Sunday, April 25, 2010
Answer questions with questions on incoming phone calls
Here’s what one of the readers of How to Be Invisible does when she does not recognize the name on her Caller ID:
“First of all,” she says, “I never answer by saying ‘This is Sandy Banks.’ Today I got a call that went like this:
Caller: "Hello, who is this?"
Me: "Who were you calling?"
Caller: “What number did I call?"
Me: "I have no idea, you were the one dialing."
Sandy says the woman then hung up. Note that every question was answered with a question. I use the same system when a caller is unknown to me.
Caller: “Hello there, this is John from the so-and-so company, and—”
Me: “What are you selling?”
Caller: “I am not selling anything but I just wanted to make you aware of —”
Me: “Then what is the purpose of your call?”
And so on. This business of answering a question with a question works well in any number of fields, especially when you are asked for your telephone number or for your date of birth.
No one ever answered questions with questions better than did a young man from Galilee, some two thousand years ago. So then, here is your homework for today:
Read the 20th chapter of Luke. At least twice.
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We have caller ID. We NEVER answer the phone unless we know the caller. If uncertain, we let them leave a message. A friend in the information collecting industry explained to me how some calls are for much different purposes than are stated, such as "surveys" that want to know your age group, income level, etc. etc. after you have been asked questions about what kind of soda you like or whatever. To the best of our knowledge, after years of doing this, we have never missed a call we wanted to take.
ReplyDeleteLuke 20:26 (NIV) - They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public.
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