I work at the front desk of a small company that hosts tech training for various clients from around the country. We assign the classes into separate rooms so when someone comes in we can tell them exactly where to go. Some people are experienced travelers, prepared and know how the sites are set up, while others are not. The following conversation took place earlier last, but similar ones happen more often than I want to admit.
New Client: (peeks around the door, looking lost) “Hello?”
Me: “Hi, good morning! You’re looking for the training center, right?”
Client: “Yeah.”
Me: “You’re in the right place! Which training are you here for?”
Client: “Umm… I don’t know.”
Me: “Okay, what company is running the training?”
Client: “I don’t know that either.”
Me: (while showing him my physical copy of classes and companies we are hosting for the week) “The classes we have starting today are [class #1], [class #2], [class #3], and [class #4]. Do any of those sound familiar?”
Client: “Uh… umm no, none of them.”
Me: (At this point I’m starting to worry, thinking I was given the wrong schedule or that his training was cancelled and he flew out here for no reason – which has happened before!) “When you signed up for the training did you receive a confirmation email? That should have the class name and company information.”
Client: “Maybe, let me check.” (scrolls through his emails on his phone quickly) “Uhhh, I’m not seeing it.”
Me: (now running out of ideas) “Let me double check with my boss and we’ll make certain I’ve got the correct schedule here.”
(At this moment another man walks in, who turns out to be the Instructor for this mystery class)
Instructor: “Hi there! I’m teaching [name of training] for [company], which room are we in this week?”
Me: “Good morning, you’ll be in Room C this week, straight down the hall on the left.”
Client: “Oh that’s my class! Haha I guess you do have the right schedule, thanks for your help!” (follows Instructor towards classroom)
Me: (dumbfounded and screaming internally) “No problem.”
