The response you get from a phone call all depends on who you call. Yesterday, I had the 
perfect private vs public series of phone calls, and what a difference. The first call was to a state licensing agency. My ability to see all of my license accounts in the two fields I'm licensed was not working and I was trying to find out what I was doing wrong or what we could do to combine the "like" licenses into one log-in.
I wasn't doing anything wrong as it turns out, but the rep was not able to help me because the way the state licensing agency has their website set up requires that I have a different email address for each license. I have six state licenses. The licenses are only in two occupational fields. One log-in does show two licenses. One is a trade license and the other is a company license. That's what I was trying to do for the other field of licenses.
The other license is a firm license with three associated licenses. It's in this field that I was trying to have the state combine licenses since they all work together. But, that wasn't possible because the firm license was different from the other licenses. The irony is that all of the licenses are mine, under my name and issued to me to conduct business. Sorry, we can't help you. You'll need a different email for each license in order to access it online was the final response.
The second call I made was to a electrical product producer. This call related to an inspection on an electrical project where the inspector asked for a modification that required a very specific component that local distributors don't stock, or even know about for that matter. As soon as I got the company rep on the phone, he was effusive in his response to my call.
He didn't know about the part either, but he asked if I had a few minutes to hang on while he went through the company asking others if they knew what I needed. I did, and he took off. About 10 minutes later, he came back with the details of the component, what it did and how to install it. He gave me the part number and told me if I couldn't find it at a local distributor to call him back.
What a difference. One call was met with indifference, no solutions and a "why are you wasting my time" attitude. The second call was helpful, friendly and solution focused. The second call was met with "call me back" if you need more help. The first call was met with a "I'm busy, get off my phone" feeling.
In business, clients calling your office are familiar with this same experience. The flippant call and the friendly call make a huge impact on them. Every time I need to call into the public office, I dread the call. A high percentage of those calls end in frustration. Not all private calls end as well as the one yesterday, but the odds are in their favor because they know that a call into their business helps pay the bills. The public calls know they will get paid if they provide good customer service or not.
Be that call that encourages, inspires and causes the caller to want to call you back. Leave them with a great impression, a smile on their face and a solution to their call. Find a way to help them. I'm still waiting for a solution from another state agency that started in May of 2018. Can you imagine not being able to resolve an issue for nearly a year? I've had both good and bad calls in both sectors, but the private sector has given me many more solutions than the public sector. When your paycheck is tied to your service, your service will improve.
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