Using Phone Manners at Work

Using Phone Manners at Work

Using Phone Manners at Work
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	high interest, readability grades 3 to 5
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	2.59

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		pens, beginning, working, possible, doing, cranky, business, several, handle, tips, repeat, often, sounds, case, impression, form
	content words:		Smith Company, Jack Jones, Now Mr

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Using Phone Manners at Work
By Patti Hutchison

¹     Katie is training for a new job. She has to talk on the phone. Sometimes she talks to customers. Sometimes she talks to other people at the company. She has to practice good phone manners. They are important skills for her job.

²     It is important that Katie uses good manners when she answers the phone. Often she will be the first person at the company that a customer talks to. Katie's manner will be the first impression that customer gets of the company.

³     Katie's trainer's name is Allen. He tells her she must have a friendly tone when she answers the phone. If she sounds cranky, that will not make a good impression. She needs to make people feel comfortable talking to her.

⁴     Allen gives her some tips. He tells her try to answer the phone by the third ring. If she doesn't answer it right away, the person might hang up. The caller might think there is no one there to answer the phone.

⁵     Allen says she should use a pleasant voice. She should sound friendly, but not fake. He tells her to answer the phone this way: "Thank you for calling the Smith Company. This is Katie; how may I help you?" This way, people will know whom they are speaking to.

⁶     Katie practices this a few times. Allen says she does very well. They go on with the training. Allen tells Katie to always be polite and friendly. He says that sometimes customers may get rude. It is important that she does not get nasty back.

⁷     Allen pretends to be a nasty customer to see how Katie handles it. "I think your company is horrible. I bought a blender there. It quit working the first time I tried it. I should just throw it in the trash. I want my money back," he says.

⁸     Katie takes a deep breath. She thinks a minute before she answers. "I'm sorry to hear that you are having trouble with your blender. If you bring it back to the store, we can check it out for you. We will either fix it for you or give you a new one. We want to be sure our customers are always taken care of."

⁹     Allen praises her for doing so well. He tells her she will have to think fast like that many times. He thinks she can handle it. They move on.

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