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<b>First Posted:</b> 4/28/2015

If you’re fed up with trying to reach American businesses by telephone, press or say “1.”

Better yet, just yell out the window – and join the chorus of others who dread dialing workplaces at which they receive only token customer service, assuming they’re actually able to get through to someone.

Judging by a recent survey, most callers to U.S. businesses hang up feeling less than satisfied, if not disgusted. Only 33 percent of respondents in the Northeast were happy with the way their calls were handled, and that’s slightly better satisfaction than recorded elsewhere in the nation, according to London-based PH Media Group, which conducted the research.

Women generally were less pleased than men with their business-related telephone interactions, according to the results. And, perhaps not surprisingly, older callers typically were found to be more dissatisfied with today’s phone protocols than Millennials.

“Regardless of where callers live, they have sent a clear message to American businesses that overall call handling standards must improve,” PH Media Group’s sales and marketing director Mark Williamson stated in a news release.

PH Media Group, it should be noted, has a vested interest in promoting better business telephone etiquette. It sells services such as out-of-hours messaging and on-hold marketing.

Nevertheless, its recent findings probably ring all-too true if you recently have called a firm and encountered “options” that range from mildly frustrating to “oh, forget about it.” Among the more common and confounding:

The endless hold – with or without music. (Presumably this is a sort of earthly warm-up for purgatory.)

The surly voice, which follows the script by saying “thank you for calling,” but conveys the impression you probably shouldn’t have.

The phone maze, in which each automated choice – “Press 7 to repeat these options at any time” – seems to move you farther from the answer to your question. And from actual human contact.

The hasty transfer.

The voice mail that never gets returned.

If nothing else, this survey’s findings serve as a necessary reminder to businesses, including this one, that – despite the rise of email and social media – the telephone remains a significant workplace tool in 2015, and it still pays for an employee to put a smile on the face before answering a call.

Technologies and corporate staffing levels will no doubt continue to change. However, in daily telephone exchanges between customers and call-takers, there’s a consistent need for pleasantness and patience – on both ends of the line.

OUR VIEW Businesses, callers lack connection