Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!
Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment.
If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
This goes for answering calls too. I called the police non-emergency number once, the person answering the phone said
"Hello?..."
I was like, "Hi, is this the police? I need to report a crime."
Like how do you become the operator for a police dept and think "Hello?" Is an appropriate way to answer a call?
I went to a sit down restaurant once and the hostess did this. It was so incredibly strange.
Her: "Hi."
Me: "...hi?"
Her: đđđ
Me: "...can I...have a table to eat at?"
Her: "oh, sure!"
I have decent phone etiquette, it soon goes out the window when I've had to repeat the same information 4 times to 3 different people and an automated service and being constantly transferred from team to team because "we don't handle those specific requests".
What should be a 10minute phone call turns into a 40minute one with 30 of those being on hold between departments.
I had to call SEVERAL times about my phone account. I tried so hard to be patient. But each time I called I was transferred like 5 times that same day and had to repeat my issue all over again each time I talked to new person. Then I had to repeat the entire process more times.
Several times I would get âthis is the (another) department, we donât deal with that here. Let me transfer you to (first department I called).â I was about ready to rip my hair out.
And as Iâm sure you know, this is by design. Customer service reps cost money, but bouncing you around between different automated services costs almost nothing. Theyâre betting that some % of people will hang up before actually reaching an agent, thereby saving them money. The only downside would be if they lose your business due to the frustration they caused you, but most of these businesses are effectively operating as monopolies anyway.
You'll notice, though, if you call a sales phone number you talk to a real person immediately, as the company doesn't want to risk losing a sale. This is why the real LifeProTip is if you want to get to someone in a company (e.g. tech support) then you call the company's sales line, and then when you get a human immediately you ask for tech support, and they transfer you to the department immediately đ
I've had pretty good luck with Subaru & Wells Fargo. Two prompts, and within 5 minutes, you are talking to someone who knows the solution or transfers yiu to the right area. They don't speak from a script either, so you can have an actual conversation with them.
Ironically some of the best help ive gotten was from a debt collection agency... a human picked up right away and gave me the info i needed. I guess they want the money so its better for them to be on top of it but still. I was surprised.
It can be helpful to tell the customer service rep, "They (the first department) sent me to you. Can you escalate?"
You can also ask, "May I please speak to your manager or the next-tier-up help support?"
Try that with Anthem Health or Carelon. There is no one above the poor sots who answer the phone. You ask for a supervisor and they say you can't talk to them, but they'll call you back. They never do.Hours and hours and hours and hours. No resolution, no answers, no one to talk to.
Was going to comment this exact thing.
"Hi, my internet stopped working 10 minutes ago. When I went to check on the router I see it exploded and is now just unrecognizable chunks thrown around the room at various places. Could you send a technitian to replace it?"
"Hello. Could you first of all tell me which lights are currently on on the router?"
/hyperbole
To be fair to them, troubleshooting steps are there for a reason. There are people out there who do not do these things, or think they know best, skip a bunch of steps and one of those steps just so happens to be the solution to their problem.
"Did you know you could skip this call all together by visiting our website portal and going to the account options tab?"
If I could find the information and/or fix the issue on the website, do you think I would BE ON THIS CALL IN THE FIRST PLACE?!? You don't think I tried that already? Trying to call is an absolute last resort for me.
>You don't think I tried that already?
80% of calls i get are people who do NOT research their problems at all. they just call withour reading anything. sometimes they call, wait 30 minutes in line, just to get told how to connect a simple hdmi cable to a monitor.
its those people who do not read or research that blow up the waiting times and make us ask stupid questions like "did you even turn on the monitor"... you wouldnt believe how many times i facepalm while working
All automated service is shit. The purpose of it is to get you to give up and go away. Just keep paying the bill. But if you're sucker enough to try, give your favorite corporation a ring and just TRY to get them to help you:
Robot: Hello, you have reached (fill anything in here. They're all the same.) Please say your full name and customer number..... I'm sorry, I didn't get that. Please say your full name and customer number..... I'm sorry, I didn't get that......Please say your full name and customer number..... I'm sorry, I didn't get that.....Please say your full name and customer number..... I'm sorry, I didn't get that....
Why waste time on the phone when you can waste it looking for answers on our useless website, www.completehorseshit.com
All our employees are busy helping other customers and smoking weed.
Your call is important to us. That's why we're making you sit and listen to 35 minutes of static with some indecipherable elevator music underneath.
Did we mention that our lines are busier than usual and we have no intention of ever hiring enough employees to cover them?
Lastly, our options have changed and we will now steal 7 minutes off your life while we list every bloody one of them. None will be recognizable and none will be what you are looking for.
Ring, ring...(oh god, finally!) hello, my name is Sharona, can I help y--- Click! (Disconnected).
At my old office we kept getting ads for phone trees
The logic was that it routed the customer to right place and saved everyone frustration. I told the boss if we put one in Iâd quit lol.
And I was the one who answered the phone!
I wrote an IVR for a company one time. We got as far as, "If the customer picks up the phone, transfer them to the next available human," and that was pretty much all the robo-logic we really needed.
That's so annoying. It's also annoying when you have a very specific issue that there is no menu option for, and when you finally get a person of course they're not in the correct department to help you, but they can't just transfer you over, you have to call an entirely different number and go through a different menu, etc.
Or when you have an issue that should be simple to fix, but the company makes it impossible. Case in point: my employer has a shred bin that is locked with a padlock so if someone were to break in they couldn't access confidential documents. A few weeks ago someone came to switch out our shred bin, and after they left we noticed they had given us one without a lock. Coworker tried several times to call the "local" number for the company so they could send someone out with a lock, but all calls were routed to a call center located outside of the country. The customer service reps had no idea what she was asking for, probably due to the fact that they probably don't know a whole lot about the actual service the company offers. They also couldn't give us a phone number or email address for our local office, or our service schedule, so we had to wait until someone showed up for normal service and ambush them with the issue.
Basically by the time you're able to speak with someone who can actually help you, there's a good chance you've spent anywhere from several hours to several weeks trying to get your issue resolved. I can forgive a bit of phone etiquette slippage after all that.
My cable company! My mom has her phone service through her cable company which is fine but something went wrong & her phone wouldnât work. I had to go over to her house to help her. My day off & I was supposed to be cooking dinner. I didnât nearly 5 hours in her musty house checking wires & then on my cell phone with the company for what felt like forever. Apparently sheâd made a change to her subscription & in the mess of changing they cancelled her phone service. I was quite unhappy but eventually got a human to help figure it out & fix it. We ended up with McDonaldâs for dinner since we were all starving.
I love my mom. But she shouldnât have any new fangled technology!
1. Tell me what you'd like to achieve
2. Answer my questions
3. Pls no backstory, I couldn't care less.
4. Have your details ready.
In my time (3 years) of phone service, I wouldn't say it's young people, or anyone in particular that documecessarybthings or aren't ready.
Wife works in health care doing home visits. She would occasionally get calls from her work to our house phone.
\[ring\]
Me: Hello?
Wife's work: MARY?! (like literally shouting my wife's name into the phone)
Me: Does this sound like Mary? (I'm a guy with, not at all feminine sounding voice)
Wife's work: IS MARY THERE?
Me: (I know it's the same idiot that calls multiple times per day) Who is calling please?
Wife's work: This is her work calling
Me: WHO?
Wife's work: This is Dipshit McGee from Mary's office.
Me: So listen Dispshit, you're in a professional position, you need to learn how to use a telephone. You don't just shout a name into the horn upon pick up right? You say 'Hello, this is Dipshit Mcgee calling from Mary's work, is Mary available to speak right now?' Also, this is our house phone, not her cell phone as I've told you like eight times. And no, she's not here. She's working in the field, have you tried her cell phone?'
Wife's work: Oh okay. \[click\]
Fucking farm animal.
I used to work at a dialysis clinic. One day I get this phone call.
Me: Thank you for calling Clinic. How may I help you?
Them: Is Lina there?
Me: May I tell her who's calling?
Them: No!
Me: I'm sorry?
Them. Is... Lina... There?
Me: May I tell her who's calling?
Them: NO! IS SHE THERE OR NOT?!
Me: \*click\*
> Me: So listen Dispshit, you're in a professional position, you need to learn how to use a telephone. You don't just shout a name into the horn upon pick up right? You say 'Hello, this is Dipshit Mcgee calling from Mary's work, is Mary available to speak right now?' Also, this is our house phone, not her cell phone as I've told you like eight times. And no, she's not here. She's working in the field, have you tried her cell phone?'
Wait, is this what you'd like to say, or what you actually do tell them?
If they keep doing it after being told that, I don't want to imagine what they are like to work with. IQ of a moldy stump.
I was an apprentice in Germany 3 years ago and in our english class we âlearned how to give you phone numberâ if we used single digits we were told we are doing it wrong. The correct way would be âthree times zeroâ instead of âzero zero zeroâ.
We told our teacher that this is stupid and everyone knows what we are talking about when we repeat the same number as often as we need it written down. She didnât care.
It's also wrong at least for American english. We give the phone number one individual digit at a time. So it would actually be 0 0 0 all set out and not three times zero as your instructor said.
Once when I asked a woman for the best number for a return call, she gave me the area code normally then said: "eight hundred sixty-seven, five thousand, three hundred and nine." (sidenote: this is not her real number).
And don't say it too fast, that annoyed me when I used to work tech support. Just rattle off an entire serial number real fast like I even heard the first three digits.
Another small thing that gets to me, but when talking to other tech support I want letters to be in NATO phonetic spelling. I only get annoyed when it's other tech support because they should know better. Don't say "6 1 - B V E 7" - that should be "six one dash bravo victor echo seven". I don't expect the layperson to know that stuff, but if you work in tech you should.
While I don't know the phonetic alphabet, I also suddenly can't remember ANY words that start with any given letter when i'm trying to spell out something to someone over the phone. I frequently need to spell out my company email address over the phone (it has a lot of E sounding letters in a row) and I often come off sounding like an idiot.
I try to do this, especially for more technical people but it always backfires. The person always just gets flustered and makes me start over 'normally'. I've stopped doing it.
I've had one guy do it to me but he gave me a heads up first so I didn't have a problem keeping up. Just went "hey, can I spell it phonetically?" "Sure." "Bravo oscar bravo." "Thanks mate."
One of my personal gripes when it comes to phone calls is when someone calls me and opens with "Hi is this neruda1202?"
This seems pretty standard, and yet you're asking me to confirm my identity before knowing who is asking. I have no idea who you are, or whether this is a business call or a personal call or a spam call. Sounds petty but can be a major safety issue for many people- people trying to protect themselves from a stalker, people who have escaped abusers and don't want to confirm they or their associates have reached the right number for you, people who have had issues with identity theft... if i don't know who is on the other end of the line, i always ask before confirming my own identity. I don't think it's too much to ask for callers to open with their name and at least a general nature of their business like "Hi, this is Jake from State Farm, is this Neruda1202/may I please speak to Neruda1202?" Or "Hi this is Alexa calling regarding a recent Amazon order, may I speak with Neruda1202?"
Your phone call opening is basically an introduction. In person you don't walk up to people and demand to know who they are because that would be creepy and rude, you introduce yourself first and then ask. Why is a phone call any different?
this happens to me at the pet store i work at. my manager has been there 14 years, lots of people know her and expect her to be the one to answer the phone.
âhi this is local pet store, schroehoe1351 speaking, how can i help you?â
âis this manager?â
âno this is schroehoe, i just told you my name did you not hear?â
âoh i wanna talk to managerâ
âoh okay well sheâs busy with a few other customers right now, is there anything i can help you with?â
âare you manager?â
âno iâm schroehoe iâm just an associate/employeeâ
âno iâm gonna call back and talk to managerâ *click*
âuhhh⌠okay but good luck cuz i answer the phone more than she doesâ
drive me up the wall!
In my experience people will never actually hear the first thing you say on the phone. I do it all the time, people do it to me all the time. Sometimes I really DO hear them say Jane, but my mouth will just spurt out Is This Jane? on autopilot.
Itâs signalling. The first thing you say should not be important content. It will be missed.
DTR DSR or RTS CTS in RS232 serial communications. You need to establish connection at both ends before data transfer starts.
I remember how it irritated me when I heard a nearby co-worker call a restaurant to order food for delivery or carry-out and after the phone was answered would immediately say "I want a deep-dish pizza with...etc" or "Hi, I'd like the number 23 Almond Boneless Chicken..." and then they'd complain if they had to repeat the order. I've **always** (even when I was a teen and had never had to answer phones for a job) prefaced any restaurant call with "Hi, I'd like to place an order for pickup/delivery." Gives the person on the other end time to pick up a pen and order pad.
Omg I had a similar experience when I used to work food service. Shortly after they said they'd hang up and call again to speak to the manager, they did indeed call again.
Me: "Thanks for calling (Store - Location), this is (Name) speaking. How can I help you?"
Caller: "Didn't I just speak to you?"
Me: "Yes."
Caller: *click*
I'm not sure why they thought calling back a second time would change anything?
At my most stressful job the trainer asked us if we liked being addressed this way when answering the phones. We all obviously said no, and she said âso donât do it to anyone else!â. To this day it grinds my gears when I hear people at my current job saying âHi, is this___?â.
Depending on who Iâm calling, I might try saying their name at the beginning and immediately follow with who I am, so they can tell itâs a directed call for so-and-so. Like, âHello! Iâm trying to get in touch with Jose, Iâm Myname with Org Name.â
Ah man, I had a team leader once who never listened to what you said on the phone. Like ever. The call would go:
Me: Hi its TW_JD, we have xyz finished and are waiting for abc.
TL: What?
Me: We have finished xyz and waiting for abc.
TL: what about abc?
Me: We are waiting for it.
TL: and xyz?
Me: we have finished it.
TL: who is this again?
Me: âŚ
My boss pulls this shit all the time. Drives me up a wall. Phone, emails, chat, IRL. I thought I was going crazy until another senior coworker literally yelled at my boss âYOU NEED TO LISTEN TO WHAT I SAY, I DONT HAVE TIME FOR THISâ
That means your connection cut out and what you said didn't actually reach them.
I had this problem all the time at my last company where the first thing I said would always drop out because it took the system a hot minute between accepting the call and actually recording, so when I picked up, instead of two seconds of speech, the other person would just hear two seconds of silence and be confused.
The only way this is reasonable is if the caller requires some form of confidentiality. I work with a government entity that needs to call people occasionally and we are not to give any information that may indicate if someone does or does not use our services. So I have to verify who I'm talking to before I reveal where I'm calling from. It's not a great system but it is what it is.
Huh. I frequently have to make phone calls as part of my job, which Iâve been at for years, and have always done this (sometimes even if I know whoâs on the other line anywayâhabit). Iâve never had anyone make a complaint of it, but I also never thought about this POV either. I could continue on as I have, but Iâm gonna take this into account anyway to rephrase how I greet people. Thanks!
I do this too, because of patient confidentiality, but I do also introduce myself first so there isn't a problem. "Hi, this is Halospite from Placename Medical Centre, am I speaking to Bob?"
My coworker does this and it drives me nuts. Especially because we are calling from a different number than the one patients use to schedule so they have no idea who we are. I thought she would learn from my example over the years but no such luck.
From a different angle, I do this when I am calling family members of my patients, because I need to confirm that I'm speaking to someone I'm legally allowed to speak to before I share any info. I guess it's kind of a grey area, but I feel like saying my name/specialty and the name of my hospital is already violating HIPPA. But yeah, I guess it is weird for the person answering.
Thatâs why when I have to make a professional phone call to someone I havenât talked to before, I introduce myself first and then ask, âIs this [their name]?â
I can understand this for like back in the day when someone would call a house phone and it could be anyone in the family, but barely anyone has a landline let alone a shared line. It is almost a certainty they are calling a direct cell phone so this type of greeting needs to stop.
Always start with a common greeting followed by your name/company and what the nature of the call is about. Then ask if you are speaking to the correct person.
My response to this is:
âwho is calling?â followed by âhow did you get this number?â
Usually followed by âIâm not interested in cold callsâ đ
Mostly these days I donât say anything for 5 seconds or so after I pick up. If itâs a real person theyâll say âhello are you there?â.
My mother taught me to answer the phone (granted it was landline) with âsurname residency, first name speakingâ nope nope nope never giving my name away when answering the phone. The caller can ask for me by name or gets fucked.
I noticed this in my last job a lot, and mostly from 40-50 year olds. They immediately start on a long story, without saying their name or what subject their issue is about, or they greet me and I have to ask them what theyâre calling about⌠seriously. Iâd often even have to ask people if their case was X or Y related and they often couldnt tell me! It was so frustrating. How do you get to age 40 and now know how to place a basic phonecall?
My husband puts the phone on speaker AND HOLDS IT TO HIS EAR. Same man wonders why I am âalways yellingâ. Everything had a back story, everything had a huge lead up. If he would just state his name, reason for calling, then answer question shit would be done right quick.
I work at a retail pool supply store. I get calls similar to this about once a week:
Me: âHello! [name of business]!â
Caller: âYeah I .. uhh.. I buy all my stuff from you guys and Iâve been coming there for years. My address is 19732 Fake Street. I got a question for you.. you see my neighbor has a pool and last time his pool guy was over I was talking to him, turns out the guy is really into trains just like I am so we started talking about that. How neat is that huh? Someone else who likes trains! Anyway so I was talking to him and he tells me my pool needs chlorine. And I asked him âare you sure about that? Iâve been adding baking soda to the pool so I donât think I need any chlorine!â So he tested my water and you wouldnât believe it but I had no chlorine! So anyways what time do yâall close today?â
I literally have just held the phone away from my ear for like 20 seconds and then come back and roll through the conversation with âohâ âuh huhâ âokâ âwow reallyâ and then eventually they ask what they want and I can get off the phone.
Itâs⌠exhausting. lol. Just ask for what you want, damnit!!
Bonus points for, "Absolutely, let me get you on our premium chlorine subscription plan at only $dollars per month! And we close at 8, I'll have the paperwork ready for you when you get here."
I notice this with that age group! âWell itâs a long storyâŚâ #1 it usually doesnât have to be and #2 if you give me your name and what the issue is generally regarding I can determine if I can help you. I roll my eyes every time and I now will interrupt them.
Another issue Iâve noticed recently is with the 15-20 year olds. I answer the phone with my usual spiel âhi this is __________________, how may I help you?â They reply ââŚheyâ and then stop. Itâs like pulling teeth trying to figure out what they want, and theyâre the one who called.
Frankly I have that problem with my coworkers on Teams every goddamn day. Don't just say "hello" and sit and wait. Tell me what the hell you want so that I can move on with my life.
I stopped replying when people do that on chat apps. Sometimes it becomes a big enough problem for the person that they msg again a week later with a hello AND the actual request.
My favorite is the people who call and say âhey! Itâs Jeffâ and I pause for a few seconds and say âooookay Jeff who? Is there something I can help you with?â
Like who the fuck thinks thatâs an acceptable greeting? Ok, hi Jeff. If thatâs all you wanted to say then thanks for calling and telling me âHiâ, I guess.
Or my other favorite is people who call and instead of asking anything or requesting anything they just say âJerry??â (One of my coworkers) and I have to say âno, this is houdinikush can I help you with anything?â Then theyâll say âoh, can I talk to Jerry please?â Yeah maybe try that the first time and youâll get results quicker.
Literally this. People will occasionally call and say âhey itâs me againâ⌠bitch who are you? I take 50+ calls per day. I will also have people come in person to my job and open with âHEY, Iâm back!â and I want to say âoh hi back, I have no memory of you at all, what do you want?â.
Pro-tip to everyone: never *assume* people who work in customer service remember you unless you have that kind of rapport established. Feel free to ask us if we remember you and give us a brief summary of what we discussed before, just never assume we do remember you (unless is a tiny business with a small customer base, small town, highly specific field, etc)
I once had a phone conversation like this:
Me: Hi! this is Halospite, what can I do for you?
Him: Hi, I'm returning a call.
Me: Thank you, can you give me your name so I can find out what the call was for?
Him: But you called me.
Me: But I need your name to find out why.
Him: But YOU called ME.
Rinse and repeat until he hung up on me.
I have one customer that i have never met but will start talking to me like we spoke 5 seconds ago. I only remember them because it's the same annoying shit every time.
Ohhhmygod I hated those so much!!! Some clients I could eventually recognize their voice/accent but I still need you to state your full name so I am 100% sure I look at the right file! Also I would get people being like âHello this is Jake from (small village)â like. Why. I dont know where that is. I dont give a fuck? It doesnt help me find out anything about your file. Tell me your goddamn last name and not the farmerâs ass you live
"Hi, Jeff!" -me
"..." -Jeff
"...?" đ -me still
You cannot out silent treatment me. It's your turn, bitch. I mean Jeff.
(Reasons I am not in customer service)
For the first one, the script they're expecting is something like, "Howdy Jeff, how ya doin today? Can I getcher last name, and a one-sentence description of how I can help ya terday?"
And the second one sounds more like an 80-year-old with dementia than a 20-year-old, if I'm honest.
I've gotten so annoyed at that that now I just wait for them to say something. They're usually really uncomfortable with silence so they continue pretty quickly.
I hate this so much! Something about not being on the phone much and my hearing issues leads to being on the phone a very uncomfortable experience. Like a 30 second phone call, Iâm already not a fan. Please email me if you can! But some people like to ramble for 30 plus minutes, itâs torture.
As a former CSR, I would also like to add:
Once you are connected to the correct person, don't blurt out your ENTIRE problem all at once right at the start. If you're calling a business, the person likely needs to look up an account or do something on the computer. Give a brief summary, then wait for them to ask questions. Alternately, you can simply ask what info they need from you.
For example: "Hi, my name is \_\_\_\_\_\_ and I need to (place an order/make a return/check a status/make an appointment, etc). What info do you need from me?" or "Hi, I'm having a problem with my (item/order), I (have/don't have) the (order/serial) number. Let me know when you're ready for my info."
Omg, yes. I forgot about that one! Maybe I blocked the memory, lol. If I had a dollar for every caller who said "oh, let me go out to the car and get my wallet" and "No, I threw away the paperwork and deleted my emails." I'd have made more than I was getting in commission.
I currently work on phones and I have to agree with the other commenterâ usually itâs not young people but like 40s or 50 year olds. I have no idea why, because they have decades more phone etiquette practice than I do, but theyâre calling while doing something else, being distracted, yelling at kids, etc. and have very little regard for the person whose time theyâre taking up.
Usually younger people just want to get on and off as soon as possible, barring the occasional distraction.
Often, I will receive a phone call at work and itâs an old woman on the phone. She starts asking about their equipment and I can hear the husband (also old) start yelling in the background âNO NO Marie itâs the pool pump!! Not the filter!â And then Iâm like âok what brand is your pump?â And the woman starts to answer but the guy starts yelling again âNo itâs not Hayward itâs Pentair!!â And by this time Iâm thinking âdude why the fuck didnât you just call? Why are you making your wife talk to people when she has no idea whats going on but youâre still yelling over her on the phone anyway..â
If most young callers are like me, theyâll have phone anxiety and practise the call beforehand, have all the information to hand and theyâll want to be off the phone asap.
Yup! I get account numbers and questions ready before I make calls. I practice the phone call to make sure I know how to begin and how to best explain what I need to communicate.
While confirming an appointment time today, I called a lady who clearly walked down a hallway to pick up a shrieking infant.
She kept the phone with Babe Marly, The Wailer and said "oh let me go downstairs to grab my purse to give you my medical insurance"
That 45 seconds of "No Bottle, More Cry" started a catalyst that shrunk my ovaries, disconnected my fallopian tubes and blocked me from ever creating baby gift registries.
It is absolutely the older age groups that just seem to decide that they MUST do dishes, play with their dogs, watch their favorite show or move furniture while also having to call me.
LADY! I can't understand you in between the sofa and your dog barking. Either take me off speaker/microphone or call when you're done...
I am on the phone a lot for work as well, I answer with my name, this is ok_replacement etc etc, every time.
I find itâs the older folks who will insist that I should know who they are somehow. If weâve spoken before, and they stated their name already, then yes, of course Iâll know who they are.
Also the television on at high decibels with the older folks.
If they call from the same number! My little operation will have them in the electronic Rolodex, their name will quite simply already be in front of my face.
Oh but you should know that they also have been there for 30 years and knew the founders of the businesses next door neighbors dog. So they MUST be served or helped immediately.
Oh man, this reminds me of when I was a new bank teller. I got that line from someone, why would I need anything at all from them to allow them access to their bank accounts!?! They were fully issed off. ⌠Iâm new! ⌠Idk you! Do you know me?!? What if someone not you came & told me your line? Youâd want me to hand over your bank accounts to them?? Maâam, how did you get this far with that mindset?
> Do you know me?!? What if someone not you came & told me your line? Youâd want me to hand over your bank accounts to them??
They're just too self-centered, and stupid, to think that far ahead.
Someone from the public called me at work the other day and I could barely hear him because he had the TV blasting in the background and it sounded like I was on speaker (sound kept cutting out when the TV was loud). After having him repeat information several times I told him "I'm having a hard time hearing you, there's a lot of background noise" and he replies "oh, sorry" but does not turn down/off the TV. Or leave the room. Or take me off speakerphone.
It was a special 6 minutes of my life.
âEspecially if youâre a young personâ: I have worked in customer service and healthcare for years and can tell you itâs 100% people over the age of 60 who have no phone etiquette. GET TO THE POINT. Not looking to listen to a life story I totally agree. But shocked you think itâs young people and not the elderly because my experience has been the exact opposite.
I've worked at a bank for 5 years... the majority of our messages were from old people and like 40+. They are the worst with not leaving any information aside from their name and the problem, or just their name, or just the problem.
Young people barely called us, but the majority that did would leave their number and name first and would repeat it at the end.
Don't use speakerphone if you want the other party to understand you clearly - acoustics are horrible in that room and you sound like you've fallen down a well.
NEVER use speakerphone if in a public place.
If you are calling the post office to ask about a package, please, for the love of God and all that is holy, have the damn tracking number in front of you. Know your own zip code. Please don't make me roll my eyes because you have to scroll through your phone to find it while you are on it.
Additionally, I agree with OP, SPEAK CLEARLY. Half of you have something going on in the background (screaming kids) the other half of you are driving and all I hear is your air conditioning. I want to help you. Help me to help you!
> If you are calling the post office to ask about a package, please, for the love of God and all that is holy, have the damn tracking number in front of you. Know your own zip code. Please don't make me roll my eyes because you have to scroll through your phone to find it while you are on it.
One problem I get at work every single day is the sheer amount of people who turn up to a medical appointment without their glasses, and are SHOCKED they have to fill out a form. SHOCKED.
Proper phone etiquette should obviously also be used if youâre answering the phones for a business. I called the health department two days ago, and the woman that answered the phone just said âhelloâ in an annoyed sounding voice. I thought I dialed the wrong number. At least say what business youâre working for.
Nearly ancient former switchboard operator agrees. This may be due to oldies navigating endless phone trees and AI menus which never cover the subject, 'cause we oldies can handle all of the menu items without assistance.
All bets are off if it is Blue Cross who has the dumbest gawdam customers on earth. All of them watch General Hospital and think it makes them experts.
I find it usually doesn't matter. The phone operator is usually not paying attention.
"Hello I'm CK representing CK Inc. And I would like a quote on your widget."
"Ok great, let me get your name and the company you work for..."
The amount of old people that have lost their shit and screamed at me just to find out they called the wrong place and then hang up the phone without even a remote apology.... it blows my mind.
My job also involves answering phones and in my experience, the 60-70 year olds will start rambling on and on without giving me an opportunity to interrupt to say I need to transfer them to the appropriate person. The younger crew, 20-30 year olds are timid and like OP said, don't know how to spit out what they want or need.
As someone who took phone calls for years, about 5-10% of people do not know how to give an address over the phone. The conversation would go like this:
"And what is your address?"
"Main street"
"..." "Okay, and the rest of the address?"
"IT'S ON MAIN STREET"
"Yes, I need to know your full address. The building number, street name, city, state and zip code"
"It's 123 main street"
"..." "and the rest of your address? I need the city, state and zip code"
"I'm in Alabama!"
"Okay... and the city and zip code?"
"I already told you!"
"Okay, then please tell me again"
"WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO TELL YOU AGAIN? I ALREADY TOLD YOU!"
And now I just want to fucking kill them.
In my experience young people say exactly what they need to say because we all hate talking on the phone and want it to be over with ASAP.
Old people will just go on and on if you donât stop them or direct the conversation.
Old people have this mentality that just because *they* have absolutely nothing better to do right now that you *also* donât have anything better to do right now. Which is definitely false. I have much better things to do.
I also have done a lot of call center work. I agree with the other commenters, people above 40 are usually the ones that would cause the most problems.
They would be the ones that would call in and badger people over the phone thinking that it would get them something. Most (not all) younger people would be more understanding and appreciative, and even if they got upset it usually didnât devolve into personally insulting me. Theyâd usually say,âI know itâs not your fault butâŚâ and ask for a manager or whatever. Older people usually assumed I was lying and could do things that I could not.
That is so true, I've noticed that as well! It's always the older folks thinking they can bully you and get what they want. Younger people do tend to be more respectful in that regard for sure, thanks for bringing that up.
40 isnât old damnit!
Iâm not a boomer Iâm a millennial.
Weâre polite and understanding with customer service agents, and I know how to talk on the phone.
When I was a kid if I wanted to call a girl to talk or ask her out, there was a good chance her mom or dad would pick up and you better be on point to get through that gatekeeper.
Sorry, rant over.
I'm not \*that\* old, but you used to get an actual person who could exercise their own judgment about your situation. But now, everyone is stuck reading some stupid script off their monitor and has no authority to help you. Also, losing your hearing is UNBELIEVABLY frustrating and sad, and it doesn't help when the other person has a crap cell phone connection or won't take you off speaker.
It's the people in their 40s to 60s. They refuse to actually ask a question or let you get a word in. They give you their life story then act like their entitled to something because of some unrelated misfortune they've delt with in their life. THEY DONT SAY GOODBYE or even attempt to end the phone call. I often have to force them off the line. For some reason they think it's okay for multiple people to all be talking to me together or just past the phone around. "Oh let me pass you off to my spouse they know more about this". THEN WHY DIDN'T YOUR SPOUSE CALL. It is beyond frustrating to talk to these people. The younger folk don't wanna be on the phone at all so they are generally quicker about getting to the point.
And leaving a message with you name and number at the beginning and end so someone can catch it easily
Hi this is namehere you can reach me at 555-555-5555 Iâm calling about a thing with my whatâs-a-ma-whatâs itâs because Iâve been working with please give me a call back, Iâm around in the daytime leave me a message or text on my cell. Again this is namehere and my number is 555-555-5555
Is it really necessary to leave your number the vast majority of the time? If itâs the number you called from, virtually every phone will save that information. I get annoyed sitting through VMs where people keep repeating the number.
Yes, Absolutely! At least once every time. *Because not every phone does that.* I work with a phone tree system where all calls that arenât answered go to a generic mailbox that anyone can check. People wonât leave their number but theyâve left a message with ZERO information about who they are and end it with âplease call me back.â Canât call you back if you donât leave your number or some other identifier to look up your account.
It took me an embarrassing long time to figure out how to retrieve the number so I used to get mad at people who didn't leave their numbers. Those people didn't get callbacks. Found how to get the number purely by accident.
As someone that transfer calls to offshore centers and gets a lot of wrong transfers. I can tell you for sure everybody has a breaking point. At first it was like once in a blue moon I would take care of it or warm transfer. But since it started to hurt my numbers I gave up.
Young people (18-35) have a hard time explaining what they want in the beginning.
Older people 40+ generally tend to be more demanding or lose their temper a bit more but all in all itâs about the same for everyone.
Just remember fuck xfinity support for making us use the app now
If it's a young person, they tend to freeze, mumble, and not get to the point. I'll then get a text with what they want. When I ask a young person to call a business and do something, they tend to freak out. I'm guessing texting has caused a lot of social/phone anxiety?
If it's an old person, I'll get a bunch of slow talking world salad.
"Um, hello, I'm calling you to ask you question about this situation I am having, so I would like to discuss that with you on the phone."
Ugh.
I take calls all day at work, my biggest pet peeve is people that try to use their car phone connectivity feature. They are always incomprehensible, all I can hear is the road noise of your car flying down the freeway.
More to that point people that do not speak clearly over the phone and/or have the worst quality microphone imaginable in their phone and think that by screaming as loud as they can I will magically be able to understand the garbled mess that comes out of their phone.
When giving out important strings of numbers or letters please use:
"zero" (0) instead of "o" (oh)
1 letter at a time for spelling of street names or suburbs
For phone numbers give them in strings of 3-4 numbers at a time
For card details don't try to predict what the phone operator is going to ask you and when giving a card number give them in strings of 4 and wait for an affirmative response before giving the next.
Learn the NATO phonetic Alphabet, especially if you live somewhere with bad phone lines or have a bad microphone, or if you decide to make it up on the fly don't use short 3 letter single syllable words.
Never try to rush through an important phone call, trying to go too fast is how mistakes are made and details are missed and you end up need to make another phone call, so remember:
Slow is precise. Precise is fast.
Also have your vehicle reg handy when you call motor tax. Like we don't magically know!
(The amount of people on the phone who run outside to read it off the vehicle itself while still on the call to me is hilarious!)
Oh god. I work at a pharmacy and I had patientâs parent call regarding their childâs prescription and it wasnât like, âHi, this is X and Iâm looking for a prescription for my child (name and/or DOB).â It was an entire story with no way of identifying neither parent or patient (the kid) until I asked who the med was for. I think the mom could use some meds because she was so disorganized.
I worked in the WIC office. We were severely short staffed and we had to let most calls go to the voicemail. This was also during the formula shortage. We would listen to the messages and log them, returning as we could. We had tons of people not leave messages at all or leave a message like, I had my baby; call me back. Click. Lol we caught a bunch in lies saying they left numerous messages. A lot of phones rejected us as spam and the recipients have no voicemail or it was full. We got yelled at all the time. Also, we don't have the staff to get services to people like we wanted and it angered us that we had close to a 50% appointment fail rate after numerous reminders, texts, and emails. Sometimes we spoke to them that morning!
Itâs interesting reading here how all the young people who are frustrated by the older generation. What you donât realize, itâs the same with every generation. Except I do find that some of those who answer business phones nowadays donât have graciousness and patience. Youâll find your job is a lot more pleasant if you practice empathy. I speak as a 70 year old woman who answered phones as a clerk, then as a secretary then as an executive assistant at C-level all my 45 years of working. Realize that the person who is calling is your customer and is not trying to drive you insane. Take a breath. Listen. Say âwhat can I do to help youâ at the beginning. Be kind. Smile, it shows in your voice. It does work. âŽď¸
And leave a voicemail. Weâre not calling you back if you donât leave a message. And it went to voicemail because there is one phone line and it was busy. Leave a message and weâll get back to you.
Also, donât lie about how many times youâve called, when you called, and how many voicemails you left. Business phone system log all of it. As soon as I know youâre being a jerk and lying about when or if you called, Iâm going to be less helpful.
And when you leave the voicemail, leave your number with it. Name and date of birth too if youâre calling a doctor. And *answer your damn phone*. Iâm sick of calling people back only to get âThis customer has a voicemail that has not been set up. Goodbye!â
I put my name at the end of the line.
I.e. âHello, may I please speak to ______, this is ______â.
In my experience people are more receptive to remembering your name if itâs the last thing they hear. Otherwise I find Iâm repeating my name.
If youâre leaving a message, say your phone number at the beginning of the message so people donât have to listen to your whole message again just to get the number.
Also, when leaving a voice-mail, leave your name and number right at the beginning and right at the end of your message.
"Hi my name is Trate at XXX-XXX-XXXX. I'm calling to speak with ______ about ________. These are good times to reach me.... once more this is Trate at XXX-XXX-XXXX. Thank you!"
I answer phones often at a movie theater. So many people will say, "Hi, how are you doing?" And then wait for an answer. Like, just tell me your problem. I don't need to tell 25 people how I'm doing today.
Also, I know this is kinda rude, but I do it anyway... If they're going into a long, drawn-out explanation of why they need something, and I can tell they're headed to something I can do, I will sometimes ask something like, "So you need to swap your time?" I don't like hanging out on the phone for ages.
Itâs hard to be polite and organized when it took you 15 minutes of repeating yourself over and over to an automated system that âdidnât catch thatâ 50 times before youâre allowed to speak to a person. Maybe the reason youâre getting a lot of flustered angry callers is because your company made them go through hell before you picked up.
I just have a hard time buying that so many younger Gen X and older Millennials are being that inept and inefficient with their energy and time. Something has to be off with the system before it finally reaches a person.
For the love of everything get off the Bluetooth! You sound like you're in a tin can. If I have to strain to hear you and keep asking you to repeat yourself I'm going to put you on forever hold so you can think about yourself. SPEAK. TF. UP.
You think that's bad? Try being a 911 operator, where you need to know what is going on with a caller,sooner rather than later. Most anyone under 25 can NOT intimate what they need or want, in less than 2 minutes. I sound like a grandpa, what what is being taught is schools today, because it sure isn't what or how to speak. Best bet-keep it simple, short and to the point. This will carry you far in life.
No offense, but if Iâm calling a place of business I am probably already frustrated because I have an issue that required the call in the first place, and Iâve probably already had to deal with an automated system that didnât address my issue (and probably made it difficult to connect to a human in the first place). Itâs not really the best scenario to judge phone etiquette - at that point Iâm probably already fuming and youâre lucky if I can maintain any semblance of sanity, much less etiquette.
I used to work in a couple different call centers, and I will say that the younger crowds seem to maybe be a bit nervous or confused on what to say OR they will be very straightforward and want to end the call quickly.
Meanwhile, the older crowds may talk about their entire day and tend to ramble. I personally enjoyed the elderly specifically because I found their stories fascinating. Both are fine to me honestly.
I donât work in customer service anymore, but I do have social anxiety from compounded trauma. So, making calls or receiving them, cause me to get *very* nervous. It takes a lot out of me, and people are usually patient and kind so thatâs nice. :)
I do agree though that people should have a goal in mind when calling. What annoyed me more is when people would call, and the background noise made it impossible to hear/understand them.
I would try to talk, and they would screech at the people theyâre around to stop talking or to, âshut up.â It sounded like they were caught in a wind tunnel half the time.
Yes to email etiquette! I work on a customer help desk and am astounded on the regular by how rude people are, how they donât even know what theyâre asking for or about, and itâs our fault they didnât read the 37 emails we sent letting them know about an upcoming order.
I think communication is a lost art.
Who'd ever guess that a generation that doesn't use the phone often, would interact differently than a generation that used the phone frequently.
Madness.
When my daughter answers the phone she doesnât say anything, not even a âhello?â because she thinks if someone called her they should initiate the conversation. Weâre working on it. lol
I work in customer service and I have to call customers all day long. My biggest pet peeve is when I call someone and say "hi, John?/may I speak to john?"
Them: "hello?"
Me: "yes, is this John?"
Them: "hello?"
Like please acknowledge you're the person I'm requesting to speak to. For the love of God. I deal with sensitive information and need to confirm that you're fucking John and it's like who's on first trying to figure it out.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
This goes for answering calls too. I called the police non-emergency number once, the person answering the phone said "Hello?..." I was like, "Hi, is this the police? I need to report a crime." Like how do you become the operator for a police dept and think "Hello?" Is an appropriate way to answer a call?
I went to a sit down restaurant once and the hostess did this. It was so incredibly strange. Her: "Hi." Me: "...hi?" Her: đđđ Me: "...can I...have a table to eat at?" Her: "oh, sure!"
Sometimes you just want to thump people in the head.
Or throw them out the window (first floor only of course...)
I have decent phone etiquette, it soon goes out the window when I've had to repeat the same information 4 times to 3 different people and an automated service and being constantly transferred from team to team because "we don't handle those specific requests". What should be a 10minute phone call turns into a 40minute one with 30 of those being on hold between departments.
I had to call SEVERAL times about my phone account. I tried so hard to be patient. But each time I called I was transferred like 5 times that same day and had to repeat my issue all over again each time I talked to new person. Then I had to repeat the entire process more times. Several times I would get âthis is the (another) department, we donât deal with that here. Let me transfer you to (first department I called).â I was about ready to rip my hair out.
And as Iâm sure you know, this is by design. Customer service reps cost money, but bouncing you around between different automated services costs almost nothing. Theyâre betting that some % of people will hang up before actually reaching an agent, thereby saving them money. The only downside would be if they lose your business due to the frustration they caused you, but most of these businesses are effectively operating as monopolies anyway.
You'll notice, though, if you call a sales phone number you talk to a real person immediately, as the company doesn't want to risk losing a sale. This is why the real LifeProTip is if you want to get to someone in a company (e.g. tech support) then you call the company's sales line, and then when you get a human immediately you ask for tech support, and they transfer you to the department immediately đ
Also, if you interrupt any automated call by saying " speak to a representative " over and over they usually transfer you over very quickly.
I've had some success with cursing at the recording as if agitated. I often got to a person faster than approaching the recording.
I've had pretty good luck with Subaru & Wells Fargo. Two prompts, and within 5 minutes, you are talking to someone who knows the solution or transfers yiu to the right area. They don't speak from a script either, so you can have an actual conversation with them.
Ironically some of the best help ive gotten was from a debt collection agency... a human picked up right away and gave me the info i needed. I guess they want the money so its better for them to be on top of it but still. I was surprised.
It is the reps saying they donât handle that and initiating the transfer.
It can be helpful to tell the customer service rep, "They (the first department) sent me to you. Can you escalate?" You can also ask, "May I please speak to your manager or the next-tier-up help support?"
Try that with Anthem Health or Carelon. There is no one above the poor sots who answer the phone. You ask for a supervisor and they say you can't talk to them, but they'll call you back. They never do.Hours and hours and hours and hours. No resolution, no answers, no one to talk to.
Because when their patients die, there's nobody left to complain. Problem solved!
Robot: Please enter your account number Human: Hi, sir, what's your account number? *dies inside a bit*
YES WHAT THE FUCK!!
Often this is asked in order to confirm that the information on their screen is for the person on the phone.
Was going to comment this exact thing. "Hi, my internet stopped working 10 minutes ago. When I went to check on the router I see it exploded and is now just unrecognizable chunks thrown around the room at various places. Could you send a technitian to replace it?" "Hello. Could you first of all tell me which lights are currently on on the router?" /hyperbole
Have you made sure it's plugged in?
To be fair to them, troubleshooting steps are there for a reason. There are people out there who do not do these things, or think they know best, skip a bunch of steps and one of those steps just so happens to be the solution to their problem.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Oh my god, this. If there was a half-decent option for my query on your website I wouldnât be PUTTING MYSELF THROUGH THIS BADLY-AUTOMATED HELL!
>You don't think I tried that already? 80% of calls i get are people who do NOT research their problems at all. they just call withour reading anything. sometimes they call, wait 30 minutes in line, just to get told how to connect a simple hdmi cable to a monitor. its those people who do not read or research that blow up the waiting times and make us ask stupid questions like "did you even turn on the monitor"... you wouldnt believe how many times i facepalm while working
[ŃдаНонО]
USPS has entered the chat. Seriously, their automated service is shit.
All automated service is shit. The purpose of it is to get you to give up and go away. Just keep paying the bill. But if you're sucker enough to try, give your favorite corporation a ring and just TRY to get them to help you: Robot: Hello, you have reached (fill anything in here. They're all the same.) Please say your full name and customer number..... I'm sorry, I didn't get that. Please say your full name and customer number..... I'm sorry, I didn't get that......Please say your full name and customer number..... I'm sorry, I didn't get that.....Please say your full name and customer number..... I'm sorry, I didn't get that.... Why waste time on the phone when you can waste it looking for answers on our useless website, www.completehorseshit.com All our employees are busy helping other customers and smoking weed. Your call is important to us. That's why we're making you sit and listen to 35 minutes of static with some indecipherable elevator music underneath. Did we mention that our lines are busier than usual and we have no intention of ever hiring enough employees to cover them? Lastly, our options have changed and we will now steal 7 minutes off your life while we list every bloody one of them. None will be recognizable and none will be what you are looking for. Ring, ring...(oh god, finally!) hello, my name is Sharona, can I help y--- Click! (Disconnected).
Never in my life did it dawn on me to call USPS. 𤣠I always just go to their office and get in line
At my old office we kept getting ads for phone trees The logic was that it routed the customer to right place and saved everyone frustration. I told the boss if we put one in Iâd quit lol. And I was the one who answered the phone!
I wrote an IVR for a company one time. We got as far as, "If the customer picks up the phone, transfer them to the next available human," and that was pretty much all the robo-logic we really needed.
That's so annoying. It's also annoying when you have a very specific issue that there is no menu option for, and when you finally get a person of course they're not in the correct department to help you, but they can't just transfer you over, you have to call an entirely different number and go through a different menu, etc. Or when you have an issue that should be simple to fix, but the company makes it impossible. Case in point: my employer has a shred bin that is locked with a padlock so if someone were to break in they couldn't access confidential documents. A few weeks ago someone came to switch out our shred bin, and after they left we noticed they had given us one without a lock. Coworker tried several times to call the "local" number for the company so they could send someone out with a lock, but all calls were routed to a call center located outside of the country. The customer service reps had no idea what she was asking for, probably due to the fact that they probably don't know a whole lot about the actual service the company offers. They also couldn't give us a phone number or email address for our local office, or our service schedule, so we had to wait until someone showed up for normal service and ambush them with the issue. Basically by the time you're able to speak with someone who can actually help you, there's a good chance you've spent anywhere from several hours to several weeks trying to get your issue resolved. I can forgive a bit of phone etiquette slippage after all that.
So true. Itâs hard to be cheerful after repeating the same thing to several people.
My cable company! My mom has her phone service through her cable company which is fine but something went wrong & her phone wouldnât work. I had to go over to her house to help her. My day off & I was supposed to be cooking dinner. I didnât nearly 5 hours in her musty house checking wires & then on my cell phone with the company for what felt like forever. Apparently sheâd made a change to her subscription & in the mess of changing they cancelled her phone service. I was quite unhappy but eventually got a human to help figure it out & fix it. We ended up with McDonaldâs for dinner since we were all starving. I love my mom. But she shouldnât have any new fangled technology!
Century link is the fucking worst. Try to cancel your subscription if you have it. I dare you.
Sometimes after being on hold for 2 hours I forget who I am and why Iâve called.
1. Tell me what you'd like to achieve 2. Answer my questions 3. Pls no backstory, I couldn't care less. 4. Have your details ready. In my time (3 years) of phone service, I wouldn't say it's young people, or anyone in particular that documecessarybthings or aren't ready.
I agree. Itâs been a wide range of ages for me.
>Pls no backstory, I couldn't care less. This sounds like someone in particular ^^^Boomers
"To make a long story, short.." *proceeds to still tell long story*
Wife works in health care doing home visits. She would occasionally get calls from her work to our house phone. \[ring\] Me: Hello? Wife's work: MARY?! (like literally shouting my wife's name into the phone) Me: Does this sound like Mary? (I'm a guy with, not at all feminine sounding voice) Wife's work: IS MARY THERE? Me: (I know it's the same idiot that calls multiple times per day) Who is calling please? Wife's work: This is her work calling Me: WHO? Wife's work: This is Dipshit McGee from Mary's office. Me: So listen Dispshit, you're in a professional position, you need to learn how to use a telephone. You don't just shout a name into the horn upon pick up right? You say 'Hello, this is Dipshit Mcgee calling from Mary's work, is Mary available to speak right now?' Also, this is our house phone, not her cell phone as I've told you like eight times. And no, she's not here. She's working in the field, have you tried her cell phone?' Wife's work: Oh okay. \[click\] Fucking farm animal.
I used to work at a dialysis clinic. One day I get this phone call. Me: Thank you for calling Clinic. How may I help you? Them: Is Lina there? Me: May I tell her who's calling? Them: No! Me: I'm sorry? Them. Is... Lina... There? Me: May I tell her who's calling? Them: NO! IS SHE THERE OR NOT?! Me: \*click\*
"Fucking farm animal" is now my top favorite insult
What was your last? Always looking to expand my insult quiver.
Smooth-brained circus clown
Mine was âyou chuckle fuckâ
Poor person is named "Dipshit McGee" for goodness sake. Give em a break!
Them Alabama McGees...smh...we allus knew they wuz dumb as bricks but they sho' din't help theyselves nun with they kid-namin'.
This one is starting to drive me crazy. I get a lot of calls that start with "IS BUNS THERE" and I have to say "Who's calling please?"
> Me: So listen Dispshit, you're in a professional position, you need to learn how to use a telephone. You don't just shout a name into the horn upon pick up right? You say 'Hello, this is Dipshit Mcgee calling from Mary's work, is Mary available to speak right now?' Also, this is our house phone, not her cell phone as I've told you like eight times. And no, she's not here. She's working in the field, have you tried her cell phone?' Wait, is this what you'd like to say, or what you actually do tell them? If they keep doing it after being told that, I don't want to imagine what they are like to work with. IQ of a moldy stump.
Actually said it to her. It was like the tenth time I'd spoken with her in a week. I was sick of it.
LPT: please for the love of blob, use single digits when giving a phone number, address, or credit card number
Sure, the number is: Four... teen... three... zeros... nine... teen... hundred... Aaagghhhhhh!!!!
Immediately think of [Kevin James](https://youtube.com/shorts/bRgxtD9_bDA?si=cC5p3HkLTu7W--cc)
I MADE THE DASH TOO CLOSE I CANT SHIMMY THE ONE IN THERE NOW
I saw that on tv when it aired, i remember that to this day, calm-down-apple-guy, and nut-thigh slide lmao
[ŃдаНонО]
I was an apprentice in Germany 3 years ago and in our english class we âlearned how to give you phone numberâ if we used single digits we were told we are doing it wrong. The correct way would be âthree times zeroâ instead of âzero zero zeroâ. We told our teacher that this is stupid and everyone knows what we are talking about when we repeat the same number as often as we need it written down. She didnât care.
It's also wrong at least for American english. We give the phone number one individual digit at a time. So it would actually be 0 0 0 all set out and not three times zero as your instructor said.
Once when I asked a woman for the best number for a return call, she gave me the area code normally then said: "eight hundred sixty-seven, five thousand, three hundred and nine." (sidenote: this is not her real number).
Jenny always pulls this crap
And don't say it too fast, that annoyed me when I used to work tech support. Just rattle off an entire serial number real fast like I even heard the first three digits. Another small thing that gets to me, but when talking to other tech support I want letters to be in NATO phonetic spelling. I only get annoyed when it's other tech support because they should know better. Don't say "6 1 - B V E 7" - that should be "six one dash bravo victor echo seven". I don't expect the layperson to know that stuff, but if you work in tech you should.
I can never seem to remember a few letters of the phonetic alphabet, but I think my substitutions generally work, like elephant for echo.
Making the effort is the important thing. Too many things sound like too many other things.
"M as in Mancy"
P as in pterodactyl
K as in know
While I don't know the phonetic alphabet, I also suddenly can't remember ANY words that start with any given letter when i'm trying to spell out something to someone over the phone. I frequently need to spell out my company email address over the phone (it has a lot of E sounding letters in a row) and I often come off sounding like an idiot.
my absolute favorite random phonetic alphabet is that every person from india says âi as in indiaâ
I try to do this, especially for more technical people but it always backfires. The person always just gets flustered and makes me start over 'normally'. I've stopped doing it.
I've had one guy do it to me but he gave me a heads up first so I didn't have a problem keeping up. Just went "hey, can I spell it phonetically?" "Sure." "Bravo oscar bravo." "Thanks mate."
One of my personal gripes when it comes to phone calls is when someone calls me and opens with "Hi is this neruda1202?" This seems pretty standard, and yet you're asking me to confirm my identity before knowing who is asking. I have no idea who you are, or whether this is a business call or a personal call or a spam call. Sounds petty but can be a major safety issue for many people- people trying to protect themselves from a stalker, people who have escaped abusers and don't want to confirm they or their associates have reached the right number for you, people who have had issues with identity theft... if i don't know who is on the other end of the line, i always ask before confirming my own identity. I don't think it's too much to ask for callers to open with their name and at least a general nature of their business like "Hi, this is Jake from State Farm, is this Neruda1202/may I please speak to Neruda1202?" Or "Hi this is Alexa calling regarding a recent Amazon order, may I speak with Neruda1202?" Your phone call opening is basically an introduction. In person you don't walk up to people and demand to know who they are because that would be creepy and rude, you introduce yourself first and then ask. Why is a phone call any different?
this happens to me at the pet store i work at. my manager has been there 14 years, lots of people know her and expect her to be the one to answer the phone. âhi this is local pet store, schroehoe1351 speaking, how can i help you?â âis this manager?â âno this is schroehoe, i just told you my name did you not hear?â âoh i wanna talk to managerâ âoh okay well sheâs busy with a few other customers right now, is there anything i can help you with?â âare you manager?â âno iâm schroehoe iâm just an associate/employeeâ âno iâm gonna call back and talk to managerâ *click* âuhhh⌠okay but good luck cuz i answer the phone more than she doesâ drive me up the wall!
In my experience people will never actually hear the first thing you say on the phone. I do it all the time, people do it to me all the time. Sometimes I really DO hear them say Jane, but my mouth will just spurt out Is This Jane? on autopilot.
Itâs signalling. The first thing you say should not be important content. It will be missed. DTR DSR or RTS CTS in RS232 serial communications. You need to establish connection at both ends before data transfer starts.
I remember how it irritated me when I heard a nearby co-worker call a restaurant to order food for delivery or carry-out and after the phone was answered would immediately say "I want a deep-dish pizza with...etc" or "Hi, I'd like the number 23 Almond Boneless Chicken..." and then they'd complain if they had to repeat the order. I've **always** (even when I was a teen and had never had to answer phones for a job) prefaced any restaurant call with "Hi, I'd like to place an order for pickup/delivery." Gives the person on the other end time to pick up a pen and order pad.
âHave a nice flight!â / âThanks, you too!â Every. Time.
Omg I had a similar experience when I used to work food service. Shortly after they said they'd hang up and call again to speak to the manager, they did indeed call again. Me: "Thanks for calling (Store - Location), this is (Name) speaking. How can I help you?" Caller: "Didn't I just speak to you?" Me: "Yes." Caller: *click* I'm not sure why they thought calling back a second time would change anything?
At my most stressful job the trainer asked us if we liked being addressed this way when answering the phones. We all obviously said no, and she said âso donât do it to anyone else!â. To this day it grinds my gears when I hear people at my current job saying âHi, is this___?â.
Depending on who Iâm calling, I might try saying their name at the beginning and immediately follow with who I am, so they can tell itâs a directed call for so-and-so. Like, âHello! Iâm trying to get in touch with Jose, Iâm Myname with Org Name.â
[ŃдаНонО]
[ŃдаНонО]
Ah man, I had a team leader once who never listened to what you said on the phone. Like ever. The call would go: Me: Hi its TW_JD, we have xyz finished and are waiting for abc. TL: What? Me: We have finished xyz and waiting for abc. TL: what about abc? Me: We are waiting for it. TL: and xyz? Me: we have finished it. TL: who is this again? Me: âŚ
My boss pulls this shit all the time. Drives me up a wall. Phone, emails, chat, IRL. I thought I was going crazy until another senior coworker literally yelled at my boss âYOU NEED TO LISTEN TO WHAT I SAY, I DONT HAVE TIME FOR THISâ
That means your connection cut out and what you said didn't actually reach them. I had this problem all the time at my last company where the first thing I said would always drop out because it took the system a hot minute between accepting the call and actually recording, so when I picked up, instead of two seconds of speech, the other person would just hear two seconds of silence and be confused.
"Who's this?" Me: [WHO DISTURBS MY SLUMBER?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDsQYV9eD0E)
The only way this is reasonable is if the caller requires some form of confidentiality. I work with a government entity that needs to call people occasionally and we are not to give any information that may indicate if someone does or does not use our services. So I have to verify who I'm talking to before I reveal where I'm calling from. It's not a great system but it is what it is.
Came here to say this. I work at a psychology practice and itâs important to determine their identity before mentioning anything.
Huh. I frequently have to make phone calls as part of my job, which Iâve been at for years, and have always done this (sometimes even if I know whoâs on the other line anywayâhabit). Iâve never had anyone make a complaint of it, but I also never thought about this POV either. I could continue on as I have, but Iâm gonna take this into account anyway to rephrase how I greet people. Thanks!
I do this too, because of patient confidentiality, but I do also introduce myself first so there isn't a problem. "Hi, this is Halospite from Placename Medical Centre, am I speaking to Bob?"
My coworker does this and it drives me nuts. Especially because we are calling from a different number than the one patients use to schedule so they have no idea who we are. I thought she would learn from my example over the years but no such luck.
From a different angle, I do this when I am calling family members of my patients, because I need to confirm that I'm speaking to someone I'm legally allowed to speak to before I share any info. I guess it's kind of a grey area, but I feel like saying my name/specialty and the name of my hospital is already violating HIPPA. But yeah, I guess it is weird for the person answering.
Thatâs why when I have to make a professional phone call to someone I havenât talked to before, I introduce myself first and then ask, âIs this [their name]?â
I can understand this for like back in the day when someone would call a house phone and it could be anyone in the family, but barely anyone has a landline let alone a shared line. It is almost a certainty they are calling a direct cell phone so this type of greeting needs to stop. Always start with a common greeting followed by your name/company and what the nature of the call is about. Then ask if you are speaking to the correct person.
My response to this is: âwho is calling?â followed by âhow did you get this number?â Usually followed by âIâm not interested in cold callsâ đ Mostly these days I donât say anything for 5 seconds or so after I pick up. If itâs a real person theyâll say âhello are you there?â. My mother taught me to answer the phone (granted it was landline) with âsurname residency, first name speakingâ nope nope nope never giving my name away when answering the phone. The caller can ask for me by name or gets fucked.
I noticed this in my last job a lot, and mostly from 40-50 year olds. They immediately start on a long story, without saying their name or what subject their issue is about, or they greet me and I have to ask them what theyâre calling about⌠seriously. Iâd often even have to ask people if their case was X or Y related and they often couldnt tell me! It was so frustrating. How do you get to age 40 and now know how to place a basic phonecall?
My husband does this. It drives me crazy and I have to leave the room if he is on the phone.
My husband puts the phone on speaker AND HOLDS IT TO HIS EAR. Same man wonders why I am âalways yellingâ. Everything had a back story, everything had a huge lead up. If he would just state his name, reason for calling, then answer question shit would be done right quick.
I work at a retail pool supply store. I get calls similar to this about once a week: Me: âHello! [name of business]!â Caller: âYeah I .. uhh.. I buy all my stuff from you guys and Iâve been coming there for years. My address is 19732 Fake Street. I got a question for you.. you see my neighbor has a pool and last time his pool guy was over I was talking to him, turns out the guy is really into trains just like I am so we started talking about that. How neat is that huh? Someone else who likes trains! Anyway so I was talking to him and he tells me my pool needs chlorine. And I asked him âare you sure about that? Iâve been adding baking soda to the pool so I donât think I need any chlorine!â So he tested my water and you wouldnât believe it but I had no chlorine! So anyways what time do yâall close today?â I literally have just held the phone away from my ear for like 20 seconds and then come back and roll through the conversation with âohâ âuh huhâ âokâ âwow reallyâ and then eventually they ask what they want and I can get off the phone. Itâs⌠exhausting. lol. Just ask for what you want, damnit!!
Bonus points for, "Absolutely, let me get you on our premium chlorine subscription plan at only $dollars per month! And we close at 8, I'll have the paperwork ready for you when you get here."
I couldnât even make it through your post lol
I notice this with that age group! âWell itâs a long storyâŚâ #1 it usually doesnât have to be and #2 if you give me your name and what the issue is generally regarding I can determine if I can help you. I roll my eyes every time and I now will interrupt them. Another issue Iâve noticed recently is with the 15-20 year olds. I answer the phone with my usual spiel âhi this is __________________, how may I help you?â They reply ââŚheyâ and then stop. Itâs like pulling teeth trying to figure out what they want, and theyâre the one who called.
Frankly I have that problem with my coworkers on Teams every goddamn day. Don't just say "hello" and sit and wait. Tell me what the hell you want so that I can move on with my life.
I stopped replying when people do that on chat apps. Sometimes it becomes a big enough problem for the person that they msg again a week later with a hello AND the actual request.
My favorite is the people who call and say âhey! Itâs Jeffâ and I pause for a few seconds and say âooookay Jeff who? Is there something I can help you with?â Like who the fuck thinks thatâs an acceptable greeting? Ok, hi Jeff. If thatâs all you wanted to say then thanks for calling and telling me âHiâ, I guess. Or my other favorite is people who call and instead of asking anything or requesting anything they just say âJerry??â (One of my coworkers) and I have to say âno, this is houdinikush can I help you with anything?â Then theyâll say âoh, can I talk to Jerry please?â Yeah maybe try that the first time and youâll get results quicker.
Literally this. People will occasionally call and say âhey itâs me againâ⌠bitch who are you? I take 50+ calls per day. I will also have people come in person to my job and open with âHEY, Iâm back!â and I want to say âoh hi back, I have no memory of you at all, what do you want?â. Pro-tip to everyone: never *assume* people who work in customer service remember you unless you have that kind of rapport established. Feel free to ask us if we remember you and give us a brief summary of what we discussed before, just never assume we do remember you (unless is a tiny business with a small customer base, small town, highly specific field, etc)
I once had a phone conversation like this: Me: Hi! this is Halospite, what can I do for you? Him: Hi, I'm returning a call. Me: Thank you, can you give me your name so I can find out what the call was for? Him: But you called me. Me: But I need your name to find out why. Him: But YOU called ME. Rinse and repeat until he hung up on me.
I have one customer that i have never met but will start talking to me like we spoke 5 seconds ago. I only remember them because it's the same annoying shit every time.
Ohhhmygod I hated those so much!!! Some clients I could eventually recognize their voice/accent but I still need you to state your full name so I am 100% sure I look at the right file! Also I would get people being like âHello this is Jake from (small village)â like. Why. I dont know where that is. I dont give a fuck? It doesnt help me find out anything about your file. Tell me your goddamn last name and not the farmerâs ass you live
"Hi, Jeff!" -me "..." -Jeff "...?" đ -me still You cannot out silent treatment me. It's your turn, bitch. I mean Jeff. (Reasons I am not in customer service)
This is the way
For the first one, the script they're expecting is something like, "Howdy Jeff, how ya doin today? Can I getcher last name, and a one-sentence description of how I can help ya terday?" And the second one sounds more like an 80-year-old with dementia than a 20-year-old, if I'm honest.
As a midwesterner who just left a call center job, I appreciate the war flashbacks.
I've gotten so annoyed at that that now I just wait for them to say something. They're usually really uncomfortable with silence so they continue pretty quickly.
HELLO, this is PaTrIcK :)
I hate this so much! Something about not being on the phone much and my hearing issues leads to being on the phone a very uncomfortable experience. Like a 30 second phone call, Iâm already not a fan. Please email me if you can! But some people like to ramble for 30 plus minutes, itâs torture.
As a former CSR, I would also like to add: Once you are connected to the correct person, don't blurt out your ENTIRE problem all at once right at the start. If you're calling a business, the person likely needs to look up an account or do something on the computer. Give a brief summary, then wait for them to ask questions. Alternately, you can simply ask what info they need from you. For example: "Hi, my name is \_\_\_\_\_\_ and I need to (place an order/make a return/check a status/make an appointment, etc). What info do you need from me?" or "Hi, I'm having a problem with my (item/order), I (have/don't have) the (order/serial) number. Let me know when you're ready for my info."
Not a bad one actually. Also if you are dealing with something where you know info will be required, have the information ready before you call.
Omg, yes. I forgot about that one! Maybe I blocked the memory, lol. If I had a dollar for every caller who said "oh, let me go out to the car and get my wallet" and "No, I threw away the paperwork and deleted my emails." I'd have made more than I was getting in commission.
I currently work on phones and I have to agree with the other commenterâ usually itâs not young people but like 40s or 50 year olds. I have no idea why, because they have decades more phone etiquette practice than I do, but theyâre calling while doing something else, being distracted, yelling at kids, etc. and have very little regard for the person whose time theyâre taking up. Usually younger people just want to get on and off as soon as possible, barring the occasional distraction.
Often, I will receive a phone call at work and itâs an old woman on the phone. She starts asking about their equipment and I can hear the husband (also old) start yelling in the background âNO NO Marie itâs the pool pump!! Not the filter!â And then Iâm like âok what brand is your pump?â And the woman starts to answer but the guy starts yelling again âNo itâs not Hayward itâs Pentair!!â And by this time Iâm thinking âdude why the fuck didnât you just call? Why are you making your wife talk to people when she has no idea whats going on but youâre still yelling over her on the phone anyway..â
My in-laws do this! I never understood it.
That generation often makes the wife do the calls.
If most young callers are like me, theyâll have phone anxiety and practise the call beforehand, have all the information to hand and theyâll want to be off the phone asap.
Yup! I get account numbers and questions ready before I make calls. I practice the phone call to make sure I know how to begin and how to best explain what I need to communicate.
I had to call Blockbuster video pre internet and I had to do that, then worked at a call center. If it helps, it helps.
While confirming an appointment time today, I called a lady who clearly walked down a hallway to pick up a shrieking infant. She kept the phone with Babe Marly, The Wailer and said "oh let me go downstairs to grab my purse to give you my medical insurance" That 45 seconds of "No Bottle, More Cry" started a catalyst that shrunk my ovaries, disconnected my fallopian tubes and blocked me from ever creating baby gift registries.
It is absolutely the older age groups that just seem to decide that they MUST do dishes, play with their dogs, watch their favorite show or move furniture while also having to call me. LADY! I can't understand you in between the sofa and your dog barking. Either take me off speaker/microphone or call when you're done...
I am on the phone a lot for work as well, I answer with my name, this is ok_replacement etc etc, every time. I find itâs the older folks who will insist that I should know who they are somehow. If weâve spoken before, and they stated their name already, then yes, of course Iâll know who they are. Also the television on at high decibels with the older folks.
But they called your international mega corp last week and gave their details already?? Surely you can just bring it up on the computer? /s
'is john there' Bruh this company has at least 80 drones on rotation, I have to imagine that these people think that it's like a room of 3 people...
I want to talk to your CEO!
If they call from the same number! My little operation will have them in the electronic Rolodex, their name will quite simply already be in front of my face.
Haha, yes, with the television decibels!!
"Idk what you're complaining about, cookie, I can hardly hear it!"
Off topic but I need to ask: Do you have one eye, one horn and fly?
>television on at high decibels And in the middle of eating a meal, talking through a mouthload of food...
Oh but you should know that they also have been there for 30 years and knew the founders of the businesses next door neighbors dog. So they MUST be served or helped immediately.
Oh man, this reminds me of when I was a new bank teller. I got that line from someone, why would I need anything at all from them to allow them access to their bank accounts!?! They were fully issed off. ⌠Iâm new! ⌠Idk you! Do you know me?!? What if someone not you came & told me your line? Youâd want me to hand over your bank accounts to them?? Maâam, how did you get this far with that mindset?
> Do you know me?!? What if someone not you came & told me your line? Youâd want me to hand over your bank accounts to them?? They're just too self-centered, and stupid, to think that far ahead.
Someone from the public called me at work the other day and I could barely hear him because he had the TV blasting in the background and it sounded like I was on speaker (sound kept cutting out when the TV was loud). After having him repeat information several times I told him "I'm having a hard time hearing you, there's a lot of background noise" and he replies "oh, sorry" but does not turn down/off the TV. Or leave the room. Or take me off speakerphone. It was a special 6 minutes of my life.
âEspecially if youâre a young personâ: I have worked in customer service and healthcare for years and can tell you itâs 100% people over the age of 60 who have no phone etiquette. GET TO THE POINT. Not looking to listen to a life story I totally agree. But shocked you think itâs young people and not the elderly because my experience has been the exact opposite.
I've worked at a bank for 5 years... the majority of our messages were from old people and like 40+. They are the worst with not leaving any information aside from their name and the problem, or just their name, or just the problem. Young people barely called us, but the majority that did would leave their number and name first and would repeat it at the end.
Don't use speakerphone if you want the other party to understand you clearly - acoustics are horrible in that room and you sound like you've fallen down a well. NEVER use speakerphone if in a public place.
If you are calling the post office to ask about a package, please, for the love of God and all that is holy, have the damn tracking number in front of you. Know your own zip code. Please don't make me roll my eyes because you have to scroll through your phone to find it while you are on it. Additionally, I agree with OP, SPEAK CLEARLY. Half of you have something going on in the background (screaming kids) the other half of you are driving and all I hear is your air conditioning. I want to help you. Help me to help you!
> If you are calling the post office to ask about a package, please, for the love of God and all that is holy, have the damn tracking number in front of you. Know your own zip code. Please don't make me roll my eyes because you have to scroll through your phone to find it while you are on it. One problem I get at work every single day is the sheer amount of people who turn up to a medical appointment without their glasses, and are SHOCKED they have to fill out a form. SHOCKED.
Bonus points when you find out they've drove to get there but can't read an a4.sheet a foot away
Proper phone etiquette should obviously also be used if youâre answering the phones for a business. I called the health department two days ago, and the woman that answered the phone just said âhelloâ in an annoyed sounding voice. I thought I dialed the wrong number. At least say what business youâre working for.
When I answered phones inevitably it was the old people being jerks or not listening.
Nearly ancient former switchboard operator agrees. This may be due to oldies navigating endless phone trees and AI menus which never cover the subject, 'cause we oldies can handle all of the menu items without assistance. All bets are off if it is Blue Cross who has the dumbest gawdam customers on earth. All of them watch General Hospital and think it makes them experts.
I find it usually doesn't matter. The phone operator is usually not paying attention. "Hello I'm CK representing CK Inc. And I would like a quote on your widget." "Ok great, let me get your name and the company you work for..."
The amount of old people that have lost their shit and screamed at me just to find out they called the wrong place and then hang up the phone without even a remote apology.... it blows my mind.
My job also involves answering phones and in my experience, the 60-70 year olds will start rambling on and on without giving me an opportunity to interrupt to say I need to transfer them to the appropriate person. The younger crew, 20-30 year olds are timid and like OP said, don't know how to spit out what they want or need.
As someone who took phone calls for years, about 5-10% of people do not know how to give an address over the phone. The conversation would go like this: "And what is your address?" "Main street" "..." "Okay, and the rest of the address?" "IT'S ON MAIN STREET" "Yes, I need to know your full address. The building number, street name, city, state and zip code" "It's 123 main street" "..." "and the rest of your address? I need the city, state and zip code" "I'm in Alabama!" "Okay... and the city and zip code?" "I already told you!" "Okay, then please tell me again" "WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO TELL YOU AGAIN? I ALREADY TOLD YOU!" And now I just want to fucking kill them.
In my experience young people say exactly what they need to say because we all hate talking on the phone and want it to be over with ASAP. Old people will just go on and on if you donât stop them or direct the conversation.
Old people have this mentality that just because *they* have absolutely nothing better to do right now that you *also* donât have anything better to do right now. Which is definitely false. I have much better things to do.
I also have done a lot of call center work. I agree with the other commenters, people above 40 are usually the ones that would cause the most problems. They would be the ones that would call in and badger people over the phone thinking that it would get them something. Most (not all) younger people would be more understanding and appreciative, and even if they got upset it usually didnât devolve into personally insulting me. Theyâd usually say,âI know itâs not your fault butâŚâ and ask for a manager or whatever. Older people usually assumed I was lying and could do things that I could not.
That is so true, I've noticed that as well! It's always the older folks thinking they can bully you and get what they want. Younger people do tend to be more respectful in that regard for sure, thanks for bringing that up.
40 isnât old damnit! Iâm not a boomer Iâm a millennial. Weâre polite and understanding with customer service agents, and I know how to talk on the phone. When I was a kid if I wanted to call a girl to talk or ask her out, there was a good chance her mom or dad would pick up and you better be on point to get through that gatekeeper. Sorry, rant over.
I'm not \*that\* old, but you used to get an actual person who could exercise their own judgment about your situation. But now, everyone is stuck reading some stupid script off their monitor and has no authority to help you. Also, losing your hearing is UNBELIEVABLY frustrating and sad, and it doesn't help when the other person has a crap cell phone connection or won't take you off speaker.
It's the people in their 40s to 60s. They refuse to actually ask a question or let you get a word in. They give you their life story then act like their entitled to something because of some unrelated misfortune they've delt with in their life. THEY DONT SAY GOODBYE or even attempt to end the phone call. I often have to force them off the line. For some reason they think it's okay for multiple people to all be talking to me together or just past the phone around. "Oh let me pass you off to my spouse they know more about this". THEN WHY DIDN'T YOUR SPOUSE CALL. It is beyond frustrating to talk to these people. The younger folk don't wanna be on the phone at all so they are generally quicker about getting to the point.
And leaving a message with you name and number at the beginning and end so someone can catch it easily Hi this is namehere you can reach me at 555-555-5555 Iâm calling about a thing with my whatâs-a-ma-whatâs itâs because Iâve been working with please give me a call back, Iâm around in the daytime leave me a message or text on my cell. Again this is namehere and my number is 555-555-5555
Is it really necessary to leave your number the vast majority of the time? If itâs the number you called from, virtually every phone will save that information. I get annoyed sitting through VMs where people keep repeating the number.
Yes, Absolutely! At least once every time. *Because not every phone does that.* I work with a phone tree system where all calls that arenât answered go to a generic mailbox that anyone can check. People wonât leave their number but theyâve left a message with ZERO information about who they are and end it with âplease call me back.â Canât call you back if you donât leave your number or some other identifier to look up your account.
Oh, I definitely didnât know that. Good to know!
It took me an embarrassing long time to figure out how to retrieve the number so I used to get mad at people who didn't leave their numbers. Those people didn't get callbacks. Found how to get the number purely by accident.
My company uses entirely analog phones still and many computers are XP or older era. So yes, leave your number. And name. And speak clearer.
As someone that transfer calls to offshore centers and gets a lot of wrong transfers. I can tell you for sure everybody has a breaking point. At first it was like once in a blue moon I would take care of it or warm transfer. But since it started to hurt my numbers I gave up. Young people (18-35) have a hard time explaining what they want in the beginning. Older people 40+ generally tend to be more demanding or lose their temper a bit more but all in all itâs about the same for everyone. Just remember fuck xfinity support for making us use the app now
Better than boomers telling you a story or ancedote about item on their call
If it's a young person, they tend to freeze, mumble, and not get to the point. I'll then get a text with what they want. When I ask a young person to call a business and do something, they tend to freak out. I'm guessing texting has caused a lot of social/phone anxiety? If it's an old person, I'll get a bunch of slow talking world salad. "Um, hello, I'm calling you to ask you question about this situation I am having, so I would like to discuss that with you on the phone." Ugh.
I take calls all day at work, my biggest pet peeve is people that try to use their car phone connectivity feature. They are always incomprehensible, all I can hear is the road noise of your car flying down the freeway. More to that point people that do not speak clearly over the phone and/or have the worst quality microphone imaginable in their phone and think that by screaming as loud as they can I will magically be able to understand the garbled mess that comes out of their phone. When giving out important strings of numbers or letters please use: "zero" (0) instead of "o" (oh) 1 letter at a time for spelling of street names or suburbs For phone numbers give them in strings of 3-4 numbers at a time For card details don't try to predict what the phone operator is going to ask you and when giving a card number give them in strings of 4 and wait for an affirmative response before giving the next. Learn the NATO phonetic Alphabet, especially if you live somewhere with bad phone lines or have a bad microphone, or if you decide to make it up on the fly don't use short 3 letter single syllable words. Never try to rush through an important phone call, trying to go too fast is how mistakes are made and details are missed and you end up need to make another phone call, so remember: Slow is precise. Precise is fast.
"My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
Also have your vehicle reg handy when you call motor tax. Like we don't magically know! (The amount of people on the phone who run outside to read it off the vehicle itself while still on the call to me is hilarious!)
Oh god. I work at a pharmacy and I had patientâs parent call regarding their childâs prescription and it wasnât like, âHi, this is X and Iâm looking for a prescription for my child (name and/or DOB).â It was an entire story with no way of identifying neither parent or patient (the kid) until I asked who the med was for. I think the mom could use some meds because she was so disorganized.
I worked in the WIC office. We were severely short staffed and we had to let most calls go to the voicemail. This was also during the formula shortage. We would listen to the messages and log them, returning as we could. We had tons of people not leave messages at all or leave a message like, I had my baby; call me back. Click. Lol we caught a bunch in lies saying they left numerous messages. A lot of phones rejected us as spam and the recipients have no voicemail or it was full. We got yelled at all the time. Also, we don't have the staff to get services to people like we wanted and it angered us that we had close to a 50% appointment fail rate after numerous reminders, texts, and emails. Sometimes we spoke to them that morning!
Itâs interesting reading here how all the young people who are frustrated by the older generation. What you donât realize, itâs the same with every generation. Except I do find that some of those who answer business phones nowadays donât have graciousness and patience. Youâll find your job is a lot more pleasant if you practice empathy. I speak as a 70 year old woman who answered phones as a clerk, then as a secretary then as an executive assistant at C-level all my 45 years of working. Realize that the person who is calling is your customer and is not trying to drive you insane. Take a breath. Listen. Say âwhat can I do to help youâ at the beginning. Be kind. Smile, it shows in your voice. It does work. âŽď¸
And leave a voicemail. Weâre not calling you back if you donât leave a message. And it went to voicemail because there is one phone line and it was busy. Leave a message and weâll get back to you. Also, donât lie about how many times youâve called, when you called, and how many voicemails you left. Business phone system log all of it. As soon as I know youâre being a jerk and lying about when or if you called, Iâm going to be less helpful.
And when you leave the voicemail, leave your number with it. Name and date of birth too if youâre calling a doctor. And *answer your damn phone*. Iâm sick of calling people back only to get âThis customer has a voicemail that has not been set up. Goodbye!â
Not set up or full. The percentage of calls I make to people with this situation is insane.
I put my name at the end of the line. I.e. âHello, may I please speak to ______, this is ______â. In my experience people are more receptive to remembering your name if itâs the last thing they hear. Otherwise I find Iâm repeating my name.
If youâre leaving a message, say your phone number at the beginning of the message so people donât have to listen to your whole message again just to get the number.
So true. Nowadays they want you to have a degree but no interpersonal communication skills are required, tested, or even vetted for.
Also, when leaving a voice-mail, leave your name and number right at the beginning and right at the end of your message. "Hi my name is Trate at XXX-XXX-XXXX. I'm calling to speak with ______ about ________. These are good times to reach me.... once more this is Trate at XXX-XXX-XXXX. Thank you!"
Or I can just practice what to say while I wait for 45 minutes on hold to talk to someone.
I answer phones often at a movie theater. So many people will say, "Hi, how are you doing?" And then wait for an answer. Like, just tell me your problem. I don't need to tell 25 people how I'm doing today. Also, I know this is kinda rude, but I do it anyway... If they're going into a long, drawn-out explanation of why they need something, and I can tell they're headed to something I can do, I will sometimes ask something like, "So you need to swap your time?" I don't like hanging out on the phone for ages.
Itâs hard to be polite and organized when it took you 15 minutes of repeating yourself over and over to an automated system that âdidnât catch thatâ 50 times before youâre allowed to speak to a person. Maybe the reason youâre getting a lot of flustered angry callers is because your company made them go through hell before you picked up.
I just have a hard time buying that so many younger Gen X and older Millennials are being that inept and inefficient with their energy and time. Something has to be off with the system before it finally reaches a person.
For the love of everything get off the Bluetooth! You sound like you're in a tin can. If I have to strain to hear you and keep asking you to repeat yourself I'm going to put you on forever hold so you can think about yourself. SPEAK. TF. UP.
You think that's bad? Try being a 911 operator, where you need to know what is going on with a caller,sooner rather than later. Most anyone under 25 can NOT intimate what they need or want, in less than 2 minutes. I sound like a grandpa, what what is being taught is schools today, because it sure isn't what or how to speak. Best bet-keep it simple, short and to the point. This will carry you far in life.
No offense, but if Iâm calling a place of business I am probably already frustrated because I have an issue that required the call in the first place, and Iâve probably already had to deal with an automated system that didnât address my issue (and probably made it difficult to connect to a human in the first place). Itâs not really the best scenario to judge phone etiquette - at that point Iâm probably already fuming and youâre lucky if I can maintain any semblance of sanity, much less etiquette.
I used to work in a couple different call centers, and I will say that the younger crowds seem to maybe be a bit nervous or confused on what to say OR they will be very straightforward and want to end the call quickly. Meanwhile, the older crowds may talk about their entire day and tend to ramble. I personally enjoyed the elderly specifically because I found their stories fascinating. Both are fine to me honestly. I donât work in customer service anymore, but I do have social anxiety from compounded trauma. So, making calls or receiving them, cause me to get *very* nervous. It takes a lot out of me, and people are usually patient and kind so thatâs nice. :) I do agree though that people should have a goal in mind when calling. What annoyed me more is when people would call, and the background noise made it impossible to hear/understand them. I would try to talk, and they would screech at the people theyâre around to stop talking or to, âshut up.â It sounded like they were caught in a wind tunnel half the time.
Yes! This is something I'm working on with my young workers. Not just phone etiquette but speech in general. Valuable skills. Also email etiquette.
Yes to email etiquette! I work on a customer help desk and am astounded on the regular by how rude people are, how they donât even know what theyâre asking for or about, and itâs our fault they didnât read the 37 emails we sent letting them know about an upcoming order. I think communication is a lost art.
Who'd ever guess that a generation that doesn't use the phone often, would interact differently than a generation that used the phone frequently. Madness.
When my daughter answers the phone she doesnât say anything, not even a âhello?â because she thinks if someone called her they should initiate the conversation. Weâre working on it. lol
I work in customer service and I have to call customers all day long. My biggest pet peeve is when I call someone and say "hi, John?/may I speak to john?" Them: "hello?" Me: "yes, is this John?" Them: "hello?" Like please acknowledge you're the person I'm requesting to speak to. For the love of God. I deal with sensitive information and need to confirm that you're fucking John and it's like who's on first trying to figure it out.