Due to the wide variety of ways we can communicate with each other on phone equipment – texting, email, voicemail and real-time conversation – there is a wide-range of behaviours that are acceptable to some people, and not to others. How do we determine the best way to behave and when? I think the answer lies, once again, in the “It’s Not A...

I flew home from The Big Apple late yesterday and thought about this blog along the way. Actually, I started writing it in my head on Saturday as I hiked around the city, enjoying all the sounds and smells and wonders that are New York. And all along I was thinking I was going to write about great service but, as I sit down to put “pen to paper�...

What’s This Call About? Years (and years) ago, in a world of typewriters and carbon paper, I taught an evening course for real estate secretaries. It will come as no surprise that, in addition to talking about listing forms and purchase agreements, I emphasized the importance of the telephone. And there was one phrase I asked students to be very...

I’ve been writing this blog in my head since Thursday, when my encounters with people on the phone reinforced both my passion about The Phone Lady and my empathy for those of you that hesitate to “Pick it up. Make things happen!” As many of you know, I do take on special projects from time to time, working with others to achieve a goal by ma...

I had a first this week – for the first time when I contacted someone I didn’t know and had never spoken to before, they responded to my voice mail message with an email message. I was caught off guard for about 30 seconds, my mind reviewing their research path - how they would have seen my company name on call display, gone online and found m...