When I was a teenager, I lived with my grandmother for a few years. One of the many things she stressed was good phone etiquette. To this day, my siblings and I have extraordinary good phone speaking voices. My mother and her siblings also have great phone manners, so this is something that goes back a long way.
When I call Patti at work, her coworkers always know it’s me simply because of how I talk when they answer the phone. For example, if they say “Hello, [company where she works], how can I help you?”, I will reply with “Hello, may I please speak to Patti?” and they say “Sure, Derek, hold on a second.”
On those occasions when they will give their name, I say “Hello [name of coworker], my name is Derek, may I please speak to Patti?”
It’s just something that has happened in the ten years she has been working there.
Today, the phone must have been busy because someone answered “Hello [company where she works], can you hold please?” I responded with “Yes, ma’am.” After the briefest of pauses, the young lady on the other end of the line said “You probably want to speak to Patti, don’t you?” I smiled and said “Yes, please.”
It pays to be polite and professional sounding on the phone.
