I worked in a corporate environment for many years with pretty stringent rules.  One of them was about the greeting on our voice mailboxes.  It was important to say your name, the department where you work and, if you were going to be out of the office, when you will return.  This provides the best example of good customer service so that anyone calling has the proper information and expectations.   I continue this practice at the ARL, especially since I work part time and am not always there. 

Despite the fact that I say in my message, “please listen carefully” that I don’t work in the kennel and cannot answer questions pertaining to the animals, I still get a lot of inquiries about the animals and some are quite puzzling!  A few weeks ago, I was out on Friday and changed my message Thursday afternoon before I left, and said I would not be back in until Monday.  As I checked my messages that Monday, I was amazed to hear a woman had left me a message on Thursday night that her cat was having kittens.  What should she do?  And she didn’t leave a return phone number.  My next message was the same woman, asking why I hadn’t called her back!  Oh dear…  This is so frustrating on several levels.  First, how did this woman miss my message not just once but twice??  And why would she call the ARL if her cat was having kittens? I felt very helpless that I had no way of getting back to her and now she probably thinks that I’m terribly rude for not helping her!  (And I still can't understand why she would call the ARL about this.  Call your vet, for goodness sake!)

Other messages I’ve received were inquiries about how someone’s dog was doing while in boarding, did the cats that a woman dropped off get adopted, and why did I cash the check for her cat’s neutering when she said not to cash it for 2 weeks.  I didn’t do it!  Honest!

Just a little bit of listening goes a long way and saves time in the long-run.