Are You With Me? Common Courtesy On the Phone

Are You With Me? is the classic customer service video on basic telephone skills

Good telephone manners come from doing everything you can to make a personal connection with whomever is on the other end of the line. The fact is, if you just take the time on the phone to make the kind of connection you naturally try to make when you're face to face with others, all the basic do's and don'ts of common telephone courtesy will naturally follow.

All you have to remember is this: Think of everything you do on the phone in terms of what you naturally do when you meet and visit one on one with other people:

• Making a call is like making a visit.
• Taking a call is like receiving a visitor.
• Putting a caller on hold is like asking a visitor to wait at the door.
• Transferring a call is like introducing two people.
• Leaving a message is like making a call or a visit.
• Taking a message is like receiving someone else's visitor.

From making and taking calls to transferring calls and putting people on hold to taking and leaving messages, Are you with me? connects all the rules of telephone courtesy to a single, simple, easy-to-remember concept. Treat the person on the other end of the line as though they were right there in the same room with you.