Telephone Manners

From Woman’s Weekly, 4th May 1918.

SMILE WHEN YOU TELEPHONE.

A BUSINESS GIRL’S SECRET OF SUCCESS.

A SWEET voice is much to be prized by its possessor, for one of the most charming social attributes of any woman is a musical speech.
But the commercial value of a pleasing voice is seldom considered. Yet a pleasant voice has its commercial value.
A man who is at the head of a very large business, in speaking of his private secretary, a woman of much poise and initiative, said that he was first attracted to her and made conscious of her good qualities by her pleasant voice over the telephone.  He said that he had had little occasion to speak with her himself, and would perhaps never have thought anything about it had his wife not said to him one day:
"I am so glad that you have got rid of that disagreeable girl who used to answer your telephone. The girl you have now has such a nice voice."
The business man was very much surprised.  He began to watch the new girl, to call her up himself, and he always found her invariably courteous, and her voice over the telephone most pleasing.
"How is it," he asked one day, "that you do not seem to have any telephone temper?"
The girl said:
"If you have ever worked, as I did, on the switchboard of a large telephone company, you would know that there is a real meaning in the phrase, 'When you 'phone, smile.'
"Some people seem to hide behind the telephone to be disagreeable.  So I have tried to cultivate a pleasant voice, for I know that the impression created over the telephone means a great deal.  It is very easy to have your feelings wounded, I know, for I have been sharply spoken to so many times. I used to be very indifferent about it, but one day it came to me that if I would try to be as pleasant as I could be over the telephone, perhaps other people would do the same."
From that little talk a new system grew up in that big business office.  The manager called in all of the employees and gave them a little talk.  He said:
"The war has made it impossible to carry along business on just the same lines as in former years.  Every department must be up to its very best efficiency standard if we are to get the results we should get, and one of the ways to do this is to keep ourselves in a good humour, for good humoured people can always turn out better work than those who are in a bad or an indifferent frame of mind.
"So I have decided to ask all of you to try to mend your office manners.  I do not mind asking you to do this, because I am going to try to mend my own.  I think we have all fallen into a habit of indifference, and at times of insolence, because we have felt that our business is a big business, and that we do not have to cater to trade.
"This is not true, for no business good as it might be, and unless we take a pride in our work we shall certainly lose in the end. "
So, from the pleasant voice of a girl over a telephone a movement was started in that concern which has added greatly to a successful business.  Won't you copy her?