Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 21, 1990 TAG: 9003202439
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DONNA LARCENT THE HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Tell whoever it is that you're eating dinner and you'll call them back," Dad says sternly.
Dinner, circa 1990.
One, maybe two, of the five-member family pulls a quick meal out of the microwave. The phone rings.
"Tell whoever is selling something that you're eating dinner and you'll never call them back."
There's nothing quite as annoying as hearing a monotone voice launch into a sales pitch for that fabulous vacation condo at Mount Minnehaha. But how to get off the phone quickly without being rude?
There's help from Nancy J. Friedman, who runs The Telephone Doctor, a St. Louis-based consultant who counts American Telephone & Telegraph Co. as one of her clients.
"Don't kill the messenger," Friedman says. "That's a person on the other end of the phone who's trying to make a living, and reading a boring script that a sales manager wrote."
Friedman's advice is to remain in polite but firm control of the conversation.
"Tell them you're dining and ask them to send their sales pitch to you by mail," she says. "Then say good night and hang up. But don't just hang up in their ear. That's rude."
Phone etiquette? Hooray. A Miss Manners for the telephone, that indispensable, yet sometimes annoying, modern convenience that has been useful since Alexander Graham Bell spilled battery acid on his pants and said, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you."
Comedian George Carlin used to do a routine called "Seven Words You Can't Say on Radio."
Friedman has her own routine. It's called "Five Forbidden Phrases." If you have ever been on the receiving end of the phrases, then you know how frustrating they can be.
For business dealing with consumers on the phone, the bad words of telephone lingo are: "I don't know," "We can't do that," "You have to do this," "Hang on a second, I'll be right back," and "NO."
"These are the words customers don't want to hear," Friedman says. "I show businesses how to soften the message and keep a customer."
But if the business you are calling hasn't benefited from the doctor's prescription, here are some quick comebacks Friedman says you can use.
When you call with a question and they say, "I don't know," ask them to put somebody on the phone who does.
When they say, "We can't do that," ask "Well, what can you do?"
When they say, "You have to do this," answer "I don't have to do anything but pay taxes and die."
When they say, "Hang on a second," say "Hold on. If you're going to be more than 30 seconds, then call me back."
When they say "NO," ask for somebody who can say "YES."
Argue "only when you really care about the issue," Friedman says. "Otherwise, vote with your feet. Shop somewhere else."
A consumer's first impression of a company often comes over the phone.
"I don't think it's possible to be too friendly over the phone," says Elsie Kelly, owner of Options Unlimited, a temporary employment firm based in Hartford, Conn. "We stress courtesy and using the name of the caller. That's music to their ears. We also help our people deal with rude callers."
Sometimes that means a pep talk in Kelly's office.
"If I see a frown, I try to be a booster," she says. "The telephone is our lifeline. We have to be good at it."
Friedman's staff has mirrors at their desks.
"If you're smiling, your voice is pleasant," she says. "I don't give my people a choice about it. This is my business."
Sometimes a consumer has to make a call to straighten out a billing error. "I used to be a yeller and a screamer, but I didn't get anywhere," Friedman says.
by CNB