Please Answer Your Phone!

We are all busy working and managing our personal lives. Why is it that some agents seem to always answer their phone and other agents never answer their phone, relying on voicemail or email to communicate instead? This has become the way of the world but I'd much rather do business with someone that I know will answer my call if they can, or at least return my call promptly if they cannot. Simply answering the phone makes everyone's jobs more efficient and enables us to provide top notch service to all of our customers, which is what we tell them we will provide when we meet them. It is a waste of time to call an agent multiple times because they have not answered their phone or returned a call for an important question pertaining to a listing. How do they do any business? or face their sellers? Interested buyers with questions lose patience and move on quickly when they cannot get answers in a timely manner and I've heard from sellers that they were disappointed with the lack of accessible communication with their agent. When you have a listing, it is extremely important that you are available for phone calls from other agents and prospective buyers. A seller would not list with you if you told them, "I never answer my phone and rarely return calls in a timely manner". Would you list your home with someone like that? It is ridiculous that I can drive to a property 40 minutes away where there is supposedly a lockbox and get there to find no lockbox and call the listing agent multiple times with buyers waiting to no avail and no call back even days later. This is absolutely unacceptable! In our industry, it is necessary to be available during and after normal business hours, especially on weekends when buyers are actively looking for property. If you are someone who avoids talking on the phone you should reconsider your career choice and get out of the way so the good agents can work together and effectively do their jobs. Alternately, you could care about our industry and the people you are affecting and ANSWER YOUR PHONE!