one missed call

I am wondering, when you had a missed call from a phone number that you don’t recognize, do you call them back? Or do you forget about it because if it was someone you knew, or something important, they would have left you a message? Personally, I am the latter of the two choices. If I see I have a missed call from a number that my phone doesn’t recognize, and there is no voicemail, I delete it from my call list and move on with my day. I mostly assume that it is someone trying to sell me something, or usually just a misdialed number.

I assumed most people were the same as me…until I started working as a receptionist. I would probably say that 5-10 calls I get at work each day are from people who received a missed called from the company, and it usually goes something like this.

Kimmy: “Thank you for calling Lube Tech, how can I direct your call?”
Caller: “[long pause]……Who is this!?”
Kimmy: “This is Lube Tech, how can I direct your call?”
Caller: “Um….i just got a missed call from here so I just called back, I didn’t get a voicemail or anything, do you know who called me?”
Kimmy: [after rolling my eyes] “Sorry I don’t know who would have called you if they didn’t leave you a message”
Caller: “[pause] …Who is this again?”
Kimmy; “This is Lube Tech”
Caller: “…What do you do?”
Kimmy: “Um, we sell lubrication products & fuel.”
Caller: “….Hmm and you don’t know who called me?”
Kimmy: “Sorry I don’t know unless they left you a voicemail.”
Caller: “........”
Kimmy: “Ok, well have a good day.”
Caller: “…yah”

SERIOUSLY, this happens DAILY!! The wording doesn’t always play out that way, but on 9 out of 10 times that will be pretty dead on. I really don’t think that people get the concept that business phones will display only one number when an outbound call is placed, and not that person’s direct extension. Some days it is funny, but other times I really get frustrated at the stupidity of people. Sometime I want to respond, “No, I don’t know who called you, we have like 250 employees, would you like to take a stab at it?” I really thought that most people didn’t call if they didn’t know the number, but apparently human curiosity is too overpowering, either that or they REALLY enjoy frustrating a receptionist!!

So I want to know, do you call a missed unknown number, or do you let it go??