Can your younger staff answer the phone correctly and hold a conversation.................

[NaomiFromMilkShake]

Where they are in control....

I will admit it, I am old (ish) and the amount of calls I take from callers who can't structure a phone call and achieve an outcome is boggling.

It is not every young person and there is certain young man who works in Manchester who calls our company and is unlikely to ever read MN, but if you are David from New Horizons you are brilliant.

But back to my point, the amount of young,youngish people I take calls from who can't do it is .................

I took one the other day, and the caller who didn't sound like a school leaver, but younger than thirty (imo) , I opened the call, with name of company, good morning.

She replied with.................... silence .......oh yeah can I speak to , continued to get the whole call wrong.

I floated the idea at the weekend amongst friends of setting a company offering telephone training, guidance in setting out a basic letter etc.,,,

They were all in the 40/50 bracket and reckoned there was a gap in the market.

I take early retirement in a year or two and would happily look into doing it, if I thought there was a market.

Opinions please.

This is partly because many businesses cant be bothered to train their staff or give them the time off to do any training, preferring to moan about young people instead.

I get pissed at Radio commentators , interviewees who runalltheirwordstogetheratarateofknotsbreathlesslyandexcitedlyasifthey aresuchbusyimportantpeopleandknowsomuchthattheymustbombardyou withgarbledcrapyoudon'thavetimetotakein
I largely blame Tony Blair as in his attempts to be right-on and clever he started this, probably copying the U.S.
When I hear someone (usually former public school person) using MEASURED TONES, a phrase never used nowadays, like Mariella Fostrop or Ken Clarke it is a pleasure to listen no matter the subject.

I'm in my early 30s, degree educated, good job, happy enough giving presentations to large audiences etc. But.... I absolutely hate speaking on the phone and will do anything to avoid it. I just garble a lot of nonsense, I try to rehearse what I'm going to say beforehand but quite often the conversation doesn't take that path... At work I will always email rather than phone, text my mum etc.

I'm okay with face to face meetings, although would rather not, it doesn't cause me the same anxiety.

Doctor appt, hairdressers, takeaway food... I only use places that let me book online because I hate phoning them.

Not just younger people older ones too. I had telephone training in my last job and it's instilled in me. However I cringe when I hear a member of staff on the phone ask "what's your name?" It's "What's your name please?"

It’s not always younger people. I work with a man on his 40’s and his written work is atrocious. He has superfluous commas everywhere. I have to mark and return his letters constantly. He’s recently been told not to take calls as he is atrocious and even pronounced the building name wrong, he sounds like a stuck record player ‘what I’m do then...what I’ll do, what I’ll do....’ spit it out!

This thread is a bit ageist

This is probably more a reflection on tour workplace than anything else.

Don't even get me started on the difference between while and whilst.

If it helps, I'm early 30s and often have to create the grammar and punctuation of one work mate. She is late 40s.

My manager's manager adds -versated to many words (e.g conversated) and misuses phrases. She is mid 50s.

*Correct the grammar.

I once received a phone call from a hospital department regarding an appointment being cancelled:
Her: "Hiya. (no checking of name or introduction or where they were calling from to start from) Basically, yeah, we've had to cancel your appointment. We'll send you a new one out."
me: (head spinning trying to catch up "Sorry, where are you calling from?"
(she sighs): "x Hospital, x department"
Me: OK. Do you know how long it will be until the new one?
Her: No. We'll send you a new one, yeah?.
(hangs up without saying goodbye or anything)
She sounded young, but it's not a "young" thing as I spoke to what sounded like a middle aged receptionist somewhere else recently who was also dismissive and casual.

Maybe we should just accept that there are varying abilities of literacy and conversational skill, for all sorts of reasons, and just be a bit compassionate to each other? No one's actively trying to get on anyone else's nerves.

Well, your opening post is hardly the most articulate thing I've ever read but I got the gist. What a patronising piece of codswallop.

I am 50 so am not one of these incoherent youngsters that you refer to but I work with plenty of people in their early 20s who are engaging and bright and a valuable part of the workforce.

I was awkward on the phone until I was 20. I was the first generation of text messages, we could never afford to make calls and had no need to make them in a professional manner.

My boss overheard me answer the company phone, and cringed. Quite rightly so, I was lacking in confidence and didn't give the right impression of the company.

He spent some time with me on phone etiquette, that half an hour he spent with me has hugely helped me in all my jobs since.

Many of the older staff where I work seem to think the more you sound like you've swallowed a thesaurus, the more formal you are. Why use 'talk' when there are so many synonyms and you can use them all in one conversation?! Also, loads of people think that yourself and myself are fancy words for you and me. None of them talk anything like that when they're face to face.

Plenty of people of all ages who don't know how to talk on the phone.

Agree.
"I'm calling to return the call you made to ourselves yesterday"
or
"If you call back and ask for myself we can converse further"
etc etc!

The other issue now I think about it was we weren't supposed to identify ourselves for confidentiality reasons until we had confirmed the persons name. You'd end up with something thing this

Patient: Hello?

Us: Can you confirm your name and date of birth?

Patient: Who is calling?

Us: We can't say until you confirm your name and date if birth

Patient: Well I'm not doing that until I know who is calling

@Sicario

Don't even get me started on the difference between while and whilst.

Go on - I’m intrigued.

I work in a care home - senior carer - and we regularly deal with GP, pharmacists, external services e.g. dieticians and families on the phone all day and I like to think I do that very professionally at 25.

I was awkward on the phone until I was 20. I was the first generation of text messages, we could never afford to make calls and had no need to make them in a professional manner.

So landlines didn't exist, and you never had to make a phonecall that wasn't personal?

Whilst means "notwithstanding" which is an entirely different kettle from while.

I know. It's just me. I can't help it.

I was also in the first generation of text messages and they cost 15p a time and had a character limit. Nobody was having full conversations over them like they do now. it was more like:
Coming out 2night?
Y. meet u at 8 o/s B king?
OK CU then.

For anything longer, or vaguely non-official, you used the landline and you had to go through your mates dad. This was late 90s.

I am 33 and have taken the liberty of redrafting your post so it makes more sense! I didn't include the first line as it wasn't needed in my opinion. The irony was strong with this one! Here goes:

I will admit it, I am old (ish) and the amount of calls I take from people who can't structure a phone call and achieve an outcome is mind-boggling.

This isn't true of every young person, least of a certain young man who works in Manchester and calls our company. You're unlikely to ever read MN but if you are David from New Horizons you are brilliant.

But back to my point, the amount of young or youngish people I take calls from who can't structure a conversation is shocking.

I took a call the other day from someone who didn't sound like a school leaver, but younger than thirty. I opened the call with the name of my company and a "good morning".

She replied with a long silence followed by: "oh yeah can I speak to (name)". She then continued to make what I consider to be a number of mistakes for the duration of the call.

This weekend I spoke to friends about my idea of setting a company offering telephone training, guidance in setting out a basic letter etc.

They were all in the 40/50 bracket and reckoned there is a gap in the market.

I will take early retirement in a year or two and would happily look into setting up a company like that if I thought there was a market.

Opinions please.

Some of these things are to do with accent and colloquialism though? An' instead of and etc.

I had a customer angrily repeat the word pounds at me with a hissing sssssss, because I said 'pound'. I know it's pounds I would write it that way but I say pound, that is my accent and she knew what I meant. I was working in a coffee shop by the way, not as a barrister. But even then, why can't a barrister pronounce it pound not pounds?

Typing and spag is different, but I think it's great that people feel free to use their own accents in office settings. It feels more friendly.

Have worked in numerous cell centres over the years with many young employees and I would say whilst it very much depends on the individual, often if it is there first call centre job, under twenties take a little while to get into the swing of things. Obv the same us somewhat true of others but I think the older you get the more comfortable you tend to be making small talk. Does this mean they wont do well? No. I've met brilliant young staff members. They just need support and praise when they are doing well. It may be their first job after all.

I would never hesitate to hire a young person for a job that requires being on the phone. I wouldn't hire anyone that came across as cold, standoffish, bitchy, short or snooty though. They will never provide good customer service. Plus will be a pain in the ass to work with.