Telephoning: etiquette

​Telephoning: etiquette

Teacher: T. Melnichenko

​- Mary NestorHarper, Demand Media

" Telephone communication may be slower than its new-media counterparts, but it still has benefits in an increasingly impersonal world. The telephone call, ‘which connects a caller with a human voice, is still an important business component." 

Telephone Frustrations

Complete the list of possible telephone frustrations with the verbs:

call, get, listen, play, put, repeat, return, take, transfer​

Multiple Choice

They ______ irritating music when you're put on hold.

• call

• listen

• play

• put

• repeat

Multiple Choice

You_____cut off in the middle of your call.

• get

• put

• take

• transfer

• return

Multiple Choice

People you call____a long time to answer.

• get

• put

• take

• transfer

• return

Multiple Choice

They _____ you on hold and forget about you.

• get

• put

• take

• transfer

• return

Multiple Choice

They ________you to another person and you have to ____ your enquiry.

• listen, take

• transfer, put

• take, return

• transfer, repeat

Multiple Choice

They don't ____properly to what you are saying.

• listen

• transfer

• take

• repeat

• call

Multiple Choice

You continually ______an engaged tone when you______ someone.

• listen, call

• take, get

• call, repeat

• get, call

Multiple Choice

People don’t ___ your calls.

• call

• put

• repeat

• return

• transfer

Multiple Choice

You______ through to a voicemail system.

• call

• get

• repeat

• return

• transfer

Decide which of the above problems are the five most frustrating. Then look at the next slide to compare your answers with the results of a survey. Are there any other

things that frustrate you when using the telephone?

​Now, answer the questions in your own words:

Open Ended

With the growth of the Internet, email and text messaging, how important is the

telephone in business these days?

Open Ended

What skills do staff who answer the phone need to have?

Open Ended

Does bad telephone customer service have an impact on the success of a business?

Now read the article below. According to the author, what are the answers to the questions above?

The author suggests, ‘More business is lost through bad service than by poor product

performance’. Do you agree? Discuss with a partner.

Open Ended

The author suggests, ‘More business is lost through bad service than by poor product performance’. Do you agree? Why/Why not?