Are You Open? Redux.

[zigcat]

Will someone please tell me if there's any position that requires someone to man a business's phone after hours to tell callers that they're closed?

Seriously. I'll get calls where I'll answer the phone with the intent of taking an order and the first thing out of their mouth is "Are you open?"

Pretty much when I or one of my colleagues answers the phone it's a great indicator that we're open. After about the umpteenth time of getting such a lame inquiry I decided to explain this fact to a caller (smile in voice of course)

His response: "Not necessarily."

So unless the aforementioned position exists, I don't see how this guy or anyone else could equate my answering the phone "Can I take your order?" with the possibility that we might not necessarily be open.

BTW here are the indicators that we're closed:
You call the main line and you get an answering machine
You call on another line and are told we're closed
You call and get no answer at all.

Oh and another thing: I only answer the phone to announce we're closed after the phone has rung incessantly for about a minute. Get a clue folks.

[JLRodgers]

At one place I worked (as it was the only one I answered calls into the place), we had to answer it even if it was closed, I'd always say "Thank you for calling X, we're currently closed for the evening" But other than that (like when everyone was gone, or we were heading out, etc), they'd get an answering machine -- actually if the top bosses didn't call in some nights just to see if we were still there, we wouldn't of answered it at all.

But from my experience, employees generally say "we're closed" in some variant if closed -- otherwise it's assumed that they're open.

[Bramblerose]

The last place I worked retail we would pick up the phone if we were opening (somehow I think we'd let the machine take it during closing)

[siead_lietrathua]

i like our work, when it's a regular call the phone will go to an automated service telling our open hours, but for staff we hit a series of numbers and the store phone rings while paging an after-hours call, so they will pick up even if closed. otherwize they tend to ignore the phone.

[InaHandbasket]

I work in what's roughly a department store. We open at 9:30 AM. However, there is a cleaning crew, receiving staff, some department people, a manager, and cash office there from 7 AM on. Just because we answer the phone at 7:10 AM does NOT mean we're open. We have to answer the phone for call-outs, etc. What department store opens at 7:10 AM when it's not a special holiday thing? Why are people even calling at that hour to see when we open? Most of the malls and stores open 9 AM or after ... well, except the nearby Target which is 8 AM.

But we are NOT Target and our company has opened its doors nationwide at 9:30 AM for at least three decades.

ME: Thank you for calling _____, how may I help you?
THEM: You're open!
ME: Er, no. We don't open for more than two hours.
THEM: I need to find an item from the mens' department.
ME: There's no one in that department now. You'll have to call back after the store is open.
THEM: But you answered the phone!
ME: I'm sorry, the store doesn't open until 9:30. You'll have to call back then.
THEM: You're there. Couldn't you go look to see if you have ...?
ME: I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the department. After the store opens, someone can assist you.
THEM: If you're not open, you shouldn't answer the phone!

ARGH!

Damn vultures. The early phone calls go hand and hand with the vultures who circle the store and rattle the doors well before we open despite the fact that the hours are posted right on the door!

[katie kaboom]

Damn vultures. The early phone calls go hand and hand with the vultures who circle the store and rattle the doors well before we open despite the fact that the hours are posted right on the door!

And therein lies my biggest pet peeve about the world of retail. I don't care what kind of store you work at, I don't care how early it opens, there are still always people pulling and banging on the doors trying to get in before the store opens.

And you don't know how many managers I've seen let people in early because god forbid they should have to wait till the store is actually open. Granted it's usually only a minute or two early by the stores' clock, but then what if someone wants in 3 minutes early the next day? Four minutes early the day after that, five minutes early the day after THAT. At what point do we say NO? How many minutes early is TOO early?

[Bosch]

Damn vultures. The early phone calls go hand and hand with the vultures who circle the store and rattle the doors well before we open despite the fact that the hours are posted right on the door!

What is worse about this is that you can't even have a little staff huddle at registers cause customers complain that you are just standing there talking before opening, when you could be open if you are there.. Yes that was a complaint at our store. We open at 10am but heaven forbid we need to grab a radio and figure out if they work before we open. According to the complaint we were just standing around talking for 10min before opening. How dare we stand there when we can see people wanting to shop we should have let them in 10min early. Cause we had nothing better to do than stand there and talk.

I just tell them when I see them at the gate now, if you want to shop before 10am go to our factoria mall store they open at 9am..

[tigger222]

We have the same problem. One of the customers called and said are you open? I said yes. She replies with so I can come in and shop right now? Yes. Are you sure?
I mean really I already said yes what is with the nitpicking. I think the most anoying call that we get isn't from customers it is from our photo tec. She always calls the photo department before it is open and then she will call the main store line and complain that we should always pick it up and didn't like being told to call the main store if she wanted to reach someone that early.

[mattm04]

I believe our stores auto attendant some special greeting telling callers that the store is closed. I have never heard it since we are open from 6 am - midnight except Sunday. Even when closed it will still allow a caller to try to contact someone by making a page on the PA to the effect of "attention telephone call on XXX" instead of "<specific dept> telephone call on XXX for when we are open.

Yet our AM people still get people calling at 5 AM wanting to know if they can shop early, order something fr 7 AM, etc.

[joe hx]

back at the pizza place we had to answer the phone after close. most of the time it was either the area supervisor or someone's ride or parent, so the policy made sense. of course some customers did call and they always tried to argue that i should turn the ovens back on and cook them a pizza anyways. of course they don't realize the oven takes awhile to heat up.

we were also supposed to answer before we opened, but i never did. i thought it was more important to open the store on time than argue with customers.

[sirwired]

When I call a store to find out if it is open (say, on a Sunday, when many stores are closed) , I usually ask "What are your hours today?" if somebody picks up the phone. Then, if it is somebody picking up the phone after hours, they can tell me, and if they really are open, I feel like the person on the other end won't be thinking "Of course we're open, I'm answering the phone."

SirWIred

[JLRodgers]

back at the pizza place we had to answer the phone after close. most of the time it was either the area supervisor or someone's ride or parent, so the policy made sense. of course some customers did call and they always tried to argue that i should turn the ovens back on and cook them a pizza anyways. of course they don't realize the oven takes awhile to heat up.

we were also supposed to answer before we opened, but i never did. i thought it was more important to open the store on time than argue with customers.

We sometimes (when I was management at a pizza place) would say "if I did it'd take an hour and cost 'pizza price * some high amount [like 20]..." never had any take me up on it. But then who'd really want to pay like $400 for a cheese pizza

[Digitalpotato]

I get this all the time at Subway. Apparently no one knows that since this is like a Mall Subway, there are several easy ways to tell that we'ren ot open....

1) There is no one behind the counter.
2) The sign isn't on
3) The bread is still in a bag
4) The line is not set up.
5) There are no people IN line. (I get people asking me this when there are THREE PEOPLE IN LINE!!!)
6) The gate is not visible. Because generally, whenever you don't want customers coming in ordering food when you open in three hours and don't have anything ready, you keep the gate CLOSED so they don't think you're open and come on anyways.

[Seshat]

Will someone please tell me if there's any position that requires someone to man a business's phone after hours to tell callers that they're closed?

Yep.

If the store phone is the same phone as the one used:
- by whoever is going to pick some staff member up
- by a staff member's childcare facility
- by someone who might have to report an emergency preventing them from doing their next shift
- by other related businesses who need to talk to management (or other staff)
- by offsite staff who need to report in

.... etc, etc, etc.

So no, not to tell callers they're closed. But yes, the phone may need to be answered.

[Bramblerose]

with the vultures who circle the store and rattle the doors well before we open despite the fact that the hours are posted right on the door!

THis is why God gave us books- something to do when one is early for a store. Or even a gameboy.