BASIC PHONE MANNERS...

martinetav

martinetav

Well-Known Member
Aug 17, 2012
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Beauce region near Quebec City
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I'm a little perplexed by the lack of basic manners that people are lacking. We get calls all the time for rates. that's great. It's the first step in getting a load. What I'm having the most difficulty with is the lack of very basic manners. I was taught that when you call somewhere the first step is identification. "Hi, my name is XXXX and I'm with XXXX (company)." More and more I get "I need a rate..." Does no one introduce themselves anymore??? Am I passée to think that a person should at the very least tell me their name and what company they work for??? And then some will even get a little pushy while we work out the rate and give the impression that I should have already established the rate BEFORE they call to ask. This is not just small companies. Quite often it's the bigger companies...
Jeez, I guess I'm getting old...:rolleyes:
 
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Unfortunately, you are right. The vast number of people using the telephone system are much more at home on their cell phones, texting in some sort of butchered English and constantly using abbreviations as if they were proper forms of communication. I suppose it does show our age, but come on, language as we know it, could disappear if this trend continues. Don't get me started on letter writing skills!
 
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I would like to add that it is difficult to provide a rate when they won't tell you the weight or even if it requires a tandem or a quad! And heaven forbid I should ask what the commodity is! I guess strapping 53' of lumber is the same as chaining two excavators, a couple of crates and some loose pipe.

Maybe I'm wrong and I should just rate it at $1.00/mile and ask for a charitable donation receipt. :rolleyes:
 
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I have to confess... I'm one of the ones that call and Email for rates quite a lot.

I've been brokering freight for 30 years... an I know what loads "should" pay to the truck.

However, that's not always what carriers will do the loads for. In the last 5 years I've seen rates swing by as much as 500.00 on an I/B North Carolina load, depending on the season. As a broker... it's difficult to put a fixed cost on freight when a carrier will do the same job for 1600.00 in January... and then hang up on you if you don't cough up 2100.00 three months later. Freight rates seem to go up and down like a lady of the evenings panties on a Saturday night.

It's just good manners and professionalism to identify yourself... where you're calling from for any telephone conversation. Yeah, sure... we're all busy... but with email... the phones aren't as busy as they used to be.

I'd be concerned doing business with any carrier or broker that doesn't have time to say who they are... How many details will they leave out of your carrier confirmations / or / How well will that carrier follow your instructions.

Just sayin'
 
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hauling_ass said:
I would like to add that it is difficult to provide a rate when they won't tell you the weight or even if it requires a tandem or a quad! And heaven forbid I should ask what the commodity is! I guess strapping 53' of lumber is the same as chaining two excavators, a couple of crates and some loose pipe.

Maybe I'm wrong and I should just rate it at $1.00/mile and ask for a charitable donation receipt. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I've come to learn when that is the case it's because they are quoting on some sight OR they are training a new team member. But you are right Hauling Ass, Hardly any helpful information and they get testy with us. Just goes to show how much some of them know what goes into building a rate...
 
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We're old school. We identify ourselves and say please and thank you even when its not the answer we were looking for. The modern way of doing things is to simply pickup the phone, dial, and shout out whatever your needs are. I NEED A RATE.. . YOU GOT ANY FLATS IN CHARLOTTE?... Got a call this morning... His call started with "WHOSE THIS? Excuse me (you useless plug) you're calling ME.. maybe introduce yourself first. Email is often no better..
 
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Yes, @martinetav , I have noticed that the phone manners of most people we deal with are awful! No identification, demanding to know who I am, ordering me to give them a rate, etc. I have encountered a few that say "please", "thank-you for your time", "have a nice day", and so on. I'm not sure why but when the other party is requesting a rate, many act like I am being rude by asking who they are, what the commodity is and the weight of the shipment. THEN, they get snippy with me when they don't like the rate I have provided. Go figure.......
 
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What you get people to actually call you!!! Wow, I maybe young, but I like to think that I am old school. I dislike the way everything is going, with all those e-mails and no calls. I like the people felling that we get touching base with the customer over the phone.
 
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LOL --> Has anyone noticed the caps lock on the title of this heading (caps can be assumed as yelling in print if we are on the topic of manners? lol) Anyways, I have seen the evolution of email; the almost extinction of the fax, and the decline of the phone conversations. I think this goes further into the "relationship" in general with business. Everything is simply transactional based now, with EDI and automatic tenders etc... its cold. Positively what the email does is qualify the "transaction", and eliminate variables that may or may not have been discussed on the phone, like oh yeah, I mentioned that load needed tarps, when it was not discussed etc. It also gives some accountability to who you are dealing with; a business email ending in gmail.com or hotmail.com or even just lack of a full first and last name with contact info in an email signature is a big red flag that can help with pre screening, and qualifying leads. It also gives you an idea of who you are quoting, how often and how much business is generated. There are still way to may people out there in search of that "flat bed-reefer" trailer and "just need a quick rate over the phone"....; Relationships, the lack of them will become the demise of this business or make a come back and be its saving grace. Far too many people in this business right now that just want to see how much they can take from it, rather than re-invest in people and equipment to make trucking better... my 2 cents for today...
 
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At our company, we don't have an auto-attendant or voicemail (after hours the phone is forwarded to a cell phone and that message will request that you call back in a few minutes and do not leave a message). The phone will just ring and ring until someone picks up on it. After 4 rings, the phone rings at everyone's desk in the company and it will be up to someone to answer it and get the right person. We like doing as much as possible over the phone. After the discussion is done, a quick email to follow up and check in should be all. Doing things by phone avoids so many disasters. In the dispatch office, it can get hairy sometimes and tempers can be short but I find that most of the times our people are pleasant.
 
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GSTRUCKS said:
a business email ending in gmail.com or hotmail.com
Click to expand...

If you have a "hotmail" or "live" email address, your email won't even make it to our Exchange server unless I have specifically allowed it in. I have them filtered out before they even get that far. We do allow gmail addresses in, but if gmail goes the way of hotmail and live, they'll get nuked as well.
 
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