Do you have a phone but rarely use it to make phone calls? Are you constantly on your smartphone or iPhone checking emails, tweeting, scheduling your life, updating your Facebook status, uploading your videos to Vine in hopes of becoming the next viral star, posting photos to Instagram, connecting on LinkedIn, or posting a fabulous recipe on Pinterest? Basically doing everything under the sun with your phone, except making calls. In reality, there is a phobia called telefonophobia or telephobia, which is a fear of the telephone and can cause a series of anxieties.
Now there is a new phobia called nomophobia, which is the fear of losing contact with the mobile phone.
Before the age of email and texting, we had to rely on Alexander Graham Bell’s patented invention: THE PHONE.
Dialing a number and talking to a person on the other end was the “norm” for doing business or making arrangements with friends and family.
So why do we use our phones for multiple purposes but rarely for one phone call? Do we find that phone calls invade our privacy? It seems a lot of calls these days that come from telemarketers often read a script and don’t hear what you have to say. An example of this is a personal experience: a telemarketer called in the early afternoon asking for my mother. I had informed the lady on the other end of the line that our mother had passed away a year ago and her response was “is there a better time to reach her?”
Did our language skills evolve or become email, text messages, voicemail, online chat, emoticons, and abbreviations to replace actual conversation?
Text: ? 4U. Do you want2 to have> (“” “,) °> again 2nite? Tmb l8r
Translation: I have a question for you. Do you want to go fishing again tonight? Text me later
Text: : @ your game? OK bfn TTYL
Translation: what? You leave. Okay, bye for now. I will talk with you later
If you are afraid of being rejected or can’t remember why you were calling, write down the key points you want to talk about. If you just ramble, people may get impatient because you are taking their time. Get to the point of why you are calling.
You can often learn more about the services your business offers by speaking to someone on the phone rather than by email. Always take notes when you have a phone conversation. According to Dr. Albert Mehrabian’s 1967 study, body language accounts for 55 percent, tone of voice for 38 percent, and spoken words for 7 percent for effective communication. People like to talk to people they feel they can trust and are comfortable with, so a phone call with their voice on the other side may be the right motivator to talk to a future business customer.
You can summarize your phone call in an email to confirm the talking points you had on the business call.
Don’t forget your phone label:
Use your polite manner on the phone and always identify yourself at the beginning of the call.
Your tone of voice should sound friendly and confident.
Don’t try to multitask during a phone call
Be a good listener and let the other party speak
Speak clearly and enunciate
Show courtesy, even if your call does not have a positive result.