Tweet
Also known as the "Guess What I Want!" game.
I'm having a little chuckle.
A woman from a school system called us on Wednesday after we closed and left a voice mail asking how to place an order.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
I returned the call on Thursday and got her voice mail. I explained what cards we take for phone orders or, if they prefer, they could send us a written PO for Net-30terms.
Then I promptly forgot about it since I had many other customers to deal with. When she was ready to place her order I figured I'd know what to do and be able answer any follow-up questions if and when she called back, you know?
Well, she stumped me. She called back an hour ago. Told me someone from here had called her about a credit card. What did we need from her?
Sometimes we do have to call people about credit cards. For instance if they place an order and their card is declined, we have to call them back to let them know and get another number.
Since she didn't mention what day she was called I foolishly assumed that it was today and it was that sort of routine follow-up call about a pending order.
But just to be sure I asked her if the person who called was Bob (in shipping) and was going to offer to put her through to him.
No. It was a lady who called her.
[Again. It never occured to me that she was talking about ME two days ago.]
My next step was to put her through to Hannah (in accounting) because she sometimes processes orders and handles these things. Unlike Hannah, I have no access to the accounting system or the credit card authorizition software.
But again, just to make sure everything would go smoothly, I asked the caller if she had any information about her order that would help me check to see if it had shipped and help Hannah locate it.
She gave the name of her school system. That rang a bell, but I still didn't remember the details and nothing came up on a database search.
Did she place an order with us?
Yup.
[No she hadn't, but I didn't know that and neither, apparently, did she.]
When?
She didn't remember.
[Because she hadn't placed an order.]
Did she send us a PO or order by phone?
By web.
[We don't have web ordering so that's the perfect way to place an order that doesn't exist.]
I explained that we don't have web ordering, but no problem I sent her through to Hannah to see if she would have any luck locating this order [that didn't exist].
About five minutes later Hannah sent her back. The caller still couldn't remember if she had placed an order or not, but Hannah hadn't found one in our system so she asked me to take it.
Which I did.
It was only after I thanked the caller and disconnected that I pieced together that she was someone for whom *I* had left a message and it wasn't about a pending order but generic information about an ordering from our company.
If she had come right out and said "I'm ready to place an order" everything would have been fine. Or even, "I'm not sure if I've placed an order. Can you look it up for me?"
But no. In two days she had forgotten why she called us and didn't even remember whether she had placed an order or not. And expected I would just know what her intentions were without telling me. It was like pulling teeth.
The best part?
As I was updating the address record in the database after taking the order I saw a note in the comments section.
The school was none other than this one. I guess they've decided to continue their "purchasing relationship" with us after all.
Great!
I'm having a little chuckle.
A woman from a school system called us on Wednesday after we closed and left a voice mail asking how to place an order.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
I returned the call on Thursday and got her voice mail. I explained what cards we take for phone orders or, if they prefer, they could send us a written PO for Net-30terms.
Then I promptly forgot about it since I had many other customers to deal with. When she was ready to place her order I figured I'd know what to do and be able answer any follow-up questions if and when she called back, you know?
Well, she stumped me. She called back an hour ago. Told me someone from here had called her about a credit card. What did we need from her?
Sometimes we do have to call people about credit cards. For instance if they place an order and their card is declined, we have to call them back to let them know and get another number.
Since she didn't mention what day she was called I foolishly assumed that it was today and it was that sort of routine follow-up call about a pending order.
But just to be sure I asked her if the person who called was Bob (in shipping) and was going to offer to put her through to him.
No. It was a lady who called her.
[Again. It never occured to me that she was talking about ME two days ago.]
My next step was to put her through to Hannah (in accounting) because she sometimes processes orders and handles these things. Unlike Hannah, I have no access to the accounting system or the credit card authorizition software.
But again, just to make sure everything would go smoothly, I asked the caller if she had any information about her order that would help me check to see if it had shipped and help Hannah locate it.
She gave the name of her school system. That rang a bell, but I still didn't remember the details and nothing came up on a database search.
Did she place an order with us?
Yup.
[No she hadn't, but I didn't know that and neither, apparently, did she.]
When?
She didn't remember.
[Because she hadn't placed an order.]
Did she send us a PO or order by phone?
By web.
[We don't have web ordering so that's the perfect way to place an order that doesn't exist.]
I explained that we don't have web ordering, but no problem I sent her through to Hannah to see if she would have any luck locating this order [that didn't exist].
About five minutes later Hannah sent her back. The caller still couldn't remember if she had placed an order or not, but Hannah hadn't found one in our system so she asked me to take it.
Which I did.
It was only after I thanked the caller and disconnected that I pieced together that she was someone for whom *I* had left a message and it wasn't about a pending order but generic information about an ordering from our company.
If she had come right out and said "I'm ready to place an order" everything would have been fine. Or even, "I'm not sure if I've placed an order. Can you look it up for me?"
But no. In two days she had forgotten why she called us and didn't even remember whether she had placed an order or not. And expected I would just know what her intentions were without telling me. It was like pulling teeth.
The best part?
As I was updating the address record in the database after taking the order I saw a note in the comments section.
The school was none other than this one. I guess they've decided to continue their "purchasing relationship" with us after all.
Great!
Comment