TELEPHONE COURTESY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 449, 28 January 1909, Page 2

TELEPHONE COURTESY.

The Post Office authorities have deemed it desirable to impress upon their telephonists the advisability of courtesy, says the London Daily Mail. In the Official Post Office Circular is a long notice, headed “ Standard expressions to be used by telephonists engaged on trunk work,” In the preamble it is set forth :—“ln order that abrupt and uucouth expressions may be avoided in the telephone service, telephonists employed in trunk exchanges are in future to make use of the following expressions in connection with their work, and supervising officers should impress upon the staff generally the necessity of adhering to the authorised form of words.” Entering into details, stress is laid upon the advisibility of using the word “ please ” wherever it can be conveniently introduced. If a subscriber has been kept waiting for more than the regulation time the telephonist should say, “ Sorry to have kept you waiting.” At the end of a call the telephonist is urged /when notifying a subscriber that his three minutes are up to suggest that he should take another three minutes. No advice however, is tendered to subscribers, some of whom expect the telephonist to do twenty things at once, and if their wants are not immediately attended to, become abusive. Although telephonists are the servants of subscribers, they are entitled to much more consideration than is usually meted out to them.