商务实战：027 Politely Placing Callers On Hold

会计考友

　　陈豪在北京的ABC美国公司工作，他的美国同事Amy来找他谈事儿。
　　(Office ambience)
8 k7 r) i' y$ r) Y　　A：Hi Chen Hao, have you got a minute?
9 R/ \; B! h6 [9 A" J0 g$ g　　C：Amy, 刚才你过来的时候，我正在电话上。
　　A：It's not polite to hang around when someone is the phone so I decided to come back.
. n- x2 D1 t( u# S# m/ r　　C：嗨，别提了。我刚才一直在电话上等。想挂，可是好不容易才打通，挂了又得从头来，我就在那儿傻等着，烦死了。
　　A：I know what you mean. Putting callers on hold for more than thirty seconds is bad for customer relations.
　　C：半分钟，别说半分钟；我刚才足足等了半小时。不过，Amy, 说实话，我让别人等的时候，有时候也容易把时间忘了。What can I do?
* }. y9 J& ]( l- E% q　　A：Watch the clock. Time passes quickly for the person who is busy with other callers or issues, but for the person on hold, time creeps by.
0 @$ U) C4 n2 y7 i/ d8 S% Z　　C：就是这么回事。在电话上等，确实觉得时间过得特别慢，所以越等越不耐烦。
　　A：Since your job doesn't involve answering other people's calls, I would guess that your callers are waiting for you to look up information while they hold.
　　C：没错，一般情况下，我都会让客户在电话上等着别挂，我马上设法帮他们解决问题。
　　A：There is a difference in holding for someone to answer the phone and holding for someone to look up information for you.
　　C：在线上等别人接你的电话和等别人去帮你查资料有什么不一样呢？
: R8 u* s6 q3 D# S* V8 \$ \2 }" w　　A：If you ask people to hold while you are looking up information or trying to help them in some way, they are willing to wait.
/ ]8 @# {% _4 G* P　　C：我怎么还是不明白？考试用书
5 w8 T# w2 T, U/ _　　A：People are happy to wait while you work on their behalf.
* Y: k$ v6 f* D/ T# a　　C：噢，他们知道对方是在为自己解决问题，所以等得心甘情愿。那些等着别人接听电话的人呢？
3 m$ d' }9 E& z7 {4 u0 A, C* S　　A：When you take your time getting to the call, the caller starts to imagine all sorts of scenarios.
　　C：没错，我就经常怀疑对方是把我给忘了。
　　A：The caller may suspect you don't think the caller is important.
. E. v/ l* K7 Y7 y# B　　C：还有呢？
! J" S5 s. b* \5 @. C1 }! _　　A：Maybe you don't value the caller's time?
　　C：对呀，在线上等电话是越等越急，越急就容易胡思乱想。
" c& k% ]9 x' O; L　　A：Yes, and the result is that your caller is pretty annoyed when you finally answer the phone.
! `1 \+ r1 w1 t* B# V; h　　C：没错，那客户肯定很不高兴，觉得我没有礼貌。
4 M6 s- k; i8 @! }2 a  W6 _/ a* y　　A：Exactly. So if you want to avoid making people feel unimportant or ignored, pick up your phone as soon as you know you have a caller waiting.
- J8 f5 }' ?( l  G% G; n! L: L1 K5 s　　C：如果没办法马上接电话，我通常都会让秘书请客户决定，是在线上继续等，还是在电话信箱里留言。
6 q2 i3 i+ m( Y+ M- w　　A：Exactly, good business etiquette as usual is to be considerate of the other person.