America, You Have Atrocious Phone Manners: An AC Experiment on Phone Etiquette

Receptionists, customer service reps and secretaries all over America agree, as they are pulling out what's left of their hair, that most callers across the country have atrocious phone manners. Never mind the irate callers and disgruntled customers they have to deal with on a regular basis. They're not talking about that. They're talking about the folks who call up and assume that everyone knows who they are, even though these employees are handling several phone lines and typing or writing at the same time. They're talking about the callers who open the conversation up with "Is he in?" as if they expect the receptionist to say: "He sure is, let me put you right through," and then get offended when the receptionist says "May I ask who's calling?"

"Part of my job," says Lynette, a secretary in a law firm, "is to get a coherent message, and a callback number. My boss says 'if you don't have a number, they didn't call'. You'd be amazed at how many people hang up without leaving their number, or say 'He knows it,' if you ask them for their number. Yes, when it comes to clients we have their numbers but it just takes less time in the course of the working day to get it in the conversation, than to stop what you're doing to look it up." Lynette also has to prepare correspondence and legal documents, pay filing fees and office bills while simultaneously taking phone messages, and she simply won't get any work done unless you improve your atrocious phone manners and just say your first and last name, and leave your number.

Cynthia works in a busy real estate office. "You honestly wouldn't believe how many clients with common names just give their first name and expect me to put their call through. No can do. My boss knows a lot of Toms, Johns and Marys. If I buzzed him on the intercom and said 'It's Mary,' you better believe he'd read me the riot act! He even has a sister named Mary, but she at least has the common courtesy to say 'It's his sister, Mary '. "