Gimme advice/tips/tricks to deal with overly "helpful" customers.
There's a long time customer at work that has suddenly decided I'm their BFF and is constantly calling me for updates and emailing me suggestions. I'm not sure why, other than the fact that they remembered my name and I'm friendly at work?
Long story short, we have to deal with an insurance company and a government office, plus track down some parts (the part we need has been backordered since October and isn't available anywhere in the US right now, we can make another part work, but need a waiver from the government office to purchase it legally in our state, and then finding a vendor that actually has it in stock and will be willing to ship to our state is another thing that complicates matters and slows things down) to get this job finished.
Before the customer even came in, I informed them this is going to take several weeks.
I just don't have the patience right now to deal with weeks of them calling or emailing for updates I do not have. I've assured them I'll keep them updated on where we're at in the process WHEN I have new information... which I do not.
And..... it's just annoying having them email me suggestions for places to buy this part that aren't even useful. Like, thanks for the link to a place we've already contacted and told us it's not available, but no thanks. Just because another website LOOKS like you can place an order doesn't mean it's actually in stock (speaking from experience). Also, it's frustrating like... we literally have done this multiple times before and they don't even understand what parts need to be ordered, but they're gonna send links for parts? Okay.
Any tips, tricks or advice are appreciated, because it's getting more and more frustrating to have to relay the same information over and over, listen to or read suggestions that aren't helpful, and keep saying, "I don't have a timeframe of when the job will be done until I hear back from these other places, which is totally out of my control. As soon as we get to the next step in the process, I'll update you, but I don't have that information yet, so expect it to be another few weeks, not days."
My boss suggested just telling the customer that they should take it elsewhere if they think that can get it done faster, but that just feels so rude and the idea of actually saying that gives me anxiety, especially because this person is being polite, and I think they think they're genuinely being helpful with their suggestions.