In this profession I have to make many phone calls to sources for my articles. While most people are very courteous and considerate when answering my calls or leaving a message, I do find some times myself in awkward situations such as not knowing the name and number of the person leaving a voicemail or needing to plead with someone to take a message before they hang up on me.
Some of this I think may have to do with the fact the majority of adults have a separate phone number assigned to them and calling has become much less formal since the introduction of cell phones and caller ID. Today, nearly 91 percent of adults in the United States own cell phones, according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.
Before cell phones, land lines were used and multiple people would share the same line, so it was necessary to learn how to be courteous when calling or receiving a call. Today that is much different, but in business environments land lines phone networks are still prominent.
I have a few rules for making business phone calls. After hearing the salutation, I respond with “Hello, this is Hayleigh Gowans with the Eagle Bulletin newspaper, may I please speak with [insert name here]?” That way the person who answers can identify who you are and whom you are calling on. Even when calling a cell phone, I do not assume the person answering is the person who I calling.
When answering phone calls I will say, “Hello, this is Hayleigh,” as my salutation so a person is not left guessing if they called the right number.
When leaving a voicemail, I am sure to speak clearly and leave my name, title, reason for calling and phone number. I will typically spell out my last name and repeat my phone number. I sometimes receive phone calls to my cell phone from my business extension and a person has assumed I have their number, when I am not able to see it and cannot call back. It’s always better to give more information that less.
When you receive a phone call and a person is unavailable to speak and you cannot forward the call to a voicemail service, you should always offer to take a caller’s name, title/affiliation, reason for calling and return phone number.
People may blame younger generations for having ignorance when making phone call etiquette mistakes. In reality, they are much more comfortable with text conversations, and a lot may not have experience answering, taking a message or making calls themselves. I know my teenage siblings won’t answer my phone calls and are much more likely to quickly reply to my Snapchat message.
When I was a teenager I experienced some anxiety and stress when faced with receiving and making phone calls. Fortunately, in high school I got to experience taking phone calls in a professional environment by being a student worker in the main office, and learned how to forward phone calls or to take messages from outside callers to leave with school staff.
Many teenagers may not get this experience when they are young, but they are likely to face these situations in their adult lives. It is always beneficial to teach your children so they have good manners from a young age.
To examine if it is necessary to be this formal in modern phone call situations where caller ID is prominent, I looked to the advice of Judith Martin (a.k.a. Miss Manners) from April 2016. When a writer asked Miss Manners if it was necessary for her stepchildren to identify themselves when calling, she said with caller ID, a lot of the information is already available. Martin added, “So there is really no need for this situation to be the cause of family conflict. If your stepchildren call from numbers that do not give their names, you should merely explain that, and ask them to identify themselves when they do so. And if your telephone does not give identifications, you should point out that it is that, rather than you, which is out of date.”
Overall, my advice is that it is never bad to be formal and cautious in your phone conversations. Making assumptions can lead to a failure to communicate and cause more awkwardness than pleasant conversations.
If you have any questions or to suggest topics for discussion, please email me at [email protected]. Until next time, mind your modern manners!
