Quick Tip: Phone Etiquette
Years ago, right around the time the telephone was invented, LOL, “Ma Bell” used to do classes for business clients on phone etiquette. I remember being sent to a class in my Customer Service days at Polaroid and thinking how stupid it was to suggest that I didn’t have the skill set to answer the phone. But it wasn’t about answering the phone that was taught, it was how to use the phone as a customer service tool.
Yesterday I had one of the worst calls trying to reach a friend at a manufacturer I’ve know for years. His operator disconnected me twice. Then when I got a little irritable and sarcastic, she attacked me for calling at lunch time, when they’re ”short on staff”. Honestly, do any of us care about the workload when we’re trying to contact somebody?
Well, that set me off on a quest through Cyberspace and I found a great site with a ton of information to help you with a refresher course on your phone skills. Check out the Phone Pro. I found so many outstanding tips and especially loved the article on auto attendants.
“If you could hear the sounds customers make when attempting to navigate through your company’s IVR, would it sound like a haunted house filled with agonizing, blood curdling screeches, moans and groans? …that could be scaring away both your new and loyal customers.”
A few weeks ago I called one of my best friends in the industry and got his auto-attendant. I hit all the prompts, but he never called me back. I called the alternative number in the voicemail message and it was no longer in service. I went back to dialing again and went into the prompt to register for one of his seminars, thinking I’d at least get a live body - NOT – I couldn’t leave a message because the mailbox was full.
Good old personal customer service is going to win out every time. Check out the previous post by Gene Ho if you missed it a couple of weeks ago. In the mean time, check out the Phone Pro and let me know what you think. There are a lot of great short articles all designed to help you communicate better.
Sorry, got to run, the phone’s been ringing for ten minutes – wonder why voicemail isn’t picking up?
Happy Saturday!
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This post has 2 comments
April 10th, 2010
Skip,
Great Saturday morning blog! It used to be that when you called a client or contact you actually heard someone on the other end! Not anymore! What’s really frustrating is that not only can you not get through on the phone but then they don’t call back so I will then try email and 9 out of 10 times I never hear back from them.
I have an old friend/client who I’ve worked with for years. After leaving several messages, voice and email, and getting no response I sent one more message.
I said, “Well either you’re very busy or I really pissed you off for some reason”, and of course added a smile afterwards. Interesting enough, I heard back from him in a matter of minutes. No he wasn’t mad he was just buried up to his eyeballs. Well at least I heard from him
. A great blog to continue this discussion, are there tricks or suggestions that people use to get through on the phone!
Thanks for all you give back to the community! Enjoy the Akron sunshine!
April 10th, 2010
Sounds like you had a phone nightmare.
One of my very first jobs while in High School was a PBX Operator. I worked for a bilingual answering service and believe it or not….a CORD switchboard!
Currently still working as a San Francisco 911 Police Fire and Medical Dispatcher (since 1996), I still struggle with “they’re always right!”
Phone etiquette when dealing with the public is vital, you are the FIRST impression….we have remember to make it a good response. We are the 1’s in 9-1-1 and we are the first responders.
It helps me in my photo business as well.
Love how I serve our community @ 911, but I’d rather deal with the public….face to face.
Phoney baloney sucks! Thanks for the post again!