In today's world it seems as if everybody is on the phone, mostly cell, almost all day long. I would suspect that most of these calls are social and in some rare instances business calls but I can assure you that very few of them are vendors or suppliers returning your call. This article does not deal with social calls nor sales calls soliciting business. I will discuss the unpleasant task of returning a customer's phone call that you suspect might be a serious problem.
First a few examples and please keep in mind that if you called me you would either speak to me or I would return your call if I was unavailable. Returning from lunch one day I had a call from a very significant Canadian charter operator. After exchanging amenities I ask how can I help her. Her question, "We had a few problems this past Christmas and I am wondering if we are going to have any more problems this winter?"
With their tremendous volume of business the answer was obvious, "Of course we'll have problems. Look Joanne, no one calls me to give me business so when I have a message it usually means that there is either a question or a problem. I did return your call and I will do the same in the future to resolve any problem." The customer needs to know and you have proved it, that you will be there to service their business.
On another occasion I am told that Uri called and he was very angry. Uri was a secular Israeli working in the tour department for a now defunct airline. He answered my call with his last name and in a deep monotone I said, “This is the Messiah.” With spontaneous humor Uri remained calm and I pleasantly resolved his concern.
As a testament for the importance of returning calls I'll mention a visit to a major mid-western tour operator. He had four programs and Alamo served only one of these. It was an Orlando package with airfare, hotel and our car rental. After the preliminary "how's business" he said, "All of you car rental companies are garbage [descriptive substitute word] but you are the only one that returns phone calls." That was good news and an opportunity for me to say, "Then you can include Alamo in your other three programs, put me first on your speed dial and call me every day." The bad news was that it did not happen but at least we had a better car rental company reputation.
Whether I owned the business or worked in the corporate world returning phone calls was good business. It was an excellent way of retaining business that you worked hard to obtain. In retrospect this practice improved my standard of living.
Since I return phone calls I can only guess why others don't do the same. I imagine it is because aggravation is implied. Perhaps even the fear of loosing the account. I would estimate that about 50% of the time there is a problem. And the other half of the time is additional business opportunities. Responding promptly to the problems only encourages the continued support of the customer. On a very rare occasion the phone was used by my customer to terminate the business. It never dawned on me when I was returning a call that there was the possibility that I would loose the business. And the rare time I lost the business at least I was on the phone and had an opportunity of attempting to save the business.
When I was in the office I always answered and never fielded my calls. If I was available I took the call. If I was on the phone or not available a message was taken. I returned the call immediately upon receipt of the message. People who were not familiar with my habit were surprised by the promptness of the returned call. I know because they told me so.
When I was out of town on business, usually for a week at a time, I would check my office for messages daily. It was a slow day if I only had two messages and the count averaged about five messages. I always made it a habit to return the call that I thought was the biggest problem first. After this call was concluded the rest of the calls were down hill.
In summary this is not a sales primer. It is intended to stress the importance of returning phone calls. You will be miles ahead of your competition and this is certainly a consideration when a prospective customer compares you with your competition. While at Alamo, an up and comer asked me the secret of my success. I told him. "There is no secret. Just do two things. See enough people and return phone calls."
