Reaching Out to Touch Someone Back

How good are you about returning phone calls?

Allen Edwards, owner, Allen Edwards salons:

“I try to be good about returning calls, but I work out of three salons and I get messages at each one, and people give me little pieces of paper and I lose some. I get about 50 calls a day, and I return them all. I’ll never cut hair and talk to someone. I tell them I’ll call them back. People appreciate it when you call them back right away and I don’t want to miss anything important.”

Brian Murphy, architect/designer:

“I average about a hundred calls a day into the office. The idea of not returning a call means that there’s something afoot there and I just feel like you need to address that. Don’t carry that baggage around with you. If you’ve got a difficult situation, it’s not going to go away if you ignore it, even though you think it’s somehow going to vaporize.”

Cody Cluff, assistant deputy mayor for entertainment industry affairs:

“I get about 30 to 45 calls a day, and I probably take about a third of them. Then I get another 10 to 15 calls on my pager.

“We try to make sure everything gets returned. First are elected officials--we return those as quickly as possible--then the press. Then, because the emphasis of what we do is solving problems for the film industry and the community, we deal with those calls on the level of urgency.

“Occasionally people get calls back from my assistant rather than from me, but we try to make sure everyone gets called back.

“The phone doesn’t bother me that much; it’s the pager, really, especially when it’s going off at 2 a.m. The industry works 24 hours a day, and sometimes [because of filming] someone will complain about noise outside their home. I always return the pager calls.”

Phyllis Hennigan, president of the Blue Ribbon of the Music Center:

“I definitely prioritize and I’m very good at returning phone calls. I check my machine often, because it makes me nervous when I get home and I have 17 messages that have come in in four hours.

“I’m pretty compulsive about checking the machine--I call about every hour. I always get to my husband and my girls first. Then the Blue Ribbon calls are next--it could be a past president or a member. I do try to get back to everyone that day. I have a portable phone that I mostly use in the car, and returning calls then helps me not to have 14 messages at the end of the day.

“I think it’s really important to return calls, so I really do try. I just know what it’s like when I call somebody and they don’t call me back. I don’t like to have to call them repeatedly.”

Laurie Levenson, Loyola Law School professor and often-quoted legal expert:

“I think it’s important to return calls. Basically it’s good manners. If I can’t reach someone I at least try to leave a message. Unless there’s an urgent call, I return them in the order I get them.

“On a hot day I’ll get about 30 or 40 calls. That started with the Rodney King trial. When that finished, I went back to the normal life of a law professor. Now with the Simpson case, it’s heated up again. Most people appreciate it when I return their call right away. I learned that in my first job working for a judge. He said, ‘Whatever you do, return people’s calls.’ ”