Monday, January 25, 2016

Communication is Key!!





When will companies learn that communication is of vital importance and would actually help THEM have a much easier existence?

This morning, I had to be up at 4 AM as we had inventory at the store where I work and heaven forbid they have it at normal business hours and lose sales.  Our company hires an outside organization to help with our inventory.  Just for general reference, it’s a Monday morning, after a major snowstorm that blanketed the entire east coast of the United States with over two feet of snow. 

My alarm rang at 3:54 AM (I always set it for weird times).  I got out of bed and walked sleepily into the bathroom to get washed.  It takes a minute for warm water to flow, so I turned on the faucet and waited patiently.  After what seemed like a long time, the water still was not getting warm.  Just then, my husband came up the stairs with a note in his voice that always tells me something is wrong.  The heater was not firing.  We have oil heat so when it doesn’t fire we don’t have heat OR hot water, which is especially bad when it’s 12 degrees outside.

Getting washed with cold water wasn’t fun; sitting on a very cold toilet seat is also not a barrel of laughs.  My husband called our heating company as they supposedly have an “Emergency Line”.  So, by 4:10 AM, we put in our first call.

Meanwhile, I got dressed and headed out to work, in the cold, in the dark, on the partially snow covered roads.  Thankfully, my husband drove me to the store.  Still waiting for the heating company to call us back, our cell phones were in our glove-covered hands.

The bright lights of my store looked welcoming.  I could see the cars of my fellow employees in the parking lot, but the van that should be there to bring the inventory company's employees was nowhere to be seen.

The Assistant Manager of the store opened the door for me.  He is a nice, funny young man who I always look forward to working with, next to him was another part-time manager who is one of the hardest working people I have ever had the privilege to work alongside.  As my husband started to pull away, they told me to stop him.  Apparently, the Supervisor of the job from the inventory company couldn’t get to our store and therefore the inventory was cancelled.  All of us, the workers from our store were there.  We had prepared for the week prior and if inventory was not taken today, most of our work was for nothing, not to even mention the fact that we had all woken up so early, on such a cold, dark day after a blizzard, to be there.

Why didn’t they know earlier that she couldn’t be there?  Why didn’t they call our store manager or our district manager before we were all there?  Wouldn’t she have known or at least had an inkling the night before that she couldn’t make it??  Communication!!!!!!  All of us were not only annoyed, our company wanted us to clock right out, so we were destined to have done all of this for nothing!

During this time, my husband had gone home as a co-worker said he would drive me back if the inventory company couldn’t find another supervisor.  Once again, the communication of the inventory company, internally, and to us, was severely lacking causing a continuation of confusion and anxiety.

The parallel side of this is that my husband and I were still waiting for a call back from our heating company.  My husband texted me when he arrived home to say he still hadn’t heard anything, so he called the “Emergency Number” again.  Once again a woman, who is probably just part of a generic answering service, took our number and said someone would get back to us. 

At 6 AM the inventory company had finally contacted the Manager of our store with their definitive answer, the inventory was to be cancelled!  All the work, all the hassles of fighting snow covered roads to get in, all for nothing!!  We were told to clock out and go home.  Thankfully, my prior manager, who was there as our company supervisor, drove me home.

I walked in the door to find my husband frustrated to no end.  He had not heard a thing from our heating company.  It was now after 6 so it had been two hours.  Our house was freezing cold and who knew if the pipes were going to burst?!!  Some emergency number!!!!!!

At 6:30 AM he called again, at 7, I called.  I asked why we hadn’t even received a call back as it was now already 3 hours since our initial call.  She said all she did was leave messages.  What’s the sense of that?  If an EMERGENCY number just leaves messages, why not just have an answering machine?  What difference is there to the customer if there is no actual SERVICE behind the number?  And, why don’t they tell you, after the initial call, that you won’t hear back until after normal business hours?  I did ask when the office of the heating company actually opens during our last call to the emergency number.  She told us they open at 7:30 AM.

My husband and I sat under blankets, wore gloves, and continued to wait for some word.  We gave the office a few minutes to get in and called back at 7:35.  A woman answered the phone at the actual company; thankfully, it was no longer the answering service.  However, the woman was beyond rude right off the bat.  She said we were on the list and someone would be here sometime today.  My husband tried to convey the fact that we were concerned about our pipes bursting and that we were freezing in the house.  My 88-year-old mother lives with us, which is an added concern.  The woman at the heating company could not have cared less.  My husband asked if we could get a “window” as to when we might expect some help or if someone could at least call us back to tell us something we could do to keep our pipes from bursting which would only be a bigger problem for them to fix and a more expensive problem for us.  With a note of annoyance, she told us we would hear from someone this morning.  Now why did she have to be so rude?  Why couldn’t she just have told us that from the beginning? 

Communication!!!!!  The inventory company could have avoided extra hassles to everyone by cancelling the night before OR at least by 3 AM this morning!  The heating company could have informed us that the emergency number just takes the message and passes it along to the company when they open at 7:30.  The woman at the heating company could have answered the phone with a smile and told us she knew of our issue, had contacted a repairman, and he would be out this morning!  Both episodes would have been so much easier for everyone had common sense communication taken place!

Here’s the message I am trying to communicate this morning.  When an issue comes up, as issues always will, be honest, confront it as early as possible, and communicate a solution or a timetable to a solution, clearly and nicely.  I don’t understand the benefit of anything less!!  It doesn’t help the person with the problem as they become frustrated and annoyed and it doesn’t help the company involved, as a frustrated, unhappy customer will eventually lead to a failed business.

Thankfully, the oil company repairman has now been here for over an hour and he is knowledgeable and friendly.  Had the office been as professional, I would be now writing how great it was to have the problem solved before lunch.  A positive perspective is enhanced by clear, honest, friendly communication.  We are not adversaries unless forced to feel that way.

That’s my rant for the day.  I hope I’ve communicated it clearly!!

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