陳豪在北京的ABC美國公司工作。他在走廊上遇到了美國同事Amy。
(Office ambience)
C:Amy, 你有時間嗎?
A:Sure. What's up?
C:我剛才收到部門經(jīng)理Mae的電話留言,她說我們在留言機上的留話千篇一律,應(yīng)該考慮如何改變一下。
A:I haven't checked my voice mail yet. I have been out of the office so I haven't heard her message.
C:我簡單告訴你一下吧?
A:I'm all ears!
C:她建議,我們不用說,“我不在辦公室或是正在另外一條線上”,因為你不說,別人也知道。
A:What are we supposed to say?
C:不如改為告訴對方你在哪里,比如說去開會了,三點回來,讓別人知道幾點鐘能找到你,或是能接到你的回電。
A:I always try to let people know when I am away from the office for a few days.
C:對了,Mae還建議,如果好幾天不在辦公室的話,可以在留言里說明,你什么時候有機會查留言,回電話。
A:Did she say more?
C:Mae還說,如果你不在辦公室,可以把臨時聯(lián)絡(luò)人的電話和姓名留在留言機里。
A:I've had people do that and when I called the other person, she wasn't in so I found myself in another voice mail. That's annoying.
C:沒錯,所以要事先弄清楚臨時聯(lián)絡(luò)人是否會在辦公室里。Mae還有不少建議,我一時記不起來了,你還是自己去聽聽吧。
******
當天晚些時候。陳豪和Amy又見面了。
A:Wow, Mae made some other good points about our greetings. I get tired of hearing "Your call is very important to me." I agree that we should drop that phrase, especially when it often lacks sincerity.
C:對啊,“你的電話對我很重要”根本就是廢話。還有就是“我很遺憾沒有接到你的電話 -- "I am sorry I missed your call." 有那個時間,還不如說點有用的。
A:I usually tell people that I will call them back as soon as possible. Mae says to avoid saying, "I'll call you back as soon as possible." A simple "I'll call you back" is all that is needed.
C:你覺得Mae說的有道理嗎?
A:It's clear to me that we all have fallen into a rut, by leaving a greeting that sounds as if we are reading from a script.
C:確實是有些千篇一律。那我們應(yīng)該怎么做呢?
A:What we need to do is update our greeting on a regular basis so callers know that we are attentive to our message system.
C:我們還應(yīng)該保證盡快回電。
A:But we don't need to take up more time than necessary.
C:好,我這就去改我的電話留言,就說 "Hello, this is Chen Hao. I will be in the office today. Please leave a message and I will call you back.”
A:Sounds good to me.