Customer can be a hand full.

[moodnacreek]

Customers can be frustrating as all get out.
Not a rant cause I'm not angry or upset but jeeze louise some folks are an almighty trial.
Had a guy call me last week. He wanted a half cord of dry firewood.   I returned his call within an hour and he didn't answer and his voice mail box was full.    I call him an hour later again.  Same thing.  I call him late in the afternoon, same again.  

I call him the next morning and answers and he says I never called him back so he bought form someone else.   I tell him okay no problem but I did try to call him back.

Late yesterday afternoon he calls and leaves a message that the wood he bought was delivered but is to green to burn.   He wants to buy some dry wood from me to mix with the green stuff the other guy brought him.
I call him back.   You guessed it, he don't answer an his voice mail box is still full.   I call him again.  Same thing.    
What do ya do with folks like this?  

They all want you to hold a cell phone and not a 'saw'. If you cater to this type of person it well only get worse. I have no cell phone and return calls when I get time, sometimes the next day. The people have to need you not the other way. This can take years and a better product than your competition.

[rusticretreater]

Send a text.

[Don P]

Well Doug, I wanted to ask "What is this cell phone of which you speak?" but figured I was the only one that wasn't packing big plastic .

[Ianab]

I have no cell phone and return calls when I get time, sometimes the next day.

Fair enough if that works for your business. Part of mine is IT support, and calling back next day isn't good enough. It is if I'm selling firewood, but not if I'm support a computer network. Not being able to answer a call because I'm driving or in a meeting etc is fine, but I'll check messages / email / txts when I'm able and respond as appropriate. I've got a site visit scheduled on Friday with one of our regulars to check a machine that's playing up. I've got Mary who is our contact (office admin) there pretty well schooled up on basic fault finding and common problems, and she knows to call if it's Urgent and I'll answer / reply as soon as able. Last month she called on a Saturday morning to say the whole place was dead in the water. No internet, and only a couple of phones working.  OK, we tried some things over the phone, but no joy, but I had a suspicion of what was wrong so I finished what I was working on, packed a couple of spare network switches in the car and headed out.

Turns out it was the main network switch that was acting up, and because I had been able to do some basic fault finding over the phone with Mary, I had the spares to at least duct tape the system back together for Monday morning. We got a new switch in and swapped that for the Sat morning duct tape and string patch-up a few days later. But without the cellphone communication we would have got into the office on Monday morning to a series of panic calls, and 20 animal vets / support staff wondering what they were doing. 

But that's where having the communications in your pocket really pays off. We have had that client for over 30 years now, which is "forever" in IT terms, because we have sold them stuff that mostly works, and responded when it didn't. We no longer have reception staff to answer the phone, the "office" is basically in our pockets. 

[Don P]

Kind of amazing humans have lasted as long as we have without constant contact.

We had a subcontractor out not long ago. After the first day we kind of paid attention, for one I was babysitting him some long hours. A solid third of his time was throttled down and on that phone. Some people actually need tight contact, the other 99% just think they need close support.

[Spike60]

There are some distinctions between businesses where having the "office in your pocket", (I like the term), and having the office in the office are each appropriate. One is where the service is provided at a customer's location, rather than at a business location. A second is where the service provided cannot be confined to business hours. Both apply for instance in the case of snow plowing. For most of my pro customers, tree servicees, landscapers and such, the cell phone is a Godsend. Keeps them in touch with customers during the day, and eliminates going home to return dozens of phone calls/messages every evening. But in businesses like mine, there's no need for any customer contact when the store is closed. You wouldn't send a text to a restaurant owner when he's closed just because you're dying for the meat loaf special.

The amount of calls/texts that are unnecessary, and the times they receive them, is what my customers complain about most often. Back to snow plowing, one friend sent out a letter to all of his customers pleading with them to refrain from calls/texts during the storm. Takes care of 100 properties, and cannot constantly reply to folks that want some reassurance that he's going to plow their driveway. As with a lot of things, it's the "multipliers" that can make something go from the innocent to the impossible.