I don’t work at a help desk, but a lot of times I feel like I do. I don’t mean with technology, but with things that people can probably figure out on their own.
Usually, if I am planning to go to an unfamiliar place, I stake out how to get there well in advance. Either I’ll hunt it down on the internet or ask someone who knows the area if I know the person. And, if it comes to it, I’ll get in touch with the place where I’m heading to get directions.
A lot of times, our very busy call center will receive time consuming calls from patients looking for our office the day of their appointment. That just doesn’t seem like a good idea to me, and plus it takes a big chunk of our phone time since we have to give them step-by-step instructions. And did I mention that we have a directions line for patients to call? Yeah, they don’t like to use that…
To top it off, we ask people to come in early for their appointment in case something happens like you get lost. A lot of them do come early. Then you get the irate ones that are already late, demanding instruction when, if they’d called the direction line or even our office, they could have been closer to the appointment.
I try to help people as much as I can. It’s my job, after all. But sometimes a person has to help himself and in a timely matter.
by: E. D. Beale
Tags: appointments, call center, giving directions, office life, phone time
