So why the hell do you all answer the phone as if you have no fucking clue who’s calling?
I can see playing coy at home, since it’s maybe possible that you don’t want to pay for call display and don’t have it, but at work can you at least pick up the phone and call me by name?
I always say “Hi Bob” or whoever. What’s the point in playing stoopid? Does everyone do this?
I found, at work, when they’re used to hearing [business name] that if I say “Hi bob, what can I get for you” they get really confused and sometimes even think they have the wrong number and hang up or at the very least it takes an few seconds to click since it isn’t what they were expecting to hear. IME it’s just easier to answer the same way they’re expecting me to answer after calling years.
Also, for some people it comes up as “Bob Smith” for others it comes up as “555-555-1239” or “Cellular call” or “Illinois Call” or “Milwaukee Area” or “US Cellular” or “Verizon” which doesn’t do me any good unless I have their number memorized.
ETA, when I say they get confused, I think it’s because they didn’t hear “Hi Bob, what can I get for you” they just hear something that isn’t [business name] and think it’s the wrong number. A lot of people really aren’t paying attention when I first answer the phone. I can’t tell you how many times a phone call goes like this…
Me: [business name]
Caller: Is this [business name]?
Me: (nicely) Yes it is, how can I help you. (in my head thinking, ‘that’s what I just said, but you weren’t listening, idiot’)
It’s still the dominant social convention.
As a slightly ridiculous analogy, when you bump into someone face to face, you know that there’s a high probability that he or she will ask “how are you?” Nonetheless, we don’t typically skip that step by saying “Hello, I’m fine” without first being asked.
Exactly.
In fact, I get annoyed by people who make a point of letting me know that my name is on the display by saying it. Can we just have a normal conversation, please, which starts by me telling you my name?
Bah! No. I know your name. I can see who’s calling. We don’t need to go through the formalities. After you say “hello?” should I say “May I please speak to Acsenray?” No!
I know it’s you; you know it’s me. Stop fucking around.
Thank you.
I do. It’s a habit. But if at work I probably would answer and cut right to the chase and say what’s up Bob. But sometimes it’s not Bob who is calling from Bob’s phone. At home I figure if someone is calling me it’s up to them to tell me who the hell is calling and why.
I don’t always look/squint at the display, sometimes the caller plays coy as well assuming I know who the hell they are!
I always answer the phone with my own name. Since my work calls are all forwarded to my personal cell it’s just easier to answer “Moon speaking”. It’s not explicitly business like but it’s professional enough that it works during the day.
Most people don’t listen to what you say anyway because anyone who doesn’t call me regularly always replys with “Can I speak with Moon” or “Is Moon available”
The formalities are what makes telephone conversations efficient and routine. It’s not natural to talk to someone you can’t see and who can’t see you. The fact that we have a set script for initiating conversations actually saves time. So I say initiate the conversation exactly the same way every time, regardless of what you think you know.
Besides, you’ve never heard of people calling from someone else’s phone?
Maybe. More likely, “Acsenray? Hi, this is Leaffan. The reason I’m calling …”
I can’t see you. You can’t see me. Follow the script for the sake of efficiency.
Thank you.
[/QUOTE]
You don’t have to say “May I please speak to Acsenray?”, but you could be a normal person and say “Hi Acsenray, this is Leaffan”.
ETA Ninja’d by Acsenray due to the amount of time it took me to spell his name out, it’s oddly hard to type.
Also, when you break the social norms, you end up with what I said in my first post, you confuse the hell out of people. If you just launch into conversations without the customary ‘hellos’ it takes the other person a second to catch up and in the end the extra time spent is probably longer then just saying Hi ___, this is ____"
It’s just the way I was brought up. I can’t help it. I still say “May I speak to Steve?” when I’ve called Steve’s cell phone. I don’t know, for all I know his son answered. And it gives me an opportunity to say “Hi, this is Zsofia - you gave me an estimate on some roofing?” in case he didn’t have my name programmed into his phone.
I love this. I make a fair amount of business calls to people I don’t know, and usually I just have the phone number and name. I don’t know if I’m calling the receptionist, a direct office line, or cell phone. It’s much easier and more pleasant for everybody if the person answers the phone with their name.
It bugs me. That’s all. If I call you, and we aren’t at all familiar with each other, then I’ll grant you some pleasant formalities. But if we’ve known each other for a while and are used to working together, why play all innocent and coy. You’re more than welcome to pick up the phone and say"Hi Leaffan. What’s up?" Instead of pretending you have no clue who’s calling.
It bugs me!
ETA: I’m not talking about cell phones. We all share the same damned PBX with call display!
It’s professional to answer your work phone with your name. I answer “Library, real first name last name.” Maybe it is my co-worker Jeanne calling me about lunch, but for all I know it’s the hospital president calling from her phone.
If it’s a contact at another agency, I will answer like normal. I suspect that my tone of voice changes if I’m anticipating talking to someone I enjoy, though.
A peer, I answer the phone with something like ‘Hello, James.’ Depnding on the person and my mood, I may say ‘Mary Jones! What’s up!?’
A person in the same building calling my extension, then just ‘This is Sicks.’
My boss, I either answer as normal, or simply say ‘Good Morning.’
I think this is about as good of an example as we’re going to get. Some things are just social conventions and when they’re expected they throw people for a loop. Imagine if someone decided that saying “Thank You” “You’re Welcome” wasn’t necessary since, well, we all know that you appreciate what they did for you so you stop participating, people will see you as a jerk.
The difference is, this social convention has some utility. As others mentioned, often people aren’t paying full attention when the phone is picked up because they don’t know whether the phone will get picked up immediately or after 5 rings, so often they will check out and check back in when they hear a voice. If it’s in an expected pattern, its as much “a human being answered, start talking” as it is a convention. If it not in an expected pattern, it will take them a second to process it and figure out how to respond to it because they weren’t completely engaged.
That said, on my personal phone, I will sometimes answer differently for certain people, but at work, I’ll just stick with a typical answer.
Or it could be someone butt-dialing you. It would be embarrassing to answer, “Hi Bob!” only to hear, “Oh … um … this is actually Bob’s ass calling.”
Admittedly, that’s probably unlikely to happen with the OP’s office phones, but still…
If you answer the phone and don’t identify yourself, I may talk to you for a while before realizing I’m talking to the wrong person.
So at work I always answer “(name of office), this is Pandabear.” The only time I don’t do this is if it’s MrPanda or PandaKid.
Our workplace has recently installed phones with caller ID after years of having archaic old-fashioned phones. We are still getting used to the fact that the caller’s name/ number shows up now. It’s easier to just answer the phone the usual way (“Business name, My name”) than to look at the display and figure out whether we want to sound all familiar with the caller or not.
Also, if a call is being transfered from another line, the line it’s being transfered from shows up briefly before the number of the original caller. One of my co-workers got caught this way; she thought it was me just calling to say something goofy, when actually I was transferring an outside call to her, and she answered the phone “Helloooooo?” instead of in a more professional manner. I am just glad that she didn’t say something really dumb-sounding!
Or as others have mentioned, somebody else could be calling from any given phone. What if the big boss tries to call you from his/her secretary’s phone?
A third thing: the numbers show up like this on our phones: 83148888888. The first number means an outside line, then area code, then 7 digit number all jammed together. If there’s no name, I have trouble mentally dividing it up so that it looks familiar.
That works great until you answer the phone casually and discover that someone else entirely borrowed that person’s phone to call you. Like the coworker of mine who did that expecting a friend from down the hall, but instead got a doctor (and one of her bosses) who was very confused to hear something like “'Sup, girl!” as the greeting for a call to her clinic, instead of a professional “Clinic Name, this is (name), how can I help you?” Meanwhile, the gal was just relieved she didn’t say something like “'Sup, bitch?” to her (female) boss instead of the nicer but casual greeting she answered with.
I’ve never worked anywhere one didn’t answer the phone “Place, Name”. It’s fast, efficient, professional, and covers every exigency. <I spelled that wrong, didn’t I…> Anyway, the ONE time I might informally answer ‘Hi Bob!’ is the one time it’s someone else using Bob’s phone. So, yeah. No reason not to just stick to the script. It’s not hard.