How do you answer the phone at work?

[Waffle]

What do you say when you answer the phone at work?
Do you use your full name, only last, only first, etc?

I quickly skimmed "Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office" last night. There was something in it about how women tend to not use their last names and/or allow themselves to be called by a childish nickname. But that men don't. So what do you do and do you think it matters?

[swamp]

I use my first name. Mrs. Swamp sounds like my mom. My business partner, who is a 65 year old man, also uses his first name.

I do sign my name with a heart over the "i" though.

[Peace77]

I would answer: company name, this is first name, How can I help you?

[Deleted]

I say "Good morning/afternoon, this is 'me' (first name only)."

[Deleted]

Company, me speaking.

ETA - I am not the receptionist, people have dialed my extension to reach me so I'm just confirming they got the right number.

[swamp]

Jun 22, 2012 9:53:19 GMT -5 @justaposter said:

Company, me speaking.

does "me" use only the first name, or only last name, or both?

[Deleted]

First name.

ETA - When I leave a message I leave my full name and my title if we haven't met.

[quotequeen]

I used to say my full name, but when I got married I thought it would confuse people who hadn't figured out I'd gotten married and changed my name so I started just using my first name. I hardly ever get calls that matter these days though.

[muttleynfelix]

Jun 22, 2012 9:51:42 GMT -5 Peace77 said:

I would answer: company name, this is first name, How can I help you?

Our old office manager had the same name as me (yeah what are the odds in a company of 6 people and only 2 women) I would use my last name, but my last name is easily misconstrued over the phone - n's and p's can get dropped. So, now that I've been the only M in our office again for 3 years, I just use my first name.

[Deleted]

I answer:

This is [first name].

[muttleynfelix]

Oh and everyone in the office just uses their first name. Heck, my boss will just answer his first name without saying the company name and he prefers to answer the phone when our office manager is out.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I answer: College name, name of lab I am working in.

I usually only get wrong numbers because this number used to belong to a doctor on staff. For the most part answering the phone with "College of Pharmacy" clues them in that this is not even the hospital, let alone the department they are looking for.

[midjd]

I have a direct line that isn't listed on our website, so most people who call are either people I know, or people who have been transferred by the receptionist. So I just say my first and last names or sometimes (if I'm expecting a call) "This is Mid."

[Wisconsin Beth]

Good Morning/Afternoon (occaussionally, Um, Good morn-afternoon, wait, what time is it?) this is Beth in Tech Services. How may I help you.
The vast majority of my phone calls come with a display. If I don't recognize the number I will assume it's a wrong number and answer with "good morning/afternoon, this is Beth at company name Technical Services Section, How may I help you?" which generally results in "I was trying to reach X. I'm sorry." or a dial tone...

[reader79]

Who answers their work phone nowadays? Voicemail is your friend. The vast majority of calls that I receive are sales calls, especially after trade shows. They love to sell the lists of Buyers to the exhibitors, and that generally turns into weeks worth of calls from crazies telling me that XYZ product would 'look great in your store.' And this usually comes from someone selling something totally inappropriate for my business.

When I do pickup, I say 'Hi, this is Reader, how can I help you?' Unless it's my minions, then I just yell 'NO!' and hangup.

[milee]

Jun 22, 2012 10:00:53 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

I answer:

This is [first name].

This is exactly how every single male rain maker, partner, CEO, VC, etc. I ever worked with answers. I noticed this my 2nd or 3rd year in public accounting, so I started answering like that as well. Most of the successful women I know answer similarly.

Answering with the company name in addition to yours, "how may I help you?", or any other embellishment is very polite, but also definitely an indication of a lower level employee. Receptionist, not decision maker.

Women tend to answer like receptionists, men tend to answer like CEOs.

[kittypuppymom]

I answer company name this is my first name.

[Firebird]

"What the hell do you want?"

[greenstone]

I can see the number calling me so:

if I recognize it or it's an internal number "Hello"

if I don't recognize the number "Hello, this is Green" in case the person doesn't know it is my private extension or dialed the wrong one (happens a lot)

Our calls are routed through our main electronic switchboard so they know already what company they called.

[Angel!]

Hello, this is first name. No one in my company would answer with their full name or last name, first name basis is very accepted in my field. And if they managed to get through to my line, they already know what company they are calling.

I did run into some issues in the last few months because I have been working with a lot of police/fire/sheriff officials, which I don't normally do. While addressing some traffic engineer with the county as "bob" has always been fine for me, it didn't feel right addressing the county sheriff or a fire chief as "bob". I was very perplexed as to how to address emails or make phone calls to those people.

[lynnerself]

Most of our calls are coming from within the clinic.
So
"Lab,lynnerself"
I do use the diminutive of my name. But I use that for mostly everything.

[Malarky]

Good morning/afternoon, (name of company and location) this is Malarky.

Many mistakes have been made when customers are calling the wrong location, so we do our best to make sure they know which they called.

[Deleted]

If I'm picking up an outside call, I answer like a receptionist. "Company name. This is Sarah, how can I help you?"
Internal calls, work calls on my cell phone, calls transferred to my desk... just "This is Sarah"
Personal calls on my cell phone, I answer like a 12 year old. Lots of "what up, yo" and the like.

My Dad always answered his desk line "First Last speaking" but that never felt natural to me. Apparently I only use my last name when making outgoing calls.

[movingforward]

The receptionist typically answers the phone and when she transfers a call to me she lets me know who it is. If it is one of our vendors or someone I talk to a lot I usually pick up the phone and just say "Hi John" or whatever. Since we have a small office we all help out if the phones are really busy and the receptionist is overloaded. I pick up and say company name, this is first name. I don't go in to anymore detail than that. Honestly, I hate answering the phone, taking messages, etc. I went to college so I wouldn't have to do that crap

[Waffle]

I usually say Purchasing, this is "first name". We have caller id - so sometimes I will answer differently when it's an internal caller. I know I've heard my boss answer the phone but I just can't remember what version of his name he uses. I'm not sure what most other people do - I'm going to have to start hanging out in other people's offices so I can listen to them answer their phones. ;D

[MN-Investor]

When I was working, I always answered First Name Last Name. I retired in '99, so before our company had caller ID displays. Maybe it would have made a difference with that. The majority of calls I received were internal, but we were a very large company so mistakes could be made.

When I called others within the company, it seems that the standard answer would be "Joe Smith" or "This is Joe". I remember one woman manager, extremely sharp gal who I really enjoyed working with, would just answer "Hello". I always thought that was so unprofessional.

[justme]

Jun 22, 2012 10:00:53 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

I answer:

This is [first name].

Sometimes I add a hello.

[sheilaincali]

I answer probably 98% of the calls that come in so I primarily answer with "Good morning, Company Name" or "Good Afternoon, Company Name" I don't volunteer my name. I get a lot of calls from people wanting the "person in charge of": purchasing, human resources, safety equipment, etc. I don't like to give them a name because they will call back next time trying to sound legit and ask directly for that person.
When they ask the name of the owner or president I tell them just to ask for "the owner" next time they call back so I can be assured that they are once again a telemarketer and thus not worth the boss' time. I have been doing this for years and years and I can identify a telemarketer in less than 10 seconds.

I use my first name maiden name when I want results because my maiden name is well known in the industry. I use a made up name for the persistent telemarketers that won't leave me alone. That way "K.N" is never available when they call back.

Pretty much everyone I have ever dealt with uses just first name when answering the phone. First and Last is always listed on their voice mail's outgoing message.

[kimber45]

Good Morning/company name/this is Kimber

[Miss Tequila]

I have a direct line so if someone either calls my number or they are transfered from the receptionist. When I answer I say "Tina Tequila".