Our office telephone number is one digit away from two physicians’ offices, and we often get calls and voicemail messages from people who have medical questions or want prescription refills.
I always talk to those folks when they call, and I always return the messages when they’re left on my voicemail because I think it’s the right thing to do.
I try to redirect them back to the physicians that they were trying to reach.
People are often surprised that they reached a live person when I answer the phone or that anyone called them back in response to a voicemail because they’re so used to I guess terrible customer service in all kinds of fields, but these often turn into very nice conversations.
And on the one hand, they’re happy that somebody called them back and they’re talking to somebody live, and for me it’s an opportunity to quickly solve a problem that really doesn’t take very much time out of my day.
It is nice to know that even these wrong numbers can lead to a very good interaction for both of us.