Sunday, April 19, 2009

to answer or not... to hang up the phone.. or not

I took a class for work last week on customer service and one interesting conversation ensued... We were talking about using cell phones while shopping, driving thru a restaurant, etc. People have serious opinions about that.... In fact several found that it was really rude to talk on the phone in a store or basically anywhere in public. I as curious... if I am driving thru to get a diet coke do I need to stop talking on the phone to pay my 1.50 and then get my soda, or if the phone rings, its your child's school do you pick it up when you are checking out or wait and call them back? I was in an office supply store checking out, my phone rang and I chose not to answer it, the clerk thanked me commenting it was rude to have answered.

I am so curious what you all think.. please chime,. I will comment tomorrow nite.

4 comments:

Desiree said...

I too have heard others say it is rude to talk while in a store, but I do. I just try not too be too loud about it letting everyone else in on my conversation.

But I don't answer my phone while in a checkout lane or go through the check out lane while on my phone, just cause I feel it would be rude to just blow off the person waiting on me to not respond to them because my attention is on my phone call.

But I'm also one of those that very seldom will cut off someone to take another call either.

Good post.

Ange~ said...

I think it's fine to talk in the store, as long as you can do it quietly and not be in people's way. But it's rude to answer if you are having someone serve you (i.e. checkout, etc).

My 30seconds of *Sanity* said...

I too sometimes talk on my phone if I'm in a store, but I try really hard not to when I am in the checkout, ect. I have kids though who make a decent converstaion near impossible so I will kindly take ANY moment when I can actually hear the person on the other line. So I just continue my shopping and visit quietly. :)

Dawn said...

I chat on the phone while shopping, trying to be quiet, however, I absolutely hate it when people talk on the phone while being served by anyone... It's just plain rude in my book. Everyone deserves to be acknowledged (even store clerks), and a nodded head while on the phone just isn't enough.

That said, sometimes it is an emergency, and I will answer whether I am in checkout or not. I will answer a call from my child's school no matter what. It may be an emergency, but when it's not, I politely tell them I cannot talk at the moment and will call them back when I am done (while I am putting on my seat belt, and driving in reverse out of my parking stall, etc (NOT!) :o).

I agree, good post!