Recently I won a radio contest for a free gift card at a local restaurant. Someone from the station called and left me a voicemail saying that I had won and that someone would call me back. Several days went by and I decided to call them. I went to the station's Web site but could not find their main telephone number. I called the promotions director several times but the number was incorrect and I kept receiving an "out of service" message.

I e-mailed the promotions director and the site's Web master pointing out the lack of a main number. While I did receive a call back from someone in the promotions department, I just checked and the station is still not listing its main number on its Web site.

This is a radio station that has a receptionist seated inside their front entrance. I can understand that they would want to direct callers to the appropriate person, but what happens when there's a customer who wants a fast answer and his contact at the business is not available?

I recommend two things. First, publish your main telephone number on your Web site. If you want to influence callers to call your employees directly, list the number last rather than first.

Second, to avoid trapping your customers in "voice jail," insist that your employees' outgoing voice mail messages instruct callers on how to reach a human being during normal business hours.

I can't tell you how many times I've been looking for information and called a business only to be trapped in voice jail. Invariably, I called a competitor when that happened.

Both of these suggestions will cost you nothing to implement and will help maintain your customers' loyalty towards you.

Regards,

Glenn