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What Ever Happened To Taking Care Of Business? 

I just want to know an answer to that question. What ever happened to doing what you are supposed to do in a timely manner, especially when you are being paid to do it? I believe that has broken down in today's society and it has been broken for a long time.

Let me tell you about my experience.....

A few days ago as of this writing, I needed something done from company 'A' so I was sent and completed the necessary paperwork. In order to do what I wanted done, I needed a signature from company 'B'. So I emailed company 'B' the necessary completed paperwork with voicemail message, five days prior to my phone call. 

Now before the phone call, I did a follow up email to company B's contact person two days later to see if he received the email, because I had not heard anything from him by email or phone, with another voicemail message. I even emailed Company B's coworker to confirm my contact was still the correct person, and explained why I needed his help. The coworker emailed back, yes. Still no communication from company B's contact person. At this point I am getting anxious because I have a deadline. So now I am at the 5th day with no acknowledgement whatsoever from company B's contact person. Now mind you, I have done everything I was supposed to do because I have gone thru this process before, so the completed document was in order, there was NOTHING ADDITIONAL that I needed to do. So now I have to do what I did not want to do which is call the boss (director) who is over the company 'B' contact person I am dealing with. Which I did not want to do, but had to because the contact person was not communicating with me at all with a status update, and my deadline was approaching. I contact the administrative assistant to the boss who gives an explanation for the delay stating the paperwork has to be approved by his supervisor before the contact person can sign it, puts me on hold, then returns and says the contact person I am dealing (who I sent an email to 5 days prior) received my email and will call me in a few seconds. After a few hours go by I called the administrative assistant to the boss back to say I had not heard anything. After another hold, I was again told I would receive a call back within a few minutes. This time, the company B contact person did call me back stating he will send in the paperwork to company 'A' today. So I said fine, thank you. I indicate that I need the information I am requesting by a certain date, can the process be expedited? He stated it would take 5 to 7 business days for processing, but he would ask. He provided me with his phone number (which I already had) and indicated I could call him at any time with questions.

 

All the while he is talking to me I am thinking to myself, "Why couldn't you have called or emailed me the day you received my email? Why did it have to take your boss talking to you, to get you to do your job and communicate with me and not just communicate with me, but send company 'A' the completed documentation?" I am still thinking to myself... "You could have submitted the documentation to company 'A' at the time you received my email, and then called or emailed me back a few days later if you were busy and did not want to communicate with me at the time."  But I did not tell him what I was thinking, I just accepted his answer and thanked him for his time.

I was raised with the above explanation in mind...that people do not take care of business in a timely manner. I was taught to expect that people are not going to do what they are supposed do. I was raised to be the exception to the rule. I was taught that if people DO come through and keep their word that's wonderful, but nine times out of ten you will not find that so don't look for it, expect it. But YOU do what you tell someone you are going to do, if you can't do it don't say it. So that is what I mean when I say I was raised to be the exception to the rule. And it is unfortunate, the rule is some people don't take care of business, follow thru, do their jobs in a timely manner, whatever you want to call it, it just doesn't happen. But.....I still look for it because I think people will treat me in return, respond to me in return, the way I treat them. 

So now considering the way I was raised, I called company 'A' to follow up on what the company 'B' contact person told me. I was informed by company 'A', the documentation was received twice, the evening before my phone call, and the day of my phone call. The same day I called the administrative assistant to the boss. I explained my situation asking that a note be put in company A's case file saying I was requesting the expedited processing.

I know what you are thinking....the documentation was submitted to comany 'A' the evening before your phone call, so why did you call his boss? Because the contact person never told me he submitted the information, he had never communicated with me at all. If he had of told me the status there would have been no phone call to his boss. The excuse can be made, the contact person was out of the office and no one does his work while he is out. Well that is not acceptable because... remember I said I emailed the contact person's coworker to confirm he was still the contact person, and the coworker responded yes? Well the coworker is the contact person's supervisor I found out from the boss, so the coworker could have asked the contact person to forward him the email, so my documentation could be signed. But he did not, and I had to wait. Everybody involved at company 'B' knows the processing time for company 'A', so why was my paperwork sat on with no action? As far as I am concerned there was no excuse. It seems as though company 'B' had the power to make me wait, and that is what happened, just because. If the company 'B' contact person had sent my documentation to company 'A' when he received the email I sent, I would not be faced with the anxiety-filled task of requesting a deadline extension.

I called company 'A' back to check on the procesing. It was processed within 24 hours the day it was received. However, it could not be given to me in the format I requested, so instead of contacting me to see if something could be done in order for me to get what I wanted, company 'A' sent it it to me in their alternative format. This is okay, I can deal with it, I would have rather had a phone call or email to indicate my preference could not be accomodated and why. In any case, the deadline extension I spoke of earlier was granted. I would say, all's well that ends well. But I had to go through a tremendous amount of unnecessary stress to get to a point, that would not have occurred if company 'B' did what they were supposed to do in a timely manner. 

I was taught that if someone follows up with an email/phone call, then that means the matter is important and you should "get on the stick" do what you can to expedite it. Unfortunately, sadly, things don't work like that anymore or at least in my experience it does not.  I am actually surprised when it does, and I thank the person I am talking to for their customer service. And that is bad, that I have to thank someone for doing their job in a timely manner, something which should be normal procedure. I mean I should not have to feel like I am doing something wrong for calling someone's boss to get him/her to communicate with me in a certain amount of time. Now I know things are "prioritized in the order they are received", so does that mean there is only one person in the division/department doing all the work? Why not cross-train people to multitask. Yes it may cost a few dollars more up front, but the long term benefits of happy customers and an efficient workplace, outway the upfront costs. There is nothing wrong with doing some else's job, helping someone out, even if that job is beneath your payscale. Everyone gets a turn at feeling what it is like to "need help".

You may be thinking...well if you did it before than you should know better and should have submitted your documentation earlier. No... I do not accept that. To take that stance implies that this is my fault and it excuses the bad behavior of the contact person who did not communicate with me, until being asked to (probably earlier than his time table), and did not submit my paperwork timely. Why not correct the people who are doing things the wrong way, instead of making the person who is trying to get help feel bad, at fault?

I don't understand it, the abnormal has become common place and it is unfortunate. It is my hope that society as a whole can adopt the "taking care of business" mentalty, and make that the normal instead of the exception, where I can see it in everything I do. It takes time to change, slowly but surely, that would make everyone's life stressfree.