Phone etiquette 2.0. Meh!

When in doubt of who is calling, hang up!  The days of answering your phone and believing that the person on the other end of the line is actually someone of importance to you, are gone. That isn’t to say that we don’t still get calls from loved ones, friends, and business associates.  It’s just that we have those types of people already listed in our phone’s directory, along with a cool photo of them and some cute little emojis we share. 

I’m talking about spam, political ads, and of course the “you are delinquent – send me money to a foreign account”, type calls. Plus there are those who have little if any experience making business calls to “ANYONE”. But, someone puts them in charge anyway.

Some people have forgotten how to use the phone.  Or, as an alternative, many are cutting their first teeth on video chat instead.  You can chat from anywhere in the world, blur your background, or play full-on episodes of your favorite artist spinning over your head like Saturn’s rings.  Woo Hoo – look at me, baby! 

I received a phone call a while back, one that I was expecting, so the unknown number wasn’t quite so suspicious.  But the conversation was far from normal.  It went stray quickly as the caller began to identify themselves.  They did a pretty sketchy job stating who they were, and who they were working for.  The caller was repeating their statements or questions a couple of times before they got the meaning right; not even allowing me to talk much over their own voice.  It was comical, to say the least. 

Finally, managing to get through several minutes of the caller’s “I” statements, along with their inability to remember much of what they needed to say – it was a relief when the call ended.  Knowing that this person may call again,  I only feel  “Meh”.  Meh, and wishy-washy flip-flops are synonyms. 

Meh, and wishy-washy flip-flops, are synonyms.

Telephone technology is still a wonderful tool; if you know how to use it.  But it may end up going down the same route as the 8-track player, cassettes, and records (Google It).  We can talk to each other via live chat on our wrist devices – who needs old-school telephones?  You have a full-blown computer on your wrist.  Why keep phones around?

Manners & Phone Etiquette 2.0

You may be digitally savvy, and run a Fortune 500 company, but if you don’t have excellent telephone etiquette and a good dose of manners,  how will you deal with callers like the one described above? They are growing in numbers.