Hundreds of people have formed impressions of you through that
little device on your desk, your bed table, your kitchen wall. And
they've never actually met you. They've never seen your smiles,
felt your frowns. They've never grasped your hand or enjoyed your
hugs. They've never read your body language or seen how you
dress. Everything they know about you came through tiny filaments, sometimes from hundreds of miles away. But they feel they
know you just from the sound of your voice. That's how powerful the telephone is.
Powerful, yes, but not always accurate. For years I dealt with
my travel agent only by phone. Rani, my faceless agent whom I'd
never met in person, got me rock-bottom prices on airfares, cars,
and hotels. But her snippy phone personality really ticked me off.
A dozen times I vowed to find another agent.
One Monday morning several years ago, I received bad news
and had to book an immediate flight home for a family emergency.
I had no time to wait in line at the airport, so I jumped in a cab
and asked the driver to wait in front of the travel agency while I
grabbed tickets and a boarding pass.
Like a lit fuse, I zipped into Rani's agency for the first time.
Seeing my frenzied rush, the woman sitting at the front desk sympathetically jumped up. She gave me a reassuring smile and asked
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how she could help me. As I blithered on about my need for an
emergency ticket, she smiled, nodded, and lunged immediately
into action. "What a terrific lady!" I thought as she printed out
the tickets.
Moments later, darting out gratefully grasping the tickets in
my fist, I called out over my shoulder, "By the way, what's your
name?"
"Leil, I'm Rani," she said. I whirled around and saw a thoroughly congenial woman with a big smile on her face waving to
wish me a safe trip. I was dumbfounded! Why had I previously
thought she was so snippy? Rani was, well, so nice.
Sitting back in the cab on the way to the airport, I figured it
all out. Rani's friendliness—her warm smile, her nods, her good
eye contact, her body language, her "I'm here for you" attitude—
were all silent signals that didn't travel through wires. I closed my
eyes and tried to remember the voice I had heard moments ago.
Yes, it was Rani's same crisp, curt pronunciation. But her friendly
body language made her seem like a different person from the
brusque agent I'd dealt with on the phone. Rani's phone personality and her demeanor in person were completely different shows.
I realized it's the same with all of us. Your personality, mine,
and everyone's could be likened to a show, a theatrical performance. You want to make sure yours is a box-office smash, not a
flop. The following ten techniques will get your phone personality rave reviews.