Effective Phone Courtesy

I don’t memorize everyone’s phone number, there are just too many, so when someone calls and wants a return call without giving me their number, I take my time. First I have to look it up in an personal address book, on my cell phone director, or look it up on CID. This reduces the priority which I assume they know since they assumed I had their number memorized. Hence the delay.

If they do leave a number, more times than not they say it so quickly that I have to play the message over several times before I get it. If they don’t speak clearly I probably wont get it correct so there is no return call.

Companies looking for my business make all the above mistakes frequently which is really dumb. Then they shrug it off or say “well, it’s on the invoice.” How stupid can you get?

Here is are a few simple things to do so that people who you want to call back, will.

1. Leave your phone number.
2. Leave it a second time.
3. Don’t leave it at the beginning or end of the message. (God, don’t leave a message that is over a minute long. Half minute is better)
4. Speak slow and clearly.
5. Follow it up with an email or text message.

Now, that isn’t so hard is it? “Hi, its Ed Boyle. Could you give me a call at 4,4,4,3,3,3,2,2,1,1, that’s 4,4,4,3,3,3,2,2,1,1, I want to talk to you about the tickets. I’m not sure I can go since my car was just hit by an elephant that was crossing outside the crosswalk. I don’t care what the Police say, Dumbo can’t even fit in the crosswalk. Why can’t the circus have a street parade like they use to? Who is going to clean up after these things?”

See. Simple.