Post office workers should never blandly announce that it will cost $107 to mail a parcel containing a soft toy to England.
Develop a sense of what is and is not reasonable. Try to help your customer accomplish her task without having to take out a loan. Advise her that she can reduce the price to something within the realm of normality by repackaging.
Spokespeople should not attempt to cloak failures in metaphor. Example recently broadcast on the radio: “We were fiddling while Rome burned, and the elephants in the room were trying to tell us something.”
Limit your use of clichés to one per sentence. Ideally, use simple language to tell the truth.
When the customer states that she does not want free delivery of a newspaper for three months, telemarkers should not say “Why on earth not?”
Likewise, when the customer states that they have no need of the caller’s video-on-demand service because they don’t have a television, do not say “Well, what do you do for fun?”
Recognize that you have invaded the customer’s time with your phone call. Accept a no. Say goodbye and hang up.