“I don’t have 20 minutes to talk to you”

A customer had been having an issue with an organization for over a year without a resolution. The contact person responded to yet another inquiry from the customer with an angry, “I don’t have 20 minutes to talk to you about this today.” 

Now, the contact person might not have had time that day to discuss the issue with the customer, but the customer had been trying to work with the organization for a resolution for over a year. The employee might not have 20 minutes that day to deal with the problem, but why did he think that the customer had over a year’s worth of time to deal with it? The customer wanted the problem solved more than the employee.

If your organization takes over a year to solve a customer’s issue, the problem is not with the customer, the problem is how your organization is dealing with it. Your organization may not be able to completely fix a situation, but it does have the ability to present reasonable solutions to a customer in a timely manner.