Now, I can understand some frustration with having to spell your seemingly simple name to people over the phone. Yes Smith is very easy but when you have other people spelling it Smythe it isn't simple.
I can't begin to tell you how many people get offended (and condescending) when I ask them to spell both their first and last name. Street names are even worse with designers tweaking the spelling or making two words be one word. It wouldn't bother me so much if I wasn't setting them up as a new patient.
Thats right, people are getting upset at me for making sure their medical records are right.
Then we have people that call in to set/check appointments that tell me a different name then what was entered. Don't say Bob if you registered under Robert. And for the love of all don't say 'oh I don't know why I set this up with that name. I never go with it. No I want to leave the file as is.' this does not make lives easy. The same goes for when you use a nick name in place of your proper one.
I can't tell you how offended one patient was when I asked them to spell their last name that seemed to consist of only z,c,s&y's. It' just blows my mind.
Showing posts with label What not to do. Show all posts
Showing posts with label What not to do. Show all posts
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Social Services and Moving With Them
All I can truly say is good luck to you.
From what I can gather from the people who have come in, the way it is supposed to work is Social Service Workers will give their clients a list of moving and /or storage companies that have worked with them in the past. The client then must get three estimates from them and then the Social worker will pick one company and contact that company to authorize the move. Then the company moves the client and then gets paid.
What actually happens can vary, but my experience is that there is an unfortunate amount of Social workers that do not care about their clients.
What we see is someone will come in saying 'so&so said to come here' we go ok, get information and when asked for contact info on so&so 'oh, they are not my Social Worker, I was just told to say that'. We give them the estimate in a sealed envelope. If it's moving they are told that the Social Worker needs to contact us in certain amount of time or the move will not happen. Client says ok and they leave. The most common ending is that we never hear from Social Services or the client again. Or we might get a call from the client wonder were their movers are and then we have to explain that we were not contacted by their Social Worker so the move is not happening. Que angry ranting at us and threats of BBB and so on until we are hung up on. On the rare occasion the Social Worker will call us and set things up, but again this is rare.
There is also an amazing amount of people that take advantage of the Social Services system. Due to this my company has tired to set rules & guidlines for who/how Social Services sends their clients to us.
We even tried to find out if there was a way we could fax in their clients bills to them each month instead of the hit or miss method of their clients bringing in the late bills. They never bothered returning our calls and we gave up after a few months of trying to reach them.
Explaining how things work to the client can sometimes work but not always. Most are emergancy moves and refuse to listen when we tell them that we are booked. It can get ugly and extreamly uncomphortable.
But the very worst thing that can happen(if they even contact us) is when a Social Worker does not like our prices and they try to force us to change our policy. They will imply that Social Services will stop using our company and if that does not work they will send their client after us.
Yes, some very poorly skilled Social Workers will enrage their clients and tell them to call us because the Social worker does not like our rates. I really wish I knew what they thought they would gain by alienating a company like this. I have been screamed at but clients with out any idea of why they were calling only to hear "Social Services told me to call".
I don't know why anyone would think that that is a proper way to get a company to work with you. My company has started keeping notes on what Social Workers we have worked with in the past. We have one that we will not do business with because he was so inconsiderate to us (and his client, she reported him to his supervisor and got a new Social Worker). Another woman is border line being on that list but we think due to her Social Services has stopped sending people to us for estimates.
Again, for any of you that need to use their services, I wish you the best of luck. But with how my area is treated you should be careful that they do not burn bridges for you. you never know if someone they flip out on might be the person you interview with at a later date.
From what I can gather from the people who have come in, the way it is supposed to work is Social Service Workers will give their clients a list of moving and /or storage companies that have worked with them in the past. The client then must get three estimates from them and then the Social worker will pick one company and contact that company to authorize the move. Then the company moves the client and then gets paid.
What actually happens can vary, but my experience is that there is an unfortunate amount of Social workers that do not care about their clients.
What we see is someone will come in saying 'so&so said to come here' we go ok, get information and when asked for contact info on so&so 'oh, they are not my Social Worker, I was just told to say that'. We give them the estimate in a sealed envelope. If it's moving they are told that the Social Worker needs to contact us in certain amount of time or the move will not happen. Client says ok and they leave. The most common ending is that we never hear from Social Services or the client again. Or we might get a call from the client wonder were their movers are and then we have to explain that we were not contacted by their Social Worker so the move is not happening. Que angry ranting at us and threats of BBB and so on until we are hung up on. On the rare occasion the Social Worker will call us and set things up, but again this is rare.
There is also an amazing amount of people that take advantage of the Social Services system. Due to this my company has tired to set rules & guidlines for who/how Social Services sends their clients to us.
We even tried to find out if there was a way we could fax in their clients bills to them each month instead of the hit or miss method of their clients bringing in the late bills. They never bothered returning our calls and we gave up after a few months of trying to reach them.
Explaining how things work to the client can sometimes work but not always. Most are emergancy moves and refuse to listen when we tell them that we are booked. It can get ugly and extreamly uncomphortable.
But the very worst thing that can happen(if they even contact us) is when a Social Worker does not like our prices and they try to force us to change our policy. They will imply that Social Services will stop using our company and if that does not work they will send their client after us.
Yes, some very poorly skilled Social Workers will enrage their clients and tell them to call us because the Social worker does not like our rates. I really wish I knew what they thought they would gain by alienating a company like this. I have been screamed at but clients with out any idea of why they were calling only to hear "Social Services told me to call".
I don't know why anyone would think that that is a proper way to get a company to work with you. My company has started keeping notes on what Social Workers we have worked with in the past. We have one that we will not do business with because he was so inconsiderate to us (and his client, she reported him to his supervisor and got a new Social Worker). Another woman is border line being on that list but we think due to her Social Services has stopped sending people to us for estimates.
Again, for any of you that need to use their services, I wish you the best of luck. But with how my area is treated you should be careful that they do not burn bridges for you. you never know if someone they flip out on might be the person you interview with at a later date.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Planing to Move
I can't tell you how many times I have paused while talking to a person on the phone because they "are planning ahead" or "want to get the ball rolling" for their move that they want to happen in three days.
Most companies have a seven day registration policy. In my opinion it is there to prevent last minuet switches to driver schedules. The last thing any moving company wants to do is have a driver stuck on the other side of the country and possibly delay other moves.
If this happens in the summer, durring our bussy seasion, I have to tell people that we can not do their move. A few have asked for my manager and would hang up on him because he would give them the same answer. Generaly in the summer we are booking moves two weeks out so a last minuet thing just can not happen.
In the winter, during our slow season, once in a RARE while we can pull something like that off. but we have started to see a pick up in appointments during this time and this makes last minuet moves like this almost imposable.
To save your self some frustration you want to get an estimate about two weeks or more before your desired move date. If you are worried about getting stuck with a last minuet move; contact a moving company a check to see how long their estimats are good for. If you have a sales agent come out ask them if there is anything that could be done if you have to be out of your home sooner then you thought.
Most companies have a seven day registration policy. In my opinion it is there to prevent last minuet switches to driver schedules. The last thing any moving company wants to do is have a driver stuck on the other side of the country and possibly delay other moves.
If this happens in the summer, durring our bussy seasion, I have to tell people that we can not do their move. A few have asked for my manager and would hang up on him because he would give them the same answer. Generaly in the summer we are booking moves two weeks out so a last minuet thing just can not happen.
In the winter, during our slow season, once in a RARE while we can pull something like that off. but we have started to see a pick up in appointments during this time and this makes last minuet moves like this almost imposable.
To save your self some frustration you want to get an estimate about two weeks or more before your desired move date. If you are worried about getting stuck with a last minuet move; contact a moving company a check to see how long their estimats are good for. If you have a sales agent come out ask them if there is anything that could be done if you have to be out of your home sooner then you thought.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Moving on the Winter Holidays
I do NOT recommend moving on the holidays.
The week of Christmas and the week for New Years is always booked. It's a short week so that adds to the stress. Commercial moves happen a lot in this time frame because companies don't have to worry about employees and movers getting in each others ways.
Unless the holidays are in the middle of the week the holiday weekends are either booked to death or companies are closed for the holiday. This also happens on the 4th of July, Labor day, Thanksgiving, Memorial day, Presidents day and maybe a few others.
How they managed to keep to schedule and go gray o bald is beyond me.It also seems like the holidays is the designated time that any and everything bad will happen to the moving trucks. We had two trucks go down last wee and I have never seen my managers and dispatchers so stressed. The weather also didn't help matters.
So, if you are planing to move during a holiday you will need to contact a moving company about two months in advance to do a survey and set up your move date. If you wait until the month of your move you might find that holiday week booked already. Calling the week of the holiday to be moved will not do much good and calling the day before will do even less.
A last minuet move never ends well, avoiding one will save you an unpresident amount of stress.
Also as a last note, I will never go into a store on December 24th again. It was down right terrifying.
The week of Christmas and the week for New Years is always booked. It's a short week so that adds to the stress. Commercial moves happen a lot in this time frame because companies don't have to worry about employees and movers getting in each others ways.
Unless the holidays are in the middle of the week the holiday weekends are either booked to death or companies are closed for the holiday. This also happens on the 4th of July, Labor day, Thanksgiving, Memorial day, Presidents day and maybe a few others.
How they managed to keep to schedule and go gray o bald is beyond me.It also seems like the holidays is the designated time that any and everything bad will happen to the moving trucks. We had two trucks go down last wee and I have never seen my managers and dispatchers so stressed. The weather also didn't help matters.
So, if you are planing to move during a holiday you will need to contact a moving company about two months in advance to do a survey and set up your move date. If you wait until the month of your move you might find that holiday week booked already. Calling the week of the holiday to be moved will not do much good and calling the day before will do even less.
A last minuet move never ends well, avoiding one will save you an unpresident amount of stress.
Also as a last note, I will never go into a store on December 24th again. It was down right terrifying.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Customers and Delays
Ah... It's always good to start the day getting screamed at by a customer for another company getting delayed. The short of it is my company accidentally moved a box to his home in Arizona instead of his daughters home. They were both moving from the same house to different locations so unfortunately it can happen. A mistake happened and the box was not picked up as scheduled by the mail service. Things were fixed and everyone was happy.
This last bit is a tad exagerated.
The gentlemen mostly screamed and swore at me on the phone. He was so loud that my co-workers could listen in from a few desks away. Our HR manager was sitting next to me during it and afterwords said if he had been on the receiving end he would have hung up on him. That's how bad this gentalmen was.
I managed to get him to go on hold three times. the first was so I could collect myself and call the woman who set up the pickup. I asked her if she preferred poison or a bullet. She laughed and then said she would contact the mailing company to see what was up.
I picked up his line and let him know the mailing company was being contacted and that he would be called back about it. He was not happy and started screaming about everything under the sun. Including paying for his stay in Arizona. The worst part? He wanted the person who set up the pickup date for the box. My HR guy said not to give him her number because while we are used to him (and can laugh at it) she was not.
After he screamed at me some more I got his number so she could call him. I answered a few more calls and then called her to let her know what was going on. As soon as I said hi she said she should have taken the poison. Apparently he had called a few other people that work for us and gotten her office number.
While it seems like this customer 'won' or something like that, he didn't. His actions just further proved why we try to not end up servicing customers like him. There are so many notes on his account right now I'm amazed the computer still runs. As soon as this latest possible move is completed I'm pretty convinced that we will refuse to move him a third time.
This last bit is a tad exagerated.
The gentlemen mostly screamed and swore at me on the phone. He was so loud that my co-workers could listen in from a few desks away. Our HR manager was sitting next to me during it and afterwords said if he had been on the receiving end he would have hung up on him. That's how bad this gentalmen was.
I managed to get him to go on hold three times. the first was so I could collect myself and call the woman who set up the pickup. I asked her if she preferred poison or a bullet. She laughed and then said she would contact the mailing company to see what was up.
I picked up his line and let him know the mailing company was being contacted and that he would be called back about it. He was not happy and started screaming about everything under the sun. Including paying for his stay in Arizona. The worst part? He wanted the person who set up the pickup date for the box. My HR guy said not to give him her number because while we are used to him (and can laugh at it) she was not.
After he screamed at me some more I got his number so she could call him. I answered a few more calls and then called her to let her know what was going on. As soon as I said hi she said she should have taken the poison. Apparently he had called a few other people that work for us and gotten her office number.
While it seems like this customer 'won' or something like that, he didn't. His actions just further proved why we try to not end up servicing customers like him. There are so many notes on his account right now I'm amazed the computer still runs. As soon as this latest possible move is completed I'm pretty convinced that we will refuse to move him a third time.
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