Talking to a Real Person

I imagine this is a pet peeve most people can relate to - you call up a company and end up either getting an automated message or going through a list of choices and never actually talking to a live person. Now, for a small business like mine I don't have to worry about dealing with massive call volume, but since I am going into a very busy season (I hope!) that will have me on the road a fair amount, I was very concerned with the fact that retailers and vendors who called our "office" number would get dumped into voicemail.

Thanks to the New York Times Small Business Section (my new favorite section of the paper), I am in the process of hiring an answering service that my office number will forward to when I'm not around to take it. They can either take a message for me or forward the call directly to my cell phone. Even though in the end a person may end up getting dumped into my voicemail, my hope is that talking to a person at the beginning of the conversation they get the sense that 1. We are bigger than a single gal (and two dogs) organization and 2. A real person knows they called so they have more confidence that they'll actually get their message returned quickly.

I was happy to find a small local company that can work with me and they always have a live person - no machines - answering the phones. I figure I'll give it a try through the end of the year (the busiest time for me and I'll be away for a good portion of it) and see how it all works out.