I have a habit of testing my employees when they don’t know they are being tested.
Last week, I called the receptionist who takes all of my phone calls. I left the phone ring four times, and I hung up. Two minutes later, I called again. I left the phone ring ten times before I hung up again. When I called the third time, she finally answered. I was upset, and I told her that when I called, she should be answering the phone. She didn’t know it was the owner of the HVAC company calling. If she had known it was me, she would have answered the phone immediately. As it was, she was on the phone with a customer and trying to talk her down. She was so upset that I couldn’t understand that she had been taught that the customer came first. I told her that every customer came first and she should have answered the phone to make sure it wasn’t a true emergency. I had three HVAC technicians sitting on their butts and there was no reason why one of them couldn’t have helped out and answered a phone. When I got back to the HVAC company, I told her she was doing her best, but the two HVAC techs sitting in the break room were about to hear me out. I expect a lot out of my HVAC techs and these two were not doing their jobs. All because they are HVAC techs and not receptionists, their responsibility was to the customer, and that is who is calling.