A MANNER OF SPEAKING

e [Music] la ah shut up come on get that thing out of there [Music] if you going to start my car I'll stay here and blow your horse why you okay get in I'll give you a shot get me across the street to that gas station get in all right [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thanks a lot good morning sir yeah yeah a little Trav talk out on me ignition battery I don't know what we'll have a look at it hold the hls will you fine you got a phone I can use right over there thanks thanks [Music] excuse me well honey they must be here somewhere they said they sent them over I'm doing the best I can come on come on here you are Margie I have these stamped to mail right away Burton advertising it's about time give me Miss Manning who did you want Miss Manning Miss Manning uh who's calling what's the difference who's calling give me Miss Manning is that you Mr Burton yes it's me Mr Burton just a minute I'll connect you right away [Music] hello Manning my car broke down I'm calling from a gas station 14th in Sycamore northeast corner now look first of all call Mr Jackson at aoch chemical and cancel the meeting I'm I'm soaking wet I'm going to have to go home and change clothes I still have to pick up those samples and act me now Look I've also got a new idea I want to present it'll take a little more time to do the artwork cancel meeting with Mr Jackson oh no no wait a minute I'd better have Blackburn call Jackson put me through to him and get a hold of Harry in the shipping room and tell him to come down here and pick up my car as soon as it's ready I'll grab a cab yes sir I'll tell him now I'll get you Mr Blackburn well don't take our word for it Mr Jackson just listen to the motivational research boys the most influential single factor in impulse buying at point of sale is packaging come on now we've made a study Miss G Miss gay Mr Blackburn's office doesn't answer what do you mean it doesn't answer you find him and meanwhile give me Joe Peters downstairs in the art Department yes sir so he's the boss he's still human I put it to him cold turkey Henry I said with my obligations I got to have $450 a week just to get out of bed in the morning hello who are you trying to impress oh hello is that you Mr Burton I was just uh telling one of the fellas uh never mind look I called about those sketches for Jackson this morning we're going to toss them out I came up with a completely new idea toss them out but the meeting's in 45 minutes no no no I'm going to postpone it at least until this afternoon and we don't need anything fancy just a few lines to to rup in the idea now here is what I want uh this is Mr Jackson at aoch chemical is Mr Mr Burton there oh he's he's on another line right now I see will you please tell him that I should be a few minutes late at the meeting this morning yes sir goodbye they're working on a new display and I've got to get over there to see it as soon as we finish this report yes sir yeah yeah Henry we're doing the best we can Bill's working on it right now that B on the phone I want to talk to him uh Henry George Blackburn just walked in he wants to talk to you look we got to work out a whole new pitch for Jackson by 10:00 no by this afternoon here you argue with him Henry hello stranger I've been calling all over the office for you look I want you to phone Jackson and cancel the meeting for this morning well that doesn't I know it's a little late George but my car's talled in the rain now just call him and explain what happened he'll understand I'll see you in about an hour this is George Blackburn will you ring this G Please Mr Black Jers Miss gayan I want you to get Mr Jackson at aoch chemical on the phone for me right away I'm in Mr Peter's office oh and bring my presentation notes down here will you please Margie I like to P an outside call to aoch Chemical Company well I know the number haven't you got a list or something out there would you look it up and connect me please Mr Jackson's office Miss West Mr blackbar buron advertis like to speak to Mr Jackson who just a moment please oh Mr Jackson somebody at Burton advertising wants to speak to you what do you mean somebody well she gave me a name but I can't make it out sounded like Blackbird oh Blackburn he's the new account executive probably just returning my call to Burton all right I'll talk to him Mr Jackson will be right with you hello Black Baron I'm just leaving now what I said if your hold on please I'll connect you with Mr Blackburn Marie would you transfer this call to Mr Blackburn he's in Mr Peter's office I'm sorry Judy Mr Peter's Line's busy okay honey hold on Mr Jackson Mr blackb be with you in a minute can you imagine a person placing a call and not being available when it's answered if he calls back tell him I'm on my way over Yes dear yes dear I think it's fine if you invite Tom to your party well then don't invite Grace well then invite Grace and don't invite Tom hey I'm expecting a call very important will you hurry up please oh yes dear of course I'm listening look why don't you invite Tom and Grace and maybe they'll start speaking again that's a fine idea all right honey goodbye see you tonight my bride's been getting up this little dinner party this is Mr Blackburn I'm expecting an important oh yes Mr Blackburn Miss gay had a call for you but the party hung up it was um um Crest line 64101 good grief call him back right away I'll hang on what's wrong George Jackson must have called in and got the runaround he still doesn't know the meeting's [Music] cancelled Mr Jackson's office Miss West this is George Blackburn of Burton advertising may I speak to Mr Jackson please oh yes Mr Blackburn I'm sorry Mr Jackson has left he said he'd see you at the meeting Oh you mean no no no it's all right what happened I didn't reach him in time he's on his way what do you mean he's not here well you see Mr Jackson Mr Burton's car broke down this morning you know how bad the weather's been I ought to know I've been out in it for the last half hour oh we're terribly sorry we tried to reach you by phone you tried well if you'd shown enough courtesy to place the call call yourself this wouldn't have happened well there's been a little bit of a mixup you're telling me well it's the last mixup you're going to involve me in if your organization isn't efficient enough to place one simple phone call how can it handle an entire advertising campaign Mr Jackson good day [Music] who's going to tell him I guess I'll have to tell him Mr blackf [Music] Mr what's wrong why is everyone out here well the right out with it Mr Burton we had a little bad luck this morning bad luck yes sir we didn't reach Jackson in time to cancel the meeting and when he got here miss Manning and I tried to explain to him but he was pretty upset I think we lost a client that's fine well I didn't have much time to reach him if you'd been in your office when I called in you'd have had plenty of time I was in my office then why didn't you pick up your phone because that's my secretary's job I was in the lady's room maybe we should put a phone in [Music] there I'll get Jackson for me the least I can do is apologize for this mess yes sir I still don't see how you missed him it only takes one minute to make a phone call well this one got a little complicated is Mr Jackson in Mr Burton of Burton advertising is calling one moment please Mr Burton calling you mean crawling well it wasn't really his fault I'll take it look Burton I understand mistakes can happen but what I I I said this is Mr Burton secretary would you hold on a moment please hold on hold on on doesn't anybody over there Place their own calls what kind of America around you folks running over there is that Jackson on the phone it was but he hung [Music] up Miss Manning will you get me a cup of coffee please a cream and sugar just arsenic [Music] well that as far as I could piece it together is what happened so when they'd all gone I started wandering around here trying to figure out how with all this fine equipment my people could get so tangled up trying to make one phone call that's when I decided to call the telephone company I figured it's your equipment you're the experts maybe you've got the answers I'm sure we can help Mr Burton to start with has your Miss Harris had any switchboard training I don't think so the girl that was here before showed her we can send someone over to work with her it's one of our services there's no charge good while I was waiting in the reception room I was watching her I noticed she has several duties mail clerk typist receptionist too much huh it may have had something to do with what happened here yesterday then you think if I straighten out this switchboard situation we'll have it lck no but it's a start the r can be solved by courteous Common Sense telephone usage you mean by all our employees right now Mr Burton I have here some charts that list the things experience has proven to be effective just a minute please miss Manning will you come in here I want my secretary in on this I'm going to need her help Miss Manning this is Miss Rogers the telephone company how do you do how do you do I've called her in to see if she can help improve our telephone habits around here will you please sit down now if she has any ideas that'll do the job we can pass it on to the rest of the staff you please go ahead thank you telephone courtesy pays off first I'm going to borrow your telephone for a moment if you don't mind please do I'll fix it with your switchboard girl this is Miss Rogers when I hang up will you please ring in here after that pay no attention to my signals for the next few minutes I'll just be demonstrating that's right thank you now for suggestion number one answer promptly even if I'm speaking to someone in my office oh excuse me Mr Burton I picked the phone up right away the party calling has no way of knowing if I'm busy you are right right here you understand so I excuse myself to you and answer promptly of course sometimes you may not want to answer your calls in these cases your secretary can handle them identify yourself like this Mr Burton's office Miss Rogers that's instead of saying hello it works out better if you identify yourself right away on both incoming and outgoing calls if you announce your company or department and your your name you save a lot of time well miss Rogers what if you had to transfer a call oh that's our next Point transfer calls properly simply press the switch hook twice slowly then pause twice then pause it isn't necessary to use another telephone or line to get your operator when she answers will you please transfer this call to Mr Jones in accounting thank you keep pad and pencil handy this is an obvious Point yet often neglected a lot of important information comes in over the telephone so be ready to write it down it saves call backs and guarantees accuracy leave a message when you leave your telephone it's always a good idea to tell your secretary or or your switchboard girl where you can be reached then they can take messages or transfer your calls to you what Miss Manning always knows where I am don't you another important suggestion place and receive your own calls if you're in the habit of having someone else place your calls for you you're not only wasting time but you may irritate clients on incoming calls answer yourself you'll make friends of customers list frequently called numbers make up a list of the numbers used most often and keep it close to your telephone it's a wonderful timesaver and here's an annoying habit that should be avoided when answering for others or screening calls don't say who's calling you know how irritating that can be it's the same as saying if you're important enough I'll talk to you instead ask may I tell him who's calling please it's so simple yet it makes such a difference yeah when I was calling from that phone booth in the rain Miss Harris threw me a who's calling and I almost blew my top that's the point exactly now here's one of our last points if you leave the line explain why if you have to leave the line for some reason for example to get facts or figures explain the problem to your caller like this it will take a little time to get that information do you wish to wait or may I call you back then whatever the caller says indicate you understand acknowledge with some natural expression such as thank you certainly of course so that he knows you understand he can't see your facial expression you know and lastly terminate calls courteously the best way yet is a simple Pleasant goodbye that's it that doesn't sound very involved it isn't really but just consider how smoothly things would have gone if when you called in yesterday everyone had followed those suggestions [Music] Burton advertising good morning Miss Harris this is Mr Burton will you please connect me with Miss Manning of course Miss Burton one moment please Mr Burton's office Miss Manning Miss Manning I'm having some trouble with my card will you take care of a few things for me we're going to postpone the Jackson meeting until this afternoon or tomorrow morning I want you to transfer me to George Blackburn when you get the rest of this down have Harry pick up your car at gas station 14th and Sycamore then you're going home and then to AC me packaging now will you transfer me over to Blackburn right away yes Miss Manning would you transfer this call to Mr Blackburn please well don't take our word for it Mr Jackson just listen to the motivational research voice the most influential single Factor pardon me black friend George this is Henry Burton we're going to have to cancel the Jackson meeting this morning and my car broke down I still haven't picked up the package of samples yet I want you to phone Jackson right away and explain things make my apologies if he can see us this afternoon that's fine tomorrow might even be better I've got a new angle on this campaign I want to discuss with you Joe Peters he come to think of it switch me over to Joe right now will you you bet Miss Harris will you transfer this call to Mr Peter's office so he's the boss he's still human excuse me our department Peters yes Henry what can I do for [Music] you and that's all there would have been to it h courtesy common sense and a switchboard operator who has time to be one well those things would have made the handling of your incoming calls a lot more efficient but there's still the question of the outgoing call to Mr Jackson consider how it might have gone if Mr Blackburn had followed the cardinal rule for outgoing calls what's that place the call yourself outside line please you notice Mr Blackburn is dialing correctly as he should he's bringing the dial all the way to the finger stop removing the finger completely each time allowing the dial to return by itself it's on the return trip that your number is dialed I didn't know that Mr Jackson's office please Mr Jackson's office Miss West this is George Blackburn of Burton advertising is Mr Jackson there oh yes Mr Blackburn just a moment please oh Mr Jackson Mr Blackburn a burton advertising all right I'll talk to him Mr Jackson will be right with you yes George oh I'm sorry to hear that stuck at the gas station in all this rain I hope he's got his water skis with him huh yes of course tomorrow morning it'll be fine same time yeah thanks for calling you know that Blackburn's a pretty smart fell got a good sense of humor too well I won't be going to the meeting today and I can't say I mind look at it come down well you may have a point but it's common practice to have your secretary or the switchboard operator place your outgoing calls I do it all the time how do you like it when someone does it to you does what when you're told that a Mr so and so is calling you pick up the phone and the girl says hold the wire and Mr so and so wants to speak to you what do you think of Mr so and so I think he's a so and so and that's exactly what I did to Jackson yesterday to top the whole thing off and I guess before I blame anybody around here I better start with myself we're going to have a little meeting of our people and I shall make a speech on Telephone courtesy good would you like a closing sentence for yes what telephone as you'd be telephone too I'll use it and I'll Illustrated well Mr Burton that's about all there is to it I think I've covered everything I wish I'd called you in sooner I know there's going to make a tremendous difference around here thank you very much Miss Rogers for coming over it's a pleasure we appreciate being able to help you can go out this way Goodbye Mr Burton Miss Manning by thanks again M Rogers Miss Manning call a meeting of the staff in 1 hour I have a speech to make yes [Music] sir Burton advertising good morning Mr Burton um Mr Burton will be back at 3:00 Mr Patterson may I have him call you the only reason I'm here I want you to know this whole thing has been a lesson to us we called in a consultant from the telephone company she's jacked up our telephone manners now whether we've lost your business or not if you ever have occasion to call me again I think you'll notice the difference Henry I've got to give you credit for recognizing your problem and doing something about it but I'm still not convinced I'll tell you what I'll do I'll make a deal with you what kind of a deal I'm going to try a little test if you can prove to me that you can call Blackburn over at your office and reach him in less than half an hour be my guest well shall I reli you now Margie fine thanks B advertising good morning Mr Blackburn I just a moment please our department Peters just a minute George it's for you thank you Blackburn oh hello George oh hello Mr Jackson this is just a test call to settle a bet with your boss guess I'll have to buy him a lunch see you later don't tell me the old man's having lunch with Mr Jackson gentlemen follow me [Applause] [Music] [Applause]