Thursday, March 04, 2004
Telephone Embarrassment
My favorite part of my new job is verification. As a financial institution, we often have to ask for certain pieces of customer information to confirm with whom we are speaking. And there's nothing more fun than asking for someone's email address. Because 4 or 5 times out of ten, I unintentionally embarrass someone. I ask for their email address, and all the sudden they clam up. They know they have to give it to me, but they don't want to. And this 40-50% just can't bring themselves to speak the address to me; rather, they attempt to lessen their embarrassment by spelling it out. For purely hypothetical example:
"And could I have your email address please?"
". . . Uh . . . . OK, sure. C-O-O-L-G-U-Y-@uwq.biz."
OR:
"Could I have your email address, Mr. Davis?"
"Oh. Email? Um . . . sure. I-R-O-C-K-Y-O-U-R-W-O-R-L-D-@uwq.biz."
Sometimes, if I'm feeling spunky, I'll return with: "Thank you, Mr. Davis, I also show irockyourworld@uwq.biz in my database."
I'm sure all these people were confident and pleased with themselves when they signed up for their boisterous addresses. But something changes when you're on the phone with a stranger. It's like a prank caller getting *-69ed.
"And could I have your email address please?"
". . . Uh . . . . OK, sure. C-O-O-L-G-U-Y-@uwq.biz."
OR:
"Could I have your email address, Mr. Davis?"
"Oh. Email? Um . . . sure. I-R-O-C-K-Y-O-U-R-W-O-R-L-D-@uwq.biz."
Sometimes, if I'm feeling spunky, I'll return with: "Thank you, Mr. Davis, I also show irockyourworld@uwq.biz in my database."
I'm sure all these people were confident and pleased with themselves when they signed up for their boisterous addresses. But something changes when you're on the phone with a stranger. It's like a prank caller getting *-69ed.
