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Diary of an Agent | I Forgot My Husband’s Gift!

The holiday season is my favorite part of the year as an agent at the best answering service, A Courteous Communications. The office is always decked out with holiday decorations, and the nip in the air puts everyone in a good mood. Our live receptionist service team goes all out and places special holiday treats in the break room, twinkle lights flashing 24 hours in the office and a few festive trees placed in the operators’ room. 

Fall has finally arrived in Orlando, Florida. On this particular day the temperatures had finally dipped into the 70’s for the first time in a year; my mood could not have been better. It just happened to be my first shift after Halloween night and the witches and ghosts were replaced with fall leaves and holiday bows. The only thing I love more than the warm setting in our 24-hour call center during the holidays, are the fun calls from our customers making holiday dinner reservations, and on-line order processing for those surprise gifts for loved ones.

My first call of the day came in on my favorite coffee and gift shop account. My happy mood must have been apparent as I answered, “Good afternoon, Perks Plus Coffee.” A woman’s voice said quickly, “I hope my afternoon gets better, please tell me can you help me, I have forgotten my husband’s gift.” I looked at the date on my screen, I was a bit confused on why she was so frantic. It was only November 5^th and there was plenty of time to have a gift shipped before Christmas.

I proceeded to ask for her name, area code and telephone number. Mrs. Rivera’s next comment put a new spin on our call, “Please excuse me if I seem too pushy, his birthday is the day after tomorrow.” I now fully understood the urgency in her voice.

I knew this account well, as a live receptionist service agent at A Courteous Communications, we are trained on each individual account. A full review of products and services offered by each account is completed during the training process. I had some personal knowledge of the client’s business as well.

Mrs. Rivera began to make her way through the website and I asked if I could help her find anything in particular. She replied, “Yes, anything we can get here by day’s end tomorrow.” We both got a little giggle from her comment. As she was shopping through the website, I had a glance at their delivery options, sure enough, they had next day delivery. I was eager to pass this information along to her. A beautiful coffee sampler was her final selection after going back and forth on a few different gift sets. It was time to process her order.

I would have never guessed that she had never done an on-line purchase before, so I was surprised when she said, “I have always been skeptical about putting my credit card information out into cyberspace.” I could relate to this 100%. I put her worries to rest by explaining that once an order is processed, and all personal payment information is entered into the system, nobody can see the information on the screen again. This privacy information vault is part of our order processing system.

I reassured the caller, “Mrs. Rivera, your information is safe and sound.” It was nice to hear the stress of forgetting to order the gift and the worry of giving out her credit card information lift. As I started to wrap up the call, I repeated her address to her for confirmation. I had a quick idea, “What do you think about having the gift basket sent directly to his office?” She loved the idea, so we quickly switched the address on the order.

As we wrapped up the call, I told her about a funny statistic I had read. “Mrs. Rivera, don’t beat yourself up about forgetting to order his gift, its official, men forget special dates more than woman.” I will never forget what she said next, ” Yes Sara, but if I forget his, I will never be able to come down on him again for forgetting mine. The best gifts of all are the please forgive me gifts.” I loved where her head was at and with that we ended the call.

What makes us the best answering service out there is that we truly care for our customers’ customer. I wanted to write this diary entry for those of you who may have had last minute shopping blunders of your own. Like this caller, we can help others like you. If you run a business that has an eCommerce site, you must also invest in the customer service and telephone support 24 hours a day. We are a wise investment. Try us for free or give us a call to discuss custom options for processing your products and services.

A Courteous Communications has a fully trained team of on-line customer service and order processing representatives. Give our live receptionist service a test run and call TODAY for your FREE consultation. Our award winning 24 hour call center is ready to help your 24/7 shoppers; 365 days a year.