Customer service staff answering their phone whilst on duty - WDYT?

[AceOfBase]

OMG – can you believe I’ve just been defending myself with my mum again!! I have the day off today and she phoned me at home so I thought I better answer her call and for 30 minutes I have been trying to convince her that it is not acceptable to carry the phone with me at all times and especially answer it during my customer service. She just can’t understand why I can’t just quickly excuse myself and answer my phone and say “I’ll call you back”. The fact that I am answering my mobile in front of a customer is not right to me.

I actually enjoy dealing with customers (well, most of the time) and I give them my full attention, I want to give them 100% and so does the rest of my team, most of our customers come in and call us by our first name, it’s really great. I wouldn’t dare jeopardise this by carrying my phone with me and answering calls. By the way, I’ve been trying for another baby and I don’t think carrying my phone in my pocket all day long is going to do any good for me (sure, nothing’s proven, but why risk it!!!).

I can’t believe this happened on Wednesday night and I’m still angry about it. I can't believe that I'm 36 years old and still fight with my parents, WTF???

Venting to you all and having you all agree with me has actually helped me out, sort of like therapy, so thank you all for taking the time to reply. Anyway, I’m off to the shops soon for more retail therapy

[bugsy]

I mananged a bakery for a number of years. The amount of times I had to pull up younger staff on answering their phones while on the clock.

Of course you don't take private calls/ check messages on your phone while being paid to work in retail/ customer service.

Your mum is being unreasonable.