Annoying Voice Mail Phrases

煩人的聲音郵件短語

陳豪在北京的ABC美國公司工作。他在走廊上遇到了美國同事Amy。

(Office ambience)

C: Amy, 你有時間嗎？

A: Sure. What's up?

C: 我剛才收到部門經理Mae的電話留言，她說我們在留言機上的留話千篇一律，應該考慮如何改變一下。

A: I haven't checked my voice mail yet. I have been out of the office so I haven't heard her message.

C: 我簡單告訴你一下吧？

A: I'm all ears!

C: 她建議，我們不用說，“我不在辦公室或是正在另外一條線上”，因為你不說，別人也知道。

A: What are we supposed to say?

C: 不如改為告訴對方你在哪里，比如說去開會了，三點回來，讓別人知道幾點鐘能找到你，或是能接到你的回電。

A: I always try to let people know when I am away from the office for a few days.

C: 對了，Mae還建議，如果好幾天不在辦公室的話，可以在留言里說明，你什么時候有機會查留言，回電話。

A: Did she say more?

C: Mae還說，如果你不在辦公室，可以把臨時聯絡人的電話和姓名留在留言機里。

A: I've had people do that and when I called the other person, she wasn't in so I found myself in another voice mail. That's annoying.

C: 沒錯，所以要事先弄清楚臨時聯絡人是否會在辦公室里。Mae還有不少建議，我一時記不起來了，你還是自己去聽聽吧。

當天晚些時候。陳豪和Amy又見面了。

A: Wow, Mae made some other good points about our greetings. I get tired of hearing "Your call is very important to me." I agree that we should drop that phrase, especially when it often lacks sincerity.

C: 對啊，“你的電話對我很重要”根本就是廢話。還有就是“我很遺憾沒有接到你的電話 -- "I am sorry I missed your call." 有那個時間，還不如說點有用的。

A: I usually tell people that I will call them back as soon as possible. Mae says to avoid saying, "I'll call you back as soon as possible." A simple "I'll call you back" is all that is needed.

C: 你覺得Mae說的有道理嗎？

A: It's clear to me that we all have fallen into a rut, by leaving a greeting that sounds as if we are reading from a script.

C: 確實是有些千篇一律。那我們應該怎么做呢？

A: What we need to do is update our greeting on a regular basis so callers know that we are attentive to our message system.

C: 我們還應該保證盡快回電。

A: But we don't need to take up more time than necessary.

C: 好，我這就去改我的電話留言，就說 "Hello, this is Chen Hao. I will be in the office today. Please leave a message and I will call you back.”

A: Sounds good to me.