Public Service Announcement
We will now take a quick break from our normal blog for a brief PSA regarding telephone manners. (Although I strongly suspect I’m preaching to the choir here.)
For those of you who weren’t taught phone manners in school, or from your parents, please note the following when you are calling a business. Or a residence, for that matter.
Wrong: Opening a conversation with “Who is this?” (Let’s face it, you should know who you called.)
Correct: There is a much better chance of the person answering the phone not knowing who YOU are. A much better response is to introduce yourself. “Hello, this is (insert-your-name-here).” In some circumstances, “May I speak to (insert-name-here)?” is also acceptable. But still, be prepared to give your identity.
Wrong: Following up the exchange of identities with “How are you doing?” and demanding that the person answer before proceeding with the conversation.
Correct: Why? (a.) It’s a bit smarmy and controlling. (b.) It may be none of your business and/or you may get a more honest response that you wanted. (c.) The person you are talking already suspects you don’t really care how they are. Be prepared not to get an answer, or the social minimum of “fine”, and move on with your business. And speaking of that. . .
Wrong: Failing to state your business promptly.
Correct: After the pleasantries are over and everyone knows who is speaking to whom, get to the point. Immediately. Generally, when you are calling a business, the person on the other end of the line is paid to be there and has other job responsibilities. No matter how polite and friendly they seem, they do not wish to hear your whole life story. Even more importantly, they are not interested in playing twenty questions with you to find out what you want. If you will take the simple step of stating what you want, it will greatly speed along the process of getting help or finding out that help is not available.
(A corollary to that last one: if you find out that the business you called cannot help you with what you need, let it go. Do not attempt to talk to a host of other people that you think may be more interested in your needs. A good gatekeeper won’t let you get away with that, anyway.)
Wrong: Not listening to the person answering the telephone.
Correct: If you begin with listening instead of talking, you may hear important information, like the name of the business you called, and/or the name of the person who answered. This may save you the embarrassment of, let’s say, railing at someone for not immediately providing you with directions to your doctor’s office when you have not, in fact, called your doctor’s office. Which brings me to my final point. . .
Wrong: Hanging up on or berating someone for not being the person you meant to call.
Correct: It is acceptable to take an extra moment to determine whether you dialed the digits you intended to dial. After that, the ONLY acceptable response is “Sorry, wrong number,” or words to that effect. Unacceptable responses include (a.) rudely hanging up, (b.) cursing, and (c.) demanding that the person who answers tell you what number you should have dialed. (No, sadly, I am not kidding about that last one.)
For anyone who is interested, or needs a resource to teach someone else, you can look here. Or here. Or here. And this is a good source for those answering the phones at a business.
Thank you for your attention. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled blog.
