The person being called answers with a full name or last name.
I being an American prefer the Hallo, Parlo Americano. Because it is more polite by my standards to greet someone first but it’s more polite by their standards to know who is on the line right away.
Caller state your name as this is normal and otherwise it can be very offsetting to a native speaker especially if you are calling in English. “Guten Morgen/Tag/Abend heir ist Herr/Frau Wong.”
If the person who answers is not the person you want to speak to the you can ask "
Könnte ich mit Herr Americano sprechen?"
Or if you reach a switchboard operator to be connected with someone ask:
“Könnten Sie mich mit Parlo Americano verbinden?”
If the person isn’t there:
“Ich rufe zurück. Danke.” I’ll call back
“Könnte sie/er mich (sobald wie möglich) zurückrufen?” Could she/he call me back (as soon as possible)?
Wonko or other native speakers:
I say Tschüß at the end of all calls is that okay or am I being too informal?
Oh yeah there’s no How are you? unless you feel this person has a friendly relationship with you, as this is seen as a personal question, and can be seen as superficial.
I amde this mistake with my landlord. I had rented from him for a year at this point, paid rent promptly and not had a single problem. So I thought I could be friendly.
Me: Guten Abend Herr Walter, hier ist Parlo Americano. Wie geht es Ihnen?
(Good Evening Mr. Walter. This is Parlo Americano. How are you?)
Him: Wie mir es geht? Warum?
(How am I? Why?)
Me: um um Ich habe Sie für eine lange Zeit nicht gesehen. Ich möchte nur wegen Ihnen nachfragen. um um
in incorrect german (um um I haven’t seen you for a long time. And I just wanted to inquire about you. um um)
But I think the phone is more to the point and there’s no real small talk at the beginning.
I have several Dutch friends, and almost all answer the phone with a “Mij <insert first name>”, irrespective of whether it’s a personal call or a business call. However, they all work in Germany and gradually have begun answering the phone ze German way, i.e. “<company name>, <last name>”.
Incidentally, when I was working in Germany I started off answering with a simple “Hallo”. That slowly changed to “Audi, Ingolstadt, gouda hier”. That’s how all my colleagues answered the phone, and it sorta rubbed off on me. Now back in India, it’s the good 'ol “Hello”
I sometimes hear “Hallo” when calling someone here in Germany - mostly from younger people who want to emphasize informality - or perhaps people who are young enough not to have yet had the mortifying experience of talking at length to someone you had mistook for someone else.
As someone used to the ‘normal’ greeting mode being greeted with ‘Hallo’ is a bit disconcerting to me because I am mentally prepared to take care of the ‘make sure of who you are talking to’ part right at the beginning. I am very much in favour of answering the telephone with your name because this way when the calling person speaks for the first time you have both parties’ identities established and can get down to business.
‘Normal’ mode of greeting at the telephone, Mr. Anton Schmidt taking the call, assuming he does not recognize the caller’s number:
on the private phone: Schmidt {nothing | Hallo | Guten Tag | regional greeting },
on the private phone when needed to avoid ambiguity: Anton Schmidt {nothing | Hallo | Guten Tag | regional greeting }
answering someone else’s private phone: Bei Maier, Schmidt am Apparat.
on the office phone: Schulz AG, Schmidt, {nothing | Guten Tag | regional greeting }
answering someone else’s office phone: Schulz AG, Schmidt, Apparat Maier, {nothing | Guten Tag | regional greeting }