Received a telephone call from a company doing a survey:
Me: Hi, this is Bob.
Caller: Is Bob there?
Me: Th…this is Bob. Good morning.
Caller: I’m doing a survey regarding children and television. Do you have any children or grandchildren under the age of 13?
Me: No, I have no children.
Caller: I see. Do you have any children or grandchildren under the age of 13?
Me: Um, well, I…I have no children, thus no grandchildren, and none of the children or grandchildren that…I don’t have are under the age of 13?
Caller: I see. I won’t bother you then. Thank you for your time. Have a nice day.
Me: You, too. Bye-bye.
The moral of the story?
I don’t know. Okay, there are many lessons. While working from a basic script is fine, actually listening to someone after you ask a question is obviously very important.
What other lessons might we take away from this?
And, in case you are wondering, yes, I was very polite and no, I was not snarky. It’s not my style. Though, I must admit, I struggled just a teensy bit with that.
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Obviously, this person was going from a script and not doing a very good job, at that. Still, I’ve often heard that people don’t listen, they really are just formulating their reply and waiting for you to stop talking.
Listening is a good skill to have and a skill, unfortunately, most people don’t have including myself. Having said that, there are lots of people that yammer on and on and on and it’s hard to engage in a conversation because they never seem to want to stop talking.
At least your phone call was a short conversation.
Ken, great points. Thank you for your feedback!
Great story! That’s why we have two ears and only one mouth. Good listeners are usually great leaders.
Dan, thank you. Very appreciated!