Changing times............cell phone usage

[Randy88]

I'm curious if others have noticed that cell phone usage by the world has changed business and maybe not for the good.

I have gotten quite a few customers who literally demand we carry phones when on their property, they want to call to find out what's going on, are constantly calling for updates and are an all around pain in the arse at times, those customers have a blue tooth in their own ear 24/7 and see nothing wrong with the rest of the world doing the same thing and expect everyone who does work for them to answer their phone whenever the whim to call arises.

I've lectured my crew in the past, same as today and I'm finding I'm losing a battle, mainly due to customers wants and needs I find it about impossible to back up the clock and ban cell phones on the jobsites anymore.

I'm also finding this is spilling over into my entire life, those that feel its now normal to have a phone permanently attached to their ear, feel its perfectly fine to call ALL the time, even if your not on their property, anytime they have a question about an upcoming project or completed project, they just call and ask, then chat some about whatever and do this repeatedly at any time of the day or night. My older crew has complained about this, my younger help doesn't seem to mind at all.

Basically what was used as a safety line and way to communicate between jobs sites and to save steps and time, has now gone to becoming a major time waster and a royal pain to deal with.

Myself, I'm finding all I do is answer my phone, as boss, anytime an employee calls I've always answered it, usually they had a major need to call, but over the years, I feel all I've done is create a much dumber set of employee's, they no longer have to think, troubleshoot or make a decision, they just push speed dial and get an answer. When customers call, I answer the phone or call them back when it works out for me. We try to accommodate customers as much as we can, but when is enough enough.

I did some reviewing a few days ago, I got up at 4am, and went to bed at 11:30pm, had over 60 calls and was on the phone over 7 hours total during the day, and not one single call I made to anyone for anything I needed, most were customers, employee's, and telemarketers, customers taking the lead in time spend, and surprisingly none of them we were on THEIR jobsite or property at the time.

We gave up having anyone answer the phone at the shop, all they did was tell off telemarketers, since no customers would call the shop anymore, they wanted to talk directly to me/us.

Is it possible to back up the clock, hire a phone answerer/secretary again, ban all phones in every job site, force everyone including truck drivers to leave them in their personal vehicle at the shop and go back to two way radios again and force the customer to come to us instead of picking up the phone. This has been hashed over considerably and we just don't know if we'd lose their work completely or not.

I've chatted with customers on this topic and those with a blue tooth in their ear don't feel they've done anything wrong and demand if your on their property, this is how it'll be done or else, as for calling when on other job sites, I've told them I'll bill them for the time spent if they keep it up, it gets very quiet, I'm not sure it would fly or not, the problem is, they are now the bulk of the customers who do this, its no longer an isolated case and every day it gets worse it seems.

How do others handle this, and what's another 20 years going to bring, I've at times had a personal assistant [wife or employee] who I hand my phone to, tell them to take names and numbers, be polite and screen the calls for me and unless someone is about dead, don't bother me today I want to work in peace and quiet. I know times change, but when is it going to turn the corner again to something different..............oh, maybe it has, now some are texting us as well....................god I hate texting with a passion. Sorry for the rant.

 

[roddyo]

I've had the same mobile number over 15 years and recently changed it. Very few people got my new number. Those that did understood not to give it to anyone under any circumstance.

My quality of life and production went thru the roof. It's amazing how much time people will leach off you if you let them.

 

[JBGASH]

Randy, the phone has become a way of operation but I find a text message instead of a call lessons the wasted time factor.

 

[John C.]

I screen the call before I answer if I am in a spot where I can see it. If I'm up to my shoulders in mud and muck I turn the ringer off. They can leave a message or it wasn't that important. If I get a pest I'll warn them once and then start sending bills charged by the minute. That usually slows the free loaders down considerably. Most of the time now days the people in my circle are pretty considerate. When I had employees they had company cell phones and we reviewed the bills each month. Personal calls were billed back to the employees. If I got a complaint from a customer that an employee on their site was becoming a problem because of unproductive time on a cell phone they were warned once and then written up if it was a problem again.

Like it or not, cell phones have changed the way business is done.

 

[willie59]

I feel your pain Randy88, and especially so in your circumstances dealing with job customers, like the phone calls in the evening when you're on "your time", that would be a buzzkill for sure. For me, it's kind of been the opposite in keeping up with a rental fleet. When I first hired on here, all calls came to my office desk phone. I'd be knee deep and upside down working on a machine in the shop and get a page on the speaker for a phone call. Unfold myself, drop what I'm doing, walk in the office, could be a rental customer with a problem, and could be a solicitor as well. In both cases I was interrupted and spent several minutes to make the distraction round trip. Nowdays, every rental machine has a sticker in the cab with my cell number. If they have a problem, they contact me straight up wherever I am. Any calls made to my office phone go unanswered, whether it be a vendor or a solicitor, leave a message and I'll call back if I'm interested.

One intuitive rental customer we have has taken it to the next level. The supply hose that feeds the Allied M18 breaker mounted on a Kobelco SK250 blows. He doesn't call me, he sends me a text message complete with a pic of the busted hose. Just seeing that pic I know I need and 1 1/4" hose 82 inches long with #20 JIC female fittings. Just seeing that pic, I know exactly what I'm working on and what I need to fix it. I simply send him a text reply back "K". Dispatched by text, no call, no 2 3 4 minute conversation explaining the problem to me, just a text message, pic, and go. It's made things way more efficient for me.

 

[ol'stonebreaker]

Being 68 and retired friends tell me I should get a smart phone. I still pack my flip phone and tell all friends and whoever needs to contact me to call. I don't like to text and I got the damn thing to talk on and then not very much. I've heard too many tales of younger workers standing around texting about things not job related or playing games on the phone and there's work to be done.
Mike

 

[Mike L]

I agree with willie. Text and pictures has made my life so much easier.having a tablet or iPad takes it even further. Now I can have schematics and parts breakdowns emailed to me so the parts guy and I can both see the same diagram and lessen the chance of a miscommunication.

 

[Randy88]

We call them the phone generation of managers/owners/business person/whatever you'd like to call them they are starting to get on my nerves a little. I have kids of my own, hire younger people to help us and have been chatting with them about this problem. I'm being told and finding out they think far differently than the generation before them, which is a mild understatement at best.

I'm finding they think more in terms of group thinking, which really had to be explained to me exactly what it is and how they work. In generations past, the owners would do everything in house so to speak, all decisions were made before I ever got a call, they would decide what work was important, when they wanted it done, maybe not exactly how it would be done, but they knew and had already made up their mind it was a go deal, just figure out from there who was going to do it, and make the call. I'd go and chat with them, discuss what needed doing and then formulate a plan to fix or correct the problem or install new completely, pretty simple and virtually no phone tag involved, hardly any phones involved at all.

With the new generation with a blue tooth in their ear, who grew up with a cell phone in their hand, they think in terms of groups, everyone they know and do business with is just a number punch away, to ask anything to at any time of the day or night and they do this from behind the wheel of a tractor, pickup or whatever on the go as they work. So more and more I'm drawn into the inner workings of business's that even a decade ago I was never contacted about, basically I'm used to figure out if the project is worth doing, how much it'll cost, how long it'll take and this goes on for dozens of projects at the same time for the same people, then it goes into some sort of collective decision making process within and I'm notified its either a go or no go, and up to three or four dozen calls later and more time spent than you can shake a stick at and about half the time we actually do some work. I'm not outbid, and they don't get someone else, they just plain decide not to do it at all or at that time, so dozens of projects are kept in limbo and discussed for months, years or up to decades and rehashed over and over again.

I'm not sure texting would ever help, probably only make it worse, I'd then be bombarded with pictures I'd be expected to keep for years on my phone in storage somewhere to go look up later on, for comparison of how the problem has progressed.

For the phone generation its great, they have dozens of people on beckons call 24/7 to group think with and sound ideas off of and they never have to stop doing whatever it is they are doing, and those that think the same way they do, have hundreds of things going on all at the same time just like they do, and somehow............I'm not really sure how, but they come up with a list of importance, which is still a mystery to me due to what jobs they finally decide to actually do, I guess its important for them, sure not what I'd do or the generation before them would consider important but then we proceed with that job.

Its how these people operate I'm told................most would leave a voice mail and wait for you to get back to them, not this generation, they leave dozens of calls, each slightly different and it takes a secretary to keep track of what's going on with whom and in which operation and at what location, toss into the mix some of the operations have grown so much over the past few decades, there are multiple thinkers involved and they operate the same way, and now for one operation and one problem, we have four or more people involved, all with phones, none taking the time to stop and have a major pow wow and do it all on the go and via cell phones but don't believe in conference calls, you have to chat individually with each and in one day you can get up to 30 plus calls to discuss the same problem and possible solutions. Multiply that times the number of operations we deal with, toss into the mix my help receiving calls as well and now we are finding ourselves a group of workers/contractors are now involved in the inner workings of multiple business's and no longer just someone hired to do the actual work when its finally decided its a go thing. I'm not sure I ever signed up for this nor want to be signed up for it either, my crew feels the same way.

I've talked to others, not contractors, but electricians, plumbers, cement crews and I'm finding out I'm not alone with this issue, they all refer to them as the phone generation as well and they are all clueless as to how to deal with them. As one told me, I don't want to charge them for my time, because I don't want to spend my time dealing with this stuff, I'm not interested in living on the phone that much, if I charge, they'll call in the middle of night and all day on sunday as well. I'm thinking he's right, by charging it'll only get worse not better. A few friends who are also in business have refused to deal with them and lost all their work completely, it gets down to, the phone generation refuses to change or alter their style of thinking to accommodate anyone. We all sat around and discussed what another 20 years is going to bring and they all assured me they didn't want to be around to see it.

My crew went from years ago talking me into using cell phones to now wanting out of them completely, its spilled over into their private lives just like it has mine. This phone generation operates on large scale and when they finally do decide to do something, the jobs are large but to get there is beyond anyone's worst nightmare. I've chatted with the older generation in these operations and what can they say, they can't criticize, its usually family, they are getting the job done, they don't exactly see eye to eye with their management style, but as one reminded me, neither did the generation before him, so who's to say its wrong, he turned out fine and so did the operation.

 

[old-iron-habit]

I prefur texting but unless I am waiting for information I only look at it my phone every hour or two. I reply at that time if the phone message or text is worthy of a reply. Otherwise I will text or call back at the end of day. The BS ones I call the next morning. It's amazing how many folks don't like a 6:00 AM call. Somehow the urgency is gone by then. Most have figured out my system and have cut down on their trying to reach me over BS. I like the idea of billing someone that constantly bug you for no good reason. Not sure if it would get paid but they may think a bit. That being said I would struggle without my iphone and ipad. I hardly ever turn on the regular computer anymore.

 

[wornout wrench]

When I was still on the field service crew we had iPads in the truck loaded with service information, manuals, schematics, anything we could get in electronic form. We also had a PDF map that showes where we are in the division. (logging, most GPS maps quit when you leave the pavement). The map alone saved my bacon more than once.

I also had the most common parts books right on my iphone.

Since most of the division is out of cell range, not much texting or phone calls but pictures were used all the time, then when you got back into cell range either send an email with a picture attached or a quick text. If you were in a zone where cell worked even better.

Now that I am in the shop (they are letting me steer the boat right now, scary!) and I have lots of younger guys out that are still learning, the text messages with pictures at the end of the night are a huge help to set the day shift guys up for anything that needs to be done, not to mention how much easier it is to pass the information on to my supervisor in a way that he can understand.

I have a network of friends that do the same thing that I do, we text pictures and problems to each other all the time, pick each others brains. It works, it is a tool, why not use it. In 3 years when I retire the next generation will move up to my spot, they will have their own way of doing things just like I had mine when i was younger.

 

[crewchief888]

personally, i leave my (company supplied) Iphone in my service truck while i'm working.

i'm in contact with my boss a couple times a day, he knows where i'm going in the morning, and if he needs to "just check and see" where i'm at , the truck has a GPS locator on it.

if he needs me during the day he sends me an email with customer info and location., if i dont respond within an hr he calls and leaves a message, (just as a reminder to check my phone, MY idea, not his).

when i get home the phone gets left by the back door, and stays there till the next morning if it goes off, i'll answer it when i feel like it.

we were told that we could use the new phones for personal calls, text, email ect, as they are on unlimited plans, but i dont.
3or 4 people outside of work have my number, maybe once a month i'll get a text or call from them...

i dont have a personal cell phone, found out 8 years ago i really didnt need one.
when we shut off the land line, the wife got a new Iphone. she hadnt had a cell phone for several years


:drinkup

 

[Old Junk Man]

I had a cell phone when I was driving truck. I got rid of it. Ive got a hard line.

 

[bdog1234]

60 calls and 7 hrs in one day is crazy. I run a business and probably don't do that much in two weeks.

I know you say you dislike texting but I love it. You can can keep conversations short and to the point, reply at your leisure, and there is record of it. I try to establish texting communications with all my clients to avoid long times on the phone. Most things can be asked or answered in a couple sentences and if I need to I can easily look back on what was discussed. I use email a lot as well. I try to avoid talking to people whenever I can because it eats up time and inevitably sooner or later you will run into someone claiming they told you something different than they did or other misunderstandings. If it is in black and white that eliminates a lot of miscommunication.

I had a job recently where the client was an 80 yr old man who didn't have a cell phone, no fax machine, no computer, etc. Everything was verbal and I am 100% positive we did exactly what he told us to but he swore up and down he told us something different. It cost me a couple grand to fix it and I wished so bad we had texts or emails to back up my side.

 

[Randy88]

We have a few customers who text, the bulk of customers hate texting about as much as I do and for the same reasons, most are getting older and need glass's to read them first, which nobody carries unless they have bifocals on all the time or with the sun they can't read the screen and lastly, most still use flip phones that are waterproof, like the Motorola quantico and there are few newer phones of similar quality that are a real time waster trying to punch out anything on them where they could just pick up the phone and chat for a second then back to work.

The blue tooth people refuse to text anything, I've asked and the answer is no, if your working for them, its cell phone conversations only, no emails, no texting, no ipads and no land lines get used, just reading that sentence makes a person think about society changes in general.

I guess this is the bulk of the discussion we've been having, is it possible to force a customer to do what we want, or since they are the customer do we have to do what they want?? The other issue is, can we charge for our time we spend on the phone with them, where 20 years ago those conversations would never have taken place at all, this has only come about with "their" management style, not ours?

As for photo's and having an ipad, I know quite a few that use them and love them, mechanics seem to take the lead in my area for those loving them, and I can see why for their needs, but for the business owner and operator who digs dirt and stands in trenches all day long or operating machines, some with no cabs on, and others with no heat and none with air conditioning I'm not seeing the benefit, neither is my crew. There are times we need to have a laptop along for the day, with the wireless internet and to be honest, for our needs it a total pain and I hate to have to take it anywhere, it doesn't save me time, it just takes more time and something else to deal with on the jobsite.

I know quite a few customers with smart phones, and since their introduction I'm finding most have gone from loving them, to now going away from them, a couple customers told me, they are just another distraction and something else to deal with while trying to work and they are just not worth it, that can wait till their at home sitting in a chair and have time.

As for changing phone numbers, I've done that about four times now, and gave that up, anyone who wants the number can get it from somewhere and someone they know would have it. As a business owner people need to be able to get ahold of you, I understand this, and in the last few decades, people have gone from getting ahold of the business itself, to wanting to talk directly to whoever within the business, its how things have progressed I guess you could say, some call it an industry shift, or society change or whatever you refer to it as, things do change weather we like it or not.

As for documentation, we use work order forms or bid forms to describe work we need to perform and use signatures to solve issues up front, no written description of the work needing done, no signature, no work gets done.

 

[Rajbir Lorriet]

I use cell phone too. But I like to send text message rather than talking.

 

[digger242j]

Well, you can have the other end of the spectrum too.

I got a call this morning from a guy that works for one of the builders I do work for. He was going to be on a different sire than I was going to be on today.

"Did you call me?"

"Uh, no, not recently anyway. Why?"

"I just thought you called me. I saw your number on my phone."

Later, one of their other guys was on the site with me. He tells me that the guy was in the process of loading their concrete bucket into their truck, to bring it to me. The second guy knew there was no earthly reason for me to need that bucket today, and suggested he call to make sure I wanted it.

This is, by the way, a company issued cell phone.

I checked my phone. The last time I called guy #1 was a full month ago, and as usual, he didn't bother answering. He finally picked up my voicemail this morning...

:Banghead

 

[CM1995]

I feel your pain. This era of "constant contact" via cell phone has bled over to scheduling as well. Now some think it's perfectly acceptable to call you at 4 PM and need you there the next morning at 7. Like someone else said - it's a byproduct of the phone call manager.

The record number of phone calls I got in one day was 32, 2 of those personal and the other 30 weren't money makers.

 

[handtpipeline]

Most people that know me, know it's a lot easier to get ahold of me by text. Even if they text me to call them... If I'm making a weld on pipe, or setting something in with a trackhoe, or something of that nature, I'm NOT going to stop everything and answer the phone right then... If I'm out in the middle of nowhere, with nothing in the way digging ditch, yeah, I'll probably go ahead and answer it. But otherwise, text me and I'll check it and respond when I get time... If i'm expecting an important call, like family having medical issues, about bidding a job, or collecting money, I'll stop whatever is going on to answer that also... But if someone just wants to chit chat, call me of an evening.

 

[oldtanker]

My father in law had a lake cabin built about 6 years ago. Darn thing would have been up twice as fast if the contractor had made his worker put their cell phones away at the start of the work day. My FIL finally told the contractor that he was going to keep track of the time workers spent on their phones and deduct it from the final bill. The contractor is now no longer in business. He got a reputation for that nonsense and just couldn't get jobs.

My 2nd son worked at place that had a no personally owned cells on the work floor. Time and again new hires were fired for violating that even though coworkers warned them not to violate that policy.

Sad state of affairs. My wife works in a convenience store. She had a young lady stop, in near panic, looking for a charger. Her charger had died and she was on her way to the twin cities. She was shocked when my wife told her it was no big deal, that people had traveled the whole country for years without cell phones or GPS. The wife, laughing as she told the story, said that girl acted like we older people were real pioneers traveling all over the place without a cell phone. It's sad that we have become so dependent on a communications device that we no longer know how to interact with real people face to face.

Rick

 

[OMB]

What really gets me POed is when people don't return calls. When I boil over it sounds something like "You mean to tell me in this age of cellphones, texts, email, etc. you couldn't contact me?".

Another issue is the autodailers, I read a while back that banging on the # sign does something to tell the program "don't use this number again"... whether it works, I don't know but it feels good I can do somethingabout those damn calls.

I rarely text, I can talk faster than keying, however, worked for a GC that that kinda required texting ( he claimed he averaged over 100/day), I didn't like it but dealt with it, saved all of them and at the end of the job he tripped over himself contradicting instructions he had texted through the job.

When you look at the big picture I don't think we are any more productive than we were before the wireless revolution, comments such as oldtanker are the norm, the idle chatting and focus on our devices is taking away from what we are really supposed to be doing.