We are very busy at the moment . . . .

THE MOMENT WHICH LASTS

FOR EVER !

No, sorry to disappoint you. It's not your first kiss, the first night of your honeymoon or any of all the other wonderful moments in your life.

IT'S WHEN YOU CALL YOUR BANK, BUILDING SOCIETY, GAS OR ELECTRICITY SUPPLIER, PHONE COMPANY, OR OTHER MAJOR COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT ORGANISATION, ETC., AND THEY ALL IMMEDIATELY RESPOND BY TELLING YOU A CAREFULLY AND DELIBERATELY PREPARED   PACK OF DOWNRIGHT LIES.

It doesn't matter at all at what part of the day you make your call – they are always – at that exact moment – VERY BUSY, and they will even patronisingly apologise for the delay and then assure you that:

“YOUR CALL WILL BE ANSWERED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE !”

Something which can often take up to six, ten or fifteen minutes of waiting in a queue or even never happen if the ringing tone you have been enjoying between repetitions of the same lies suddenly disappears and you have to start dialling all over again.

What they don't ever say is that: “Keeping our personnel wages bill down is far more important than giving a good, quick and honest service to our customers.”

BECAUSE THAT IS THE REAL TRUTH.

They don't want to take the slightest risk that one of their paid “representatives” or “operators” will actually be sitting WAITING for someone to call for more than a moment or two.

Oh No ! “That's a waste of our expensive staff time” says the boss, “It's much more profitable to waste our customers' time” – AND THEY DO. In great chunks!

Remember, if you are waiting ten minutes then there's somebody ahead of you who has been waiting a similar time, and someone ahead of them and ahead of them, and also somebody just after you, and then someone after them, so that between half a dozen waiting callers, they quickly waste a whole hour.

AND DON'T BELIEVE FOR ONE MOMENT THAT THIS IS ACCIDENTAL.

What they do in the name of “economy” is to carefully base their staffing levels on the quietest hour of their usual business day.

This means that in that hour every caller gets answered immediately AND in that hour every one of their staff is also fully occupied with none of them wasting company time waiting for a caller to call.

It also means that in every other hour in the business day, their staff are fully engaged, and they can leave a computer to say: “We are very busy at the moment”, and then keep you entertained and calmly wasting your time, whilst they cash in on you and your fellow callers' patience.

This is a gross deception, and has all sorts of side-effects.

The worst of these, from their point of view, is that they lose you as a customer. BUT, they rely on the fact that you might not have another alternative, OR, on the possibility that other alternatives also have the same lousy time-wasting customer service, which regrettably can often be true.

Occasionally, you are lucky to be ringing a company which does actually understand the words “Helpful Customer Service” as part of their overall image projection and promotion, and, if they cannot handle your call immediately, will have some system of calling you back, or of holding your place in their queue.

Still not perfect I know, but it is a way of saving thousands and thousands of hours of wasted customer waiting time across the nation, 24/7 and for 52 weeks of the year.

But the effective way to change the system, to start saving your time and thus actually improve your quality of life and the lives of other customers, is to get through to the bosses and register your protest.

When you do get through to a “representative”, and AFTER you have finished your business with that operator, ask to speak to his or her manager and then tell that manager you want to write a letter or e-mail to their Managing Director, Department Head or Chairman, and that you would like that person's name and contact details (e-mail address or postal address & postcode, etc.).

Then right a short message to that “boss”, saying what you want, but basically that you really don't like to have your time wasted and, that you don't appreciate his or her company pretending that the staff are “very busy”, when the obvious truth is that the organisation is deliberately under-staffed.

Get the idea.

If we don't all start taking action, the situation will never improve, but if even only a few disgusted callers get through to the bosses, we will soon start to see an improvement, not only in time saved, but in the honesty circulating in our society.

This is something for which we all need to take responsibility. So please make sure this call to arms IS ANSWERED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE !

Many thanks, because we are all really very busy at the moment.

S.A.F.E. Is A Not-For-Profit Community Support Group Formed In 1975.

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