Where's the friggen spirit? Two phone calls after two donations... and no love

[USFCollin]

Maybe current students shouldn't man the phones... but you would think they would be excited representing their school when an alum across the country calls and wants to tell them to enjoy their college experience to the max... Who knows!

I said some off the wall non-sense trying to make them laugh (and to make it feel like my $ were being well spent... and there was no love, or very little to say the least). Come on staff... take a lesson from Vicki Mitchell or Eric Soncrat and show some pride in your school... End of rant...

OK yes The Sheriff called our office today.  He made a gift, and for that we thank him. 

The reason I know he called our office is I had a conversation with said student assistant that started like this:

Her (name redacted for fear of stalking):  "I had some really creepy guy call me today and sign up for the Varsity Club."

Me:  "Haha, who was it?"

Her:  "Michael Lucas."

Me:  "Oh God, please try and forget that ever happened."

He told her he makes lots of money now, mentioned that you sounded rather full of yourself actually, then told her to quit her job and start her own business.  She was really creeped out, to the point where she told me about it having no idea I knew who it was.  So before we start bashing the staff that help us every day, could we please spell out the extenuating circumstances here?  Specifically, that it's The Sheriff doing the questioning.

We love The Sheriff... but let's face it he's hardly the authority on phone etiquette as evidenced above.  Glad to have you aboard with the Bulls Club and Varsity Club, but can we not rip into some people who don't exactly share your sense of humor?  Like about 99% of the world here?

[vwlbull]

This sounds like a coaching opportunity.  Was the "less than enthusiastic" response provided by an associate at Athletics or by an associate at the Alumni Association?  Clarification please. 

[Rizman]

Maybe current students shouldn't man the phones... but you would think they would be excited representing their school when an alum across the country calls and wants to tell them to enjoy their college experience to the max... Who knows!

I said some off the wall non-sense trying to make them laugh (and to make it feel like my $ were being well spent... and there was no love, or very little to say the least). Come on staff... take a lesson from Vicki Mitchell or Eric Soncrat and show some pride in your school... End of rant...

OK yes The Sheriff called our office today.  He made a gift, and for that we thank him. 

The reason I know he called our office is I had a conversation with said student assistant that started like this:

Her (name redacted for fear of stalking):  "I had some really creepy guy call me today and sign up for the Varsity Club."

Me:  "Haha, who was it?"

Her:  "Michael Lucas."

Me:  "Oh God, please try and forget that ever happened."

He told her he makes lots of money now, mentioned that you sounded rather full of yourself actually, then told her to quit her job and start her own business.  She was really creeped out, to the point where she told me about it having no idea I knew who it was.  So before we start bashing the staff that help us every day, could we please spell out the extenuating circumstances here?  Specifically, that it's The Sheriff doing the questioning.

We love The Sheriff... but let's face it he's hardly the authority on phone etiquette as evidenced above.  Glad to have you aboard with the Bulls Club and Varsity Club, but can we not rip into some people who don't exactly share your sense of humor?  Like about 99% of the world here?

USFCollin, I think your response was less than professional.  We don't have to give our money to USF but we choose to and when staff are less than enthusiastic and not personable on the phone it leaves us with a bad taste in our mouth.  Ok, so she was like who are you asking me these question.  I would look at this as an opportunity for her to learn to deal with men and push back.  All she had to do was play the game. 

If she had been quick thinker she would have heard key words she could have played upon as a sales person.  He is proud of the Bulls, and of his success let’s see if I can bleed some more money out of him by being good at sales. 

Sales is about relationships and she failed to establish one.  I don’t think he was hitting on her or asking her for her number so my question is why so defensive?  I have had problems with USF regarding getting my ticket purchases right and forgetting to mention I was eligible for preferred parking. 

Overall, his rant was not attacking the individual but her response on the phone, yet yours and her response was to attack the individual. 

[Eric_Soncrant]

Let me stop this right here everyone before (if it's not too late) this becomes personal.  This is an issue between the Sheriff and the Bulls Club.  He has my number and Vicki's and if he had a problem with an athletic staff member, I would hope he or for that matter any of you would call me to talk to me about it and not post it on a message board because this is what happens.  We are very grateful for every penny that each of you donate to the athletic department.  Whether you donate $50 or $10,000 or $1 million, we haven't forgotten where we started and how much many of you have had to do with our continued growth and success.

One of the main reasons Vicki, Collin and I spend as much time on here as we do so that if there are issues you guys are concerned about, you have the comfort level to call or email one of us to discuss so that if there is a problem, we can take care of it.  Riz, if you had a problem with your tickets, feel free to call me as well and I'll see where we can help.  Preferred parking is a Bulls Club benefit you receive as part of your contribution, I'm sorry if that was not communicated to you.

If the Sheriff talked to whom I'm guessing he talked to based on Collins answer above, she is not trained to take donation calls, and I'm not sure how the Sheriff even got connected to her, as her number is not listed.  She is a student that does data processing, filing, and other office jobs.  As a result of this, we will make an effort to at least talk to her about how to handle phone calls that may mistakenly get transferred to her.

In the future, if any of you have any issues with our customer service, please do not hesitate to call or email me (preferablly at my office email as I don't check this one very often...soncrant@admin.usf.edu) so that we can handle it in a proper manner.  Thanks again everyone and Go Bulls!

Eric

edited by bulliever to correct email address