Mobile manners

Calling people on their mobile is very different from calling them on their landline. For one thing, they will almost certainly answer the phone themselves, so you won't hear phrases like "Hold the line" and "I'll put you through". Communication will be far more immediate. You can just answer the phone by saying "Hello" or your name (or both). Your caller won't need to say "This is..." if you have saved his or her contact details and recognize the name and number. Instead, you'll say: "Hi, Anne. How's it going?" or "What's up?" and jump right into the conversation.

Now, that is a bit of a problem. While it's getting easier and easier to get in touch with people everywhere and at all times of the day or night, it seems to me that our mobile manners are getting worse and worse. The mobile bore could use a lesson in etiquette in order to become more mobile-savvy. So I'd like to suggest 10 golden rules for better mobile manners:

Ready to test your mobile manners? Then come and jog your memory for phrases from the above video in our exercise on the next page.

Anne Hodgson