Just answer the &!# phone!




 

 

If you call the South Jetty and hear a recording that says, “Thank you for calling the South Jetty newspaper. If you know your party’s extension, you may dial it now. For display advertising, press 1; for classified advertising, press 2. For news, press 3. To subscribe or renew your subscription, press 4. For bookkeeping, press 5. To speak to an operator, please stay on the line. To repeat these options, press the star key” . . . you’ll know I’ve retired.

This is a family-owned business with 10 full-time employees. We get lots of phone calls on a rotary system with three lines. Several staff members use their personal phones for business purposes as well.

We have three people designated to answer the phone. If the first designee doesn’t catch the call on the first ring, the second person picks up, and if the second or third line rings, the third person takes the call.

It’s not hard, and no one is overburdened in our very busy office.

We also have an intercom system, but the one we use the most is our vocal cords, in only a slightly raised voice, to call across the hall, “Hey Dan, can we file our stories now?”

In a small town, it is off-putting to call a small business or organization and get the recorded options. When that happens, a cartoon bubble pops in my head: A group of people is standing around a phone, staring at it eagerly and listening to the recording with anticipation that the call might be for one of them.

It’s a little silly, really.

This is Port Aransas-for-god’s-sake-Texas. Other than some lodging facilities, many of which have real, live people answering their phones, the marine science institute and the school (whose secretaries answer the phone when they are at their desks) we are a collection of small, home-owned businesses. City Hall still has a living, breathing human being who answers calls, except for those times when it’s closed or when they are overwhelmed with calls, such as during a hurricane evacuation.

Can we not bother to answer our phones in person?

If we can’t, that’s a real disconnect.

Mary Henkel Judson is editor and co-publisher of the South Jetty. Contact her at editor@portasouthjetty.com, (361) 749-5131 or P.O. Box 1117, Port Aransas, TX 78373.


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