[ceejay]

Coming from a retail background, I can attest to the fact that MANAGEMENT INSISTS that you answer the phone.

I worked for a major box club. The phone was constantly ringing. We were instructed to answer the phone by the third ring which meant leaving the living, breathing customer in front of us, picking up the phone, making sure you answered with the 3 sentence phone greeting, listening to their request and then directing them to the right department. The right department was always a manager, who, of course, did not EVER pick up the phone.

I pleaded and begged constantly with them to change this policy, to no avail. It MUST be picked up by the third ring. My greeting went something like this:

ThankyouforcallingBJ'sWholesaleClubwherewefeaturet helowestpriceintiresshopwithusandcomparepleasehold .

Half the time, I never got back to the call and they hung up...guess it wasn't that important. Hey...at least I answered by the third ring (nearly killing myself in the process to rush from one end of the counter to the other).

Now I work for a bank and they expect us to do the SAME thing...yeah, right.