Are you flinging poo at the hand that feeds you?

When was the last time you called your own company and tried to use your automated phone system? If you never have done this exercise, stop reading this and do it now. Act like someone who doesn’t have an extension ready and attempt to use the employee directory function. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

How did it go? If you experience is anything like mine, not very well. Can you imagine how frustrated a potential or existing customer might be if your system isn’t working correctly? Think for a moment how much that hidden problem might be costing you. Ouch!

As a sales professional, I spend a lot of time dealing with phone systems. I honestly believe that most of these systems were designed by drunken monkeys whose objective was to alienate as many people as possible. It’s the technological equivalent of flinging poo at the hand that feeds you.

Even worse is when I call a company and the only option I have is to leave a message in a “general” mailbox. What year is it? When this happens to me I just know I’m dealing with a company that is either a front for some kind of illegal enterprise, a bootstrapping business still working from a garage, or a company that is clueless about how they appear to the outside world.

Think for a moment about what forms your image in the mind of the market place. How many see your fancy building? Five percent? Ten percent? Now what percentage forms their opinions based on other factors – for example, your phone system, web site, trade show display, sales materials, etc. The bottom line is this: these points of contact are what represent you as a company. Put another way, your company becomes what you make it.

I would try to help you with this issue but I can’t seem to get through your phone system.