Business Telephone Etiquette


Proper business phone etiquette is often a neglected area, but it is absolutely crucial – particularly for companies that do a lot of consumer service work. As a matter of fact, our company lost a great deal of money to improper phone etiquette for business before we even realize that it was a problem. No one had really given business telephone etiquette any consideration. We assumed that, as responsible adults, we all knew how to talk on the phone. We did not realize that there was more to it than that.

The biggest problem that we were facing was a lack of formality and cordiality and proper business telephone etiquette. A lot of our secretaries were very comfortable being completely informal with all of our clients. Although this works for a lot of American clients, it is not a good general strategy – particularly when dealing with foreigners. Europeans, Japanese, and clients from many other countries tend to take proper business telephone etiquette In a more formal direction. They believe – quite correctly In my humble opinion – that you should not talk to someone in an informal tone unless you know them very well and are on equal footing with them.

Fortunately, it is very easy to fix problems with proper business telephone etiquette. There are a number of short courses, guidebooks, and other tools available to educate your employees on the rules of business. Proper telephone manners mostly involved assuming a set of rules. You call everyone Sir or Madame until you have reason to do otherwise, you avoid colloquialisms or idiomatic language, and you always do your best to satisfy the demands of a customer. They are pretty straightforward, but it is a mistake to view the rules of proper business telephone etiquette as common sense. If you do, you risk having employees who don't know the rules.

One of the best ways to prepare your employees for telephone etiquette in business – Or really for anything to do with business manners – Is to use role-playing. By doing short meetings with employees several times, you can keep the rules of business etiquette fresh in their minds. You may have to remind them – after all, it is hard to break bad habits. All you have to do, however, is to be patient. Eventually they will get it, and once they do it will give your business a more professional appearance. It is worth the effort, and not too hard to do in the long run.