In the last three days I have had cause to contact the Far North District Council, a local branch of a large voluntary service, and one of the "big four" Ocker-owned banks. In each case, I was given an undertaking by the voice on the end of the telephone that I would be rung back when the matter of concern to me had been dealt with. In each case, this did not happen.
Now I do realise these are stressful times. Many businesses and local government services have been demanned to the point that they are barely functional, voluntary services struggle to find and keep volunteers because just surviving in our commercially driven Planet Key is stressful without putting in extra, unpaid, effort. People working in service centres are commonly paid very modestly, and in terms of the purchase power of their wages, they probably have a smaller reward each year.
It may be pro forma in the organisations from which I received the undertaking to say the punter will receive a follow up phone call, as part of customer service training, but they have no mechanism once the issue has been passed on to the "fixer" who actually deals with the problem to do so.
But, when the person on the end of the phone gives an undertaking that there will be a follow up phone call, it is their voice, not a tape recording, that makes it. It is, in my old-fashioned opinion, a personal undertaking; if you say something will happen then you should ensure that it does. That may mean having to pester another member of your organisation to make sure it happens. If that's what it takes, then you should do so.
For those, like me, of the old and grumpy persuasion who live in the Far North District, if you are as cheesed off as I was, don't be afraid to spit the dummy, throw your rattle out of the cot, and broadcast your displeasure at your local councillor and the mayor if your issue is with a council service. Mr Carter comes down firmly on the customer side of customer service: and was, in my case, able to communicate with me in my own argot: a conversation between grumpy old men.
