A customer called the help line last night and left a voice message.
The customer was extremely difficult to understand.
I tried my best to make out the message. I could hear the woman telling me that the problem was the AC unit, but I did not hear most of her phone number or her name. I knew she’d mentioned Orland Park, which is a small suburb outside of Chicago. Orland Park is an area that we service. I tried to match the phone number with one of our existing clients, but I didn’t have any luck. I hoped the customer would call again. Around 10:30 in the morning, I saw another phone number on the caller ID from Orland Park. I hoped it was the same customer calling again. I answered the phone and the woman on the line started yelling and screaming. She demanded to know where the service technician was to fix her AC unit. I asked the woman very politely to calm down. I asked her if she had an appointment. She told me that she left a message on the answering service and then I knew the lady was the person we were trying to reach. I calmly told the woman that her message was too difficult to understand. I told her that we had a repair technician standing by and we would send someone immediately. After the woman realized that the problem was a simple miscommunication error, she stopped yelling and asked me to send someone as soon as possible.