Phone calls during the inspection

[Tom Raymond]

The last time I checked, a cell phone was still a phone (admittedly, just barely). We as a society have been practicing basic telephone etiquette for about 100 years, we should have it figured out by now. If our consultations occured in an office over a desk we wouldn't be expected to miss a call, why should a cell phone be any different. Answer the phone but be polite about it, we were all taught how to do that before we left grade school.

If it's bidness I answer, if it's personal I'll call you back. It's good manners!

Tom

[Bill Kibbel]

If our consultations occured in an office over a desk we wouldn't be expected to miss a call, why should a cell phone be any different.

I really disagree. If someone made an appointment to meet with me in my office, I would expect to devote my attention to the client in front of me. If I made an appointment with any type of consultant that I hired, and that person answered calls to schedule other business during time scheduled with me, I would immediately walk away and find someone more professional.

I've recently met with my insurance agent, mortgage broker, financial advisor and car dealer. These professionals respected my time and devoted all of their attention to my needs during the scheduled appointment. I once dreamed that we would someday be considered professional consultants.

[kurt]

Yes. Double yes.

I always check my phone when it rings just to make sure it isn't my daughter or another family member with an emergency. I explain that "I'm checking to make sure it's not my daughter" is what's conveyed to the customer.

That's as far as it goes.

I would no more answer a phone call while I was talking to a client than I'd drop my pants to take a dump.

If any consultant that I'm involved with answered their phone while they were talking to me, I'd also walk out, and never look back.

[Mike Lamb]

Originally posted by Tom Raymond

I've recently met with my insurance agent, mortgage broker, financial advisor and car dealer. These professionals respected my time and devoted all of their attention to my needs during the scheduled appointment. I once dreamed that we would someday be considered professional consultants.

This is different. What consultant do you spend 4 or 5 hours with? I answer my phone during inspections and talk to people. I'm not chatty with anyone, especially my family. The only sacred time when I may not answer is when I'm reviewing the report with the client, and I swear my wife or kids always call at this time.

[Richard Saunders]

Personally, I don't answer my cell phone EVER unless it's somebody I know, but that's just me. I never answer it during an inspection unless I am alone. Clients can call the office and leave a message, or not. I lose a job or two, boo-f*****g-hoo. There have been a few 'family crisis' times when I have let the client know I may have to answer the phone and why.

[mgbinspect]

Here we go...

profession n. 1. An occupation that properly involves a liberal, scientific or artistic education. 2. The collective body of those following such occupations. 3, The act of professing or declaring; declaration: professions of good will. 4. That which is avowed or professed; a declaration. 5. The act of binding oneself to a religious order; also, the condition of being so bound -Syn. OCCUPATION.

professional adj. 1. Connected with, preparing for, engaged in, appropriate to, or conforming to a profession: professional courtesy. 2.Of or pertaining to an occupation pursued for gain: a professional ball player. - n 1. One who pursues as a business some vocation or occupation. 2, One who engages for money to compete in sports. 3, One skilled in a profession, craft or art.

Our imaginations of a "professional" are our own, and not based upon the definition. Worse yet, we tend to romanticize the word based more upon appearance than on delivering the goods. In reality there are people who look professional and suck (or worse yet are very well dressed con-men), and there are people that don't comply with our idealized picture of a professional that are in fact highly professional.

My favorite professional structural engineer shows up in jeans, a white teeshirt, suspenders and wears a big handlebar mustache. He looks like an old gold prospector. People absolutely LOVE him and he is without any doubt, one of the best engineers I've ever seen. Not only is he brilliant, he rarely guesses about anything. He puts his theory to the test by breaking out a shovel and digging down to the footing if possible. He's head and shoulders above any pressed shirt and pants engineer I've ever met in my sixteen years of doing this.

The fact is, there is no right or wrong answer to this one. It's clearly a matter of "to each his own". I'm guessing that most opposed can feel as strongly as they do because there is actually a secretary somewhere answering the phone. Meeting professionals in an office really isn't a good or fair example because most of those professionals have someone just outside their office door that doesn't miss a call, so he or she never actually loses business. And, under those circumstances, I would agree that if that professional ELECTED to take a call that he clearly didn't have to take while I'm sitting there, sure, that would be pretty annoying.

All I know is I've been answering my phone on appointments to book inspections since 1997, when I broke out on my own. No one has ever complained. Everyone understands. And everyone seems to think I'm a good and quite professional inspector. I don't have a wife, girlfriend, child or answering service to field my calls. There are a lot of good inspectors in my area and there is no doubt in my mind that if I didn't answer my phone, I'd probably loose a good 33% of my business, because most folks around here have a little list of "good inspectors" to call and the first one to answer the phone gets the business. (And of course, thank heaven for the 66% that want me, because I am me.)

On a sadder note, if I had not answered my phone on March 10th 2009 at 8:30 AM during an inspection, I would not have learned that my younger brother was found dead in his bed for hours after the fact and it would have been someone else sharing that horrid news to my 83 year old parents. (His girlfriend made the call and I did not know or recognize the number. If I had been screening calls she would not have gotten through to me.) I am eternally thankful that I answered my phone that morning and was the one to gently break that awful news to my father. I had to tell him three times before he was willing to actually hear it, and I cannot imagine him hearing it from someone else.

Hi, my name is Mike, and I answer my phone...

Oh, I do have to back up one step - If, as Kurt has suggested, I am in the middle of speaking to or presenting findings to my client, then no, I don't answer it, but I do call right back. I don't answer 800 numbers either - obviously telemarketers.

[Brandon Whitmore]

I'm guessing that most opposed can feel as strongly as they do because there is actually a secretary somewhere answering the phone.

No secretary here. As a general rule, I will not answer my phone if clients are at the inspection.

[mgbinspect]

I'm guessing that most opposed can feel as strongly as they do because there is actually a secretary somewhere answering the phone.

No secretary here. As a general rule, I will not answer my phone if clients are at the inspection.

You're missing my point. Again, there is no wrong or right answer. Answering the phone is a choice that we each, as professionals, make. It is not the decisive factor as to whether we are professional or not. Can you admit that there are inspectors that dress nicely and don't answer the phone that are horrible inspectors, and there are inspectors that dress badly and answer their phone that are exceptionally gifted inspectors?

It's fine for us to have strong opinions and romanticized ideas regarding who and what we are, but beware that those notions don't give birth to prejudices that have no real basis in fact.

I have no strong opinion about or prejudice toward folks regarding their phone activity on site, and really don't think it has much to do with the quality of the work we are there to do. That's my final two cents.

[Brandon Whitmore]

I didn't miss your point. I've read your post twice, and was only replying to the sentence in quotes.

I just figured I'd throw what I do out there to add to the list. I'm opposed to answering my phone when it comes to the way I do business, and agree that each of us must choose what is right for ourselves. I'm not judgin'.

[mgbinspect]

I didn't miss your point. I've read your post twice, and was only replying to the sentence in quotes.

I just figured I'd throw what I do out there to add to the list. I'm opposed to answering my phone when it comes to the way I do business, and agree that each of us must choose what is right for ourselves. I'm not judgin'.

Then I owe you an apology, Brandon, and you have it. [:-thumbu]

[Chad Fabry]

I was completely without a cell phone from 2005 until 2009. Spending upwards of 8,000 minutes a month doing fema's nefarious bidding pretty much burned out any desire to be available for quite some time.

During the inspection my phone is in my truck. My family survived almost 50 years of me not being instantly available. If any pro that I hired spent more than 45 seconds on the phone 1 time, I'd leave. Call me funny but when folks are working for me I expect them to be focused on me because it's me that's paying them to pay attention to me.

I have a particular disdain Bluetooth wearing agents walking around spewing lies in a conversation with thin air. Sometimes I don't think they're actually talking to anyone... they're practicing; it takes practice to be that good.

[randynavarro]

Yep. Our new age of information has certainly tweaked and blurred the rules of propriety and social interaction.

I'm a tad old-fashioned and live by the Golden Rule. I don't like it when someone answers the phone while trying to help me - be it a cell or land line.

So, I don't answer the phone when I'm speaking with someone else.

But. . . I'll answer the phone in an inspection if the client is in another part of the house or not with me.

[Jim Morrison]

I keep the phone on me, but the ringer is on 'vibrate'. I would pick up a call I thought could be emergent, but not a business call. I also freely admit to sending and responding to inappropriate text messages if my client isn't with me, but those instances are (regrettably) few and far between.

[mgbinspect]

And, there you have in Jason. Aren't you glad you asked? So, what are you going to do now?

[NJinspector]

Wow, thanks for all the responses.

I've started picking up the phone, and haven't had a client complain yet. For the most part, this is only a minute or two, of the three to four hours i'm with them . I keep the call short and tell them i'm on an inspection.

I might be wrong, but the clients that have been referred by past clients will wait hours for you to call back, the price shoppers will just move on. I'm still new, the extra one or two inspections missed or booked makes a difference.