Did he want your personal cell phone number or the number to your local station? I agree with your refusal to give your number. If a customer asks me I always give them our center phone number.
FedEx made the decision to 'centralize' all customer service options with the 1-800 number. This ensures both maximum utilization of personnel on the phone line (finish with one call, another call comes in from the waiting callers- non-stop telecommunication and reading from a script) AND since the whole operation is contracted out - minimal cost for FedEx to provide a 'human' for a paying customer to speak with (for which the customer doesn't know that the person they are speaking with is absolutely clueless about REAL FedEx operating practice).
It also solves the VERY REAL issue of separate operating companies. The 1-800 number can 'handle' inquiries for ALL operating companies - Express station CSAs (and Express dispatchers) can only handle Express interactions. Given the decision by FedEx to establish separately operating companies (with very minimal interaction between them), the 1-800 number was a default choice to deal with the issue and present the false image to customers of a 'unified' FedEx (which doesn't exist).
Even within the stations, when the CSAs call a customer, they direct the customer to call the 1-800 number if they have any further questions - they DELIBERATELY hand off customers to the 1-800 number, they don't have the time or staffing to 'own' customer interactions. More often than not, the 1-800 line will act as a 'filter' for the stations CSAs - before they will forward an inquiry back to the station for further work. The Express CSA are more and more getting out of doing 'customer service' and doing more and more report running for the over stretched managers (all management by report and spreadsheet in Express).
The 'practice' of FedEx is to pass the buck down the line to the least expensive method of solving the issue. This not only applies to customer calls, but to shunting customers over to Office, having customers ship with Ground (higher margin for FedEx), minimizing time stations CSAs spend with customers and even making it impossible for Couriers to have customer exchanges while still making 'performance goals'. Lower level management will deny this, but any Courier or CSA knows that if they spend more than the absolute minimum amount of time with customers, THEY will end up being questioned for their less than productive work practices. When I was doing it, if a customer had a question that would take more than 15 seconds to adequately address, the 1-800 number was put out and I departed.
This is ironic, because we have been told not to give out the station # , just 1-800-go-FedEx. Yet we are expected to call customers on our personal cell phones.
FedEx wants to have and eat its cake at the same time - nothing shocking about that.
What IS shocking, is that most Couriers ENABLE this practice of FedEx without being compensated for their cell air time. (and I know most have a flat rate monthly plan now - still, they should be compensated by Express for giving use of that device).
Of all the rather minor things suggested here to throw a proverbial monkey wrench into the Express operation, NOT using one's cell phone for company business would be the MOST EFFECTIVE in really messing things up.
Put the damn phone in your cargo area, and LEAVE it.
Not only is this Express policy, but by following it, you will make your dispatchers' (all's fair in 'war') and managers' jobs much more difficult.
Only use it when you are on unpaid break and then only for non-FedEx related business (talking to a dispatcher while you are on break is WORK - not break). I NEVER released my cell number to ANY FedEx people when I was working there. If dispatch wanted to get a message to me - there was the powerpad. If they wanted me to get a message to them - I'd type it. If they wanted to speak with me on the phone - I let them know how long it would take me to get to a phone were I could call in (I made it as inconvenient as possible for them to speak with me). My work time was MUCH LESS STRESSFUL than other Couriers who were constantly on the phone with someone.
Using your cell phone only makes your job more stressful as a Courier - NOT less. Put the damn thing away and you'll notice a big difference in the crap coming in and by consequence your stress level will lessen while you are working.
By having your cell phone with you during the day (and your dispatcher having the number) you are only giving your employer another method to continuously 'jerk your chain' throughout the day. Do yourself a favor - follow policy and keep your phone in the cargo area and leave it alone except when you are on break. If your dispatcher wants to speak with you, find a land line phone to call in. Work as directed and let your employer deal with the loss of efficiency that will inevitability result.
