Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 160, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1911 — How Patrons Can Help The Telephone Service. [ARTICLE]

How Patrons Can Help The Telephone Service.

The following article to telephone work was prepared by Miss Hallie O. Ervin, chief operator at Carthage, Illinois, and contributed to the Gazette of that place: Co-operation is the key-note of telephone success. For good service, there must be perfect co-operation between the party calling, the party called and the trained operator at the board who connects the two. All must be patient. The in the directory are helpful and worth your careful study, but the principles of telephone etiquette are found in everyday life. ‘‘Do unto others as you expect them to do unto you.” If we are courteous when face to face with the people with whom we transact business day by day, we should be Just as courteous although there may be a distance between us connected by a telephone wire. Rudeness is as unpardonable over the telephone wire as it is in the parlor. The fifty or more employes of our system and the five thousand telephone users constitute such a large business and we are dependent upon each other, that to ; give the best possible service, each individual must do his or her part. With these few principles in mind, there are some other matters that will materially sav3 time and labor. There is no place in telephone language for the word, “Hello.” When you hear that, you never know who it is nor where it is and you have to wait until you find out. So much time is lost. When you call Central, make known plainly what number you want or what person you want and designate, if in the country, as nearly as possible where the party resides. This will materially help the operator. When your telephone bell rings, do not answer, “Hello,” What do you want?” “Who is it?” but answer by your name or number, if on city exchange, or if a business house, by the business name. To illustrate, when the Central office rings the Wabash depot, the answer should be “Wabash Depot.” The party ringing knows whom he has and proceeds to transact business with the depot at once. If the party is ringing the Dime Savings Bank, the reply should be, “Dime Savings Bank.” If the call is for the First National Bank, Hamilton, the answer should be “First National Bank, Hamilton.” ’ If you have called for some one and the answer is as above indicated, your next step should be to tell who you are. To illustrate, if O. F. Berry, at Carthage, should call for the First National Bank at Hamilton, when the Hamilton office rings the bank, whoever responds to the telephone should answer, “First National Bank, Hamilton.” Then Mr. Berry should at once say, “This is Mr. O. F. Berry, Carthage.” He knows he has the i*".st National Bank for which he called and the bank knows who is talking. If upon receiving the answer, “First Na-: tional Bank,” Mr. Berry should want to speak to Mr. Wallace, he should say: “This is Mr. O. F. Berry, Carthage. I want to speak to Mr. Wallace.” The party who answered the telephone should say, “Mr. Wallace, Mr. Berry at Carthage, wants to spekk to you.” Mr. Wallace does not have to go over the situation, but knows who wants to tfilk to him, all of which saves time. If city operators will always repeat the number called for and the party making the call will be careful to listen and if the number is not repeated correctly, correct it at once. It will save much time. Persons should never put in a call and then go away and leave the telephone so far that they can not be easily reached when the telephone again rings. I want again to urge the disuse of the word, “hello.” Give the name of your firm or store or something so that the person calling cau determine at once who is talking. Many people begin talking and all at once are interrupted by the party at the other end of the line asking who is talking. Then you have to stop the conversation and tell who you are and begin all over again. We should be sure before we begin to talk, wnom we are talking to and that the putty knows who is talking. If these rules are carefully observed, very much time can be saved.