a minute or so. But only to let me know I had been transferred to the wrong department; that I had been connected to Human Resource not the hospital’s public relations office.

A simple thing like renewing a driver’s licenses can take up to a month in easy to do business with Saint Lucia. We’re also not very well adapted to technological advancement and so the switch to more efficient processes has not quite happened here. This explains why searching for presumed recorded data can take forever, only to learn at the end that “I can’t find it. You’ll have to come back again.”  I have made a point always to praise professionalism wherever I encounter it. My hope is that others within earshot might hear and appreciate how important it is to keep customers happy. I can dream, can’t I?