Annoying Voice Mail Phrases

烦人的声音邮件短语

陈豪在北京的ABC美国公司工作。他在走廊上遇到了美国同事Amy。

(Office ambience)

C: Amy, 你有时间吗？

A: Sure. What's up?

C: 我刚才收到部门经理Mae的电话留言，她说我们在留言机上的留话千篇一律，应该考虑如何改变一下。

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

C: 我简单告诉你一下吧？

A: I'm all ears!

C: 她建议，我们不用说，“我不在办公室或是正在另外一条线上”，因为你不说，别人也知道。

A: What are we supposed to say?

C: 不如改为告诉对方你在哪里，比如说去开会了，三点回来，让别人知道几点钟能找到你，或是能接到你的回电。

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

C: 对了，Mae还建议，如果好几天不在办公室的话，可以在留言里说明，你什么时候有机会查留言，回电话。

A: Did she say more?

C: Mae还说，如果你不在办公室，可以把临时联络人的电话和姓名留在留言机里。

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: 没错，所以要事先弄清楚临时联络人是否会在办公室里。Mae还有不少建议，我一时记不起来了，你还是自己去听听吧。

当天晚些时候。陈豪和Amy又见面了。

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: 对啊，“你的电话对我很重要”根本就是废话。还有就是“我很遗憾没有接到你的电话 -- "I am sorry I missed your call." 有那个时间，还不如说点有用的。

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: 你觉得Mae说的有道理吗？

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: 确实是有些千篇一律。那我们应该怎么做呢？

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: 我们还应该保证尽快回电。

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

C: 好，我这就去改我的电话留言，就说 "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.