Phone stuff

[Corey Cohron RIP]

The phone company came out on Friday to fix the phone -- or look at everything, which is really all the did... they came BACK on Saturday to REALLY fix the phone.

We called the phone company today, and we have removed call waiting from the business line. Those of you who have spent any time on the phone with us lately know what an annoyance it's been... if we could, we'd ask the customer to hold while we picked up the other line to ask THEM to hold. If it wasn't appropriate, we didn't pick up the other caller, but when call waiting beeped in, the conversation when temporarily silent and we'd have to repeat what we said or ask the customer to repeat themselves. While I was on the phone with Vonage the other day, call waiting beeped in 11 or 12 times over half an hour -- and that was on my cell phone! Then of course, if we don't pick it up, the other caller just hears the phone ringing and ringing. We decided that if it were us, we'd rather hear a busy signal.

When our new Vonage lines are installed, we are going to have the 9913 line forward over to another line if 9913 is busy. Then again, if both lines are being used, customers will still get a busy signal, but at least they won't feel like they're being ignored!

[88Racing]

That's a well thought out plan Corey!

At least you have your phones back.

Lars

[JWBFX4]

Glad yall got the problem fixed. Sounds like a good idea.

[Jackpine]

I don't suppose you want to consider an answering machine? I suppose its capacity would be exceeded in about an hour, right?

- Jack

[88Racing]

Another thought:Another employee?
The bigger you get the more that this is coming.

Lars

[soutthpaw]

I think he problem is any old extra employee won't necessarily fix the problem... You need to Clone Bill... Many of the delays seem to be waiting on tapping Bill's brain for fixes and other knowledge.

[Corey Cohron RIP]

Originally Posted by JackandJanet

I don't suppose you want to consider an answering machine? I suppose its capacity would be exceeded in about an hour, right?

- Jack

We HAVE an answering machine for the business line. Anyone who has called today knows that it gets filled up WAY too quickly. The other issue is that -- literally -- we're on the phone (or cell phones) all day long, and it would probably take a couple of hours to return all the messages. Then it's like e-mails... a customer has left a message, and if you can't get back to him right away, he feels ignored. We're going shopping in the morning for two new phones, and customers will not have the option of leaving a message anymore for the sole reason that I don't want someone to think that by leaving a message, we can get back to them right away because the reality is that sometimes we can't. The emergency number is always available, though! (Some people have odd ideas about what constitutes an emergency, I've got to say.... )

If this gives you any idea of what it's like here...

Billy came to bed about 5:30 this morning (but he did finish 8 customers' custom tunes before retiring! ). When I got up about 8, I took the phone off the hook so that it wouldn't ring and wake him up. I put it BACK on the hook at 11:58, and within about a minute, it rang for the first time. I was on the phone with that first customer for 5-10 minutes, and call waiting beeped with 5 or 6 different callers! BTW, call waiting should be gone, gone, gone by 7PM tonight! The phone hasn't stopped ringing. But that's a very good thing, so I'm not complaining.

We've debated getting a $600 phone system where you can push whatever button for gas vehicles, another button for diesels, etc., but aside from us being out $600, we can't see how it would help. For now, we've just got to keep answering the phone when it rings and hope that if someone gets a busy signal, they'll call back.

[Thomas7.3psd]

Thats crazy....but its just growning pains of success.