What I dispute is whether it’s the receptionist’s perogative to make that determination.
Ok, as I said, we are talking at cross purposes, and I apologize for mistaking your point. I was attempting to address the contacting of employees at off hours by clients, not the dissemination of information. My mistake.
Absolutely correct. However, it is also not the perogative of the client to make that determination.
It is the perogative of the rep the client is working with or their boss to decide if personal contact numbers should be given out or if they should be called on the day off. It seems from the OP that the receptionist did not have permission from their boss or the rep to give out their home/cell phone number, so they made the correct call to not give it out.
Sorry, I took that quoted response from the wrong question.
The receptionist did not make a decision of if the company should work with that client, they simply did their job.
Absolutely, it’s valid, or it can be if you don’t mind losing his business. It just may not always be a good decision depending on your business and it’s needs, and that’s all I’m saying.
Maybe what I should have written instead of “I don’t think so” was “I only partially think so”. Terms of service will codify the relationship, but another part of the service package may be how willing to go beyond those basic terms a business is. While most companies do just fine saying “sorry we’re out”, Increasingly there are companies that will respond with “no, but I will get one for you” if asked for something not on their shelves. This is just an economic consideration though, whether it’s worth it to cater to people who want to exceed normal service parameters.
Accepted, and thank you. However, I can’t really figure out where you stand on the specific point (which is precisely the point of the OP) about clients demanding to be handed personal contact information when none has been previously provided by either the service rep or the company.
If you agree with the premise that it was appropriate for the OP to deny the client access to personal contact information of one of their employees when it was not her privilege to do so, then you must admit that, given the specific case the OP was complaining about, drawing absolute lines is, indeed appropriate.
And I contend that in the specific instance of providing personal contact information when one does not have the authority to do so, as is the case with any company that does not provide its receptionist with a list of home and/or cell phone numbers along with instructions as to what circumstances it’s acceptable to disseminat them, or provide home/cell numbers on its company business cards, is an egregious violation of the basic terms of that particular business, let alone the specific employee whose privacy would be violated by the intrusion.
As I said up-thread; if a business notices that an increasing number of clients are expressing a desire to have more flexibility in contacting their staff, and/or that they’re losing business to competitors who do offer that service, [then they should] discuss the possibility of implementing hours or means to accomodate them. That still doesn’t mean that it’s poor business practice to have a policy in place that forbids handing out private contact information to any schmoe off the street on demand, no matter how “important” that client might be (or envision themselves to be).
Well it’s all starting to get muddled at this point, but my original comment related to something qwest had said, which was his question about how if people view it appropriate to deny the customer that information, would they also think it reasonable for the customer to take his business elsewhere. I don’t really have a direct opinion on whether denying the information per se is right or wrong, but I think it’s worth noting that turnabout is fair play, and if you don’t want to capitulate to their demands they can take their cash elsewhere. That’s not to say I don’t think this guy was a real dick, it sounds like he was and I hope he got treated accordingly.
I will grant that the OP, based on the information provided, seemed to have made an appropriate decision. I’ll agree that in cases where it would be against policy to give out personal information, or where it’s clear that they would not appreciate having their information distributed, or it just seems against the norms of the company, then yes, sure, it’s pretty absolute. That’s a little more specific than what I was getting at though…
There may be cases where, when in doubt, it might make sense to give someone a cell number when you don’t know what to do and you’re worried about the consequences of not doing so. Sometimes, you have not been told to give out that person’s number but it just seems right to do it. I’ve been there, and given the choice between losing major accounts or giving my boss’s cell phone number, I chose giving the number. Did I have the privilege to give the number out? It’s not clear – never at any point in time did he say “yes you may give out my number”. There was no policy written on the topic. It basically boiled down to risk assessment: how do I think he will react to me doing this. In this case I chanced giving the number and everything worked out. In fact, if I hadn’t done so, it’s likely I would have been called out on the carpet for it.
I realize this is a rare thing, and it’s specific more to certain kinds of time sensitive business, but it does happen. As a result, I won’t admit that giving out someone’s cell number prior to a formal discussion about it is always wrong. Almost always, sure, but it depends on the type of company. Splitting hairs, yeah. Sorry about that.
Sometimes the line is real fuzzy. I don’t think someone who defaulted on the side of not giving the information out is doing the wrong thing, just that it may not be the wrong thing (and may make more business sense) to give it out.
If the company doesn’t have a receptionist, or business cards, and a lot of people use their home phones or cell phones interchangeably with their office lines, and it’s the type of business where people meet at coffee shops or wherever, this line starts to blur. These are the types of companies where it might be better to give it out, even if there hasn’t been an “official” discussion about who can provide what information – provided you feel relatively sure that it’s going to be ok. It’s a cultural thing with the place you work. Some places it’s just sort of expected that you’ll be handing around AIM handles and cell phone numbers despite no one giving explicit permission, and that’s just how everyone works.
The approach you’re describing here is frankly far too slow for some types of business, where this process has to happen in about 90 seconds when someone in an ops center realizes they’re about to lose a ton of money for the company. Now, in reality, the way I would always personally try to deal with this situation is to call the employee myself, and simply ask them to call the client immediately, because (believe it or not) I try to be nice and I’d rather not give out someone’s number if I can avoid it. It’s only in cases where this becomes difficult or impossible that the decision has to be made, and it’s not an absolute in all cases.
Also, I wouldn’t say that it’s a good or a bad business decision, just that it could be either, and it’s not possible to generalize without knowing the type of business.
No. I very strongly disagree with you here. While you seem to be lamenting the loss of exceeding customer service expectations, I fall on the side of lamenting the loss of basic common courtesy, which is; do not divulge personal, private contact information that you are not expressly authorized to reveal. When in doubt, always err on the side of a person’s right to privacy.
If the client in question is so important, or the matter so urgent, or you are that worried about the consequences of the client and your co-worker connecting right away, then it is incumbent upon you to go the extra mile and call your associate yourself. Never, ever, ever divulge private contact information to strangers!
And in my world that’s never the right thing to do. My boss would chew me a new asshole for giving out his personal cell number.
Then I contend that you did not have the privilege of passing it out at your whim. It’s not your number nor place to divulge it.
You got lucky. My boss would never in a million years tolerate that.
Still not with you there. Even if it’s rare, and even if it’s unique to certain types of business, one would always be safer in protecting private information than divulging it. As I said, you make the call. Pass the client’s number on to your associate and let them decide whether that person should have their personal contact information or not.
Well now you’re again describing a completely different set of circumstances. If someone uses their home, cell and office numbers interchangeably, then it’s moot, and falls under the heading of “duh.”
GAH! You, yourself, proscribe to the decorum I’m arguing, but then you go on and on about making judgment calls.
I can’t begin to imagine where it would become difficult or impossible to decide to make the call yourself and thereby protect someone’s privacy vs giving away personal information so that someone else can make a call that you’re perfectly capable of making yourself.
I guess we’ll have to agree to agree that the proper procedure is to protect the employee’s privacy and place the call yourself, but part ways on whether there’s ever a set of circumstances (short of an actual life or death emergency!) where that rule can be broken.
Yeah, I think so.
I think a big part of it is knowing the co-worker in question. I have two co-workers who are forever giving out their cell number. These two would give their cell number to a lamppost if it looked interested. They work at two or three different offices interchangeably, and it is non-trivial to predict where they’ll be on what day. For them, cell phones and BlackBerries are the only way they can do business. If a client wanted either of their cell phone numbers, they’d have that number in a heartbeat.
Conversely, neither of those employees will ever get my cell phone number, because they wouldn’t be able to understand my Stone Age paranoia about mobile devices. I use my cell phone to place calls and would throw it into a river the first time I ever got a business call on it. It’s a personal phone; I have a telephone on my desk (the only place I work) and two e-mail addresses for work. When I’m working I have access to all three of those; when I’m not working, nobody at work has the ability to contact me.
I pay the bill on the phone, and I intend its use to be a convenience for me and those who care about me. I suspect that my two co-workers itemize their phone bills and either take a tax deduction for phone usage or get reimbursed.
I think S&D made the right call; any potential “emergency” needs to be weighed against the potential hassle of the worker changing their cell phone to a new number and/or having a three-year-old answer the phone.
Its time to let the cat out of the bag. What industry are we talking about? Do you make wedding cakes or shoe polish?
One would assume Mr. Center-of-the-Universe has access to a phone of some sort.
He could or rather should have made an appointment or made arrangements to get the “Oh so important papers” in advance.
SOS. Mr. Big, Mr. Center-of-the-Universe blames others for his shortcomings! :rolleyes:
IMO, I think you should definitely ask for guidance from your supervisor about how request/demands for contact information should be handled in the future, since this is a situation that certainly could come up again. In the absence of any directive or understand that it was okay to give our a personal number, I agree that you absolutely did the right thing to refuse – but it still could come back to bite you in the ass if your rep comes looking for you with an attitude “of course I would have talked to him and you should have given him the number and you should have known that’s what I would want you to do.”
Some companies are very clear that reps who are out are out and not to be disturbed, and others are very clear that reps are to be available whenever and wherever they have to be in order to get a deal closed – because in big-ticket sales, for example, you need to close the deal when the customer wants to close the deal, otherwise he might decide (a) he can buy his boat/car/house from someone else or (b) on second thought, he doesn’t really need it or want it.
Since I don’t know what the business is and you do, I assume you made the right determination regarding whether it was appropriate to give out the number or not. But it’s worth noting that if a deal may hang on Mr. Big’s ability to talk to the rep and not be alienated, the rep may not actually thank you for protecting his day off for him. And if the Big Boss is so invested in accommodating the customers that he keeps the shop open seven days a week, he may have other ideas as to how available the reps should be as well. So I would definitely ask for clear guidance on how to handle this situation in the future, just to make sure you have covered your own ass. It’s not your call to make, and I don’t say that because as a receptionist you’re incapable of the responsibility, but because as a receptionist you shouldn’t have to take the blame for having made the wrong decision.