Improving your business telephone etiquette : speaking on the phone

Some people just don’t know how to speak on the phone. You can hear every breath they’re taking and the crunch-crunch of their afternoon corn chips, or they have the receiver so far away from their mouths that they sound like they’re talking to you from the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. Some people also don’t know how to listen on the phone. They respond “Uh-huh” to whatever you say while you hear the clicking of their busy fingers on the keyboard in the background, or they talk so much that you can’t get a word in edgewise.

These typical scenarios are common, but shouldn’t be this way! If you use the information in the following sections, you’ll be a polite speaker and listener on the phone in no time.

The basic facts of communication are these: One person is a speaker, and the other is a listener. In most circumstances, the speaker’s job is to be as clear as he can be and to speak in a polite, even tone. The listener’s job is . . . well, to listen to what the speaker says and then respond appropriately.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But messing the process up is amazingly easy. Usually, people just forget. As speakers, we mumble, shout, whisper, or speak with food in our mouths. As listeners, we do other things when we’re supposed to be listening, listen without hearing anything the other person says, or respond to another person’s question from left field — with an entirely different topic.

Everyone gets overworked and distracted, and no doubt you have those moments when someone calls you at exactly the wrong time. But it’s crucial that you pay attention to what you say, how you say it, and how you listen and respond to others on the phone. Studies have shown that the top reasons why customers do not become repeat customers are employees’ indifference and rudeness on the phone.

So what can you do? Practice speaking and listening with someone you trust by using these guidelines:
1.Speak clearly, and pay attention to your conversational partner. Find the correct distance from your mouth to hold the receiver so that your voice doesn’t sound like part of the ambient background or like a hectoring protester speaking into a bullhorn.

2.Practice listening, too. When you get a phone call, make a point of turning off other noisemaking equipment, including the radio. Turn away from your computer if you have to so that you can avoid the temptation to fiddle with the document on your screen. Excuse yourself from any conversations you are currently having so as to give your telephone conversational partner your undivided attention.