The following article appears on the Call Centre Help website.

Friendly formality and a smile as you dial please, say customers

We may not expect a hat to be raised, but a polite 'good morning' and a smile in the voice is how most of us like to be addressed by the businesses we contact, according to new research.

69 per cent prefer a more formal greeting such as Good Morning. 22 per cent liked 'hello'. But the more casual 'hi!' was almost beyond the pale, with fewer than one in ten preferring that.

The survey was conducted by Standard Life Healthcare, which has been voted 'Best Customer Service Provider' at the annual Health Insurance Awards for six years running.

The study also revealed that:

• 53% prefer to be called by their title and surname - women (59%) more than men (47%).

• Only 36% like to be called by their first name, although the younger the person the more acceptable it is. 53% of 16-24 year olds and 43% of 25-34 year olds like it. People aged over 35 much prefer title and surname compared to any other age group.

• We like people to smile as they dial! 68% can tell if you are smiling when they talk to you on the phone. Younger people (16-34) are most intuitive as 77% of them can tell.

• More than half of people under the age of 35 would like to be able to text enquiries to suppliers and receive replies by text. (58% of 16-24 age group, 50% of 25-34 year olds)

"Customer care is part of what sets us apart’ said spokesman Mandy Blanks. ‘We regularly ask our customers what they want, so that we can continue to improve our service to them - not simply in terms of our private medical insurance products, but also the important little things, like speaking to them in the way they like to be spoken to!'

Standard Life Healthcare is also well known for its annual Attitudes to Healthcare survey, which is an in-depth study into customer attitudes to healthcare issues at home and in the workplace and receives widespread publicity. The last one was published in November 2006.

I would be interested to hear what others think?

The study does not say wherein the world it was conducted. I have been serving the US market, and the validity of the study depends on which state. In my personal experince, practically every caller prefers to be called by name, not title. Exceptions are for states in the Southern US, where day-to-day formality is the norm. In other regions, calling someone Mr. or Ms sets an awkward power dynamic; the caller, who does not know how to fix their service, gets the superior role while the support specialist, who knows all about the service, has the subservient position. As you can imagine, this dynamic simply complicates everything. As agents give their first name, addressing callers by name creates a lets-work-together atmosphere which I have found very effective.

Of course, you occasionally get burned working that way. I had one senior lady tell me off for "assuming a friendship which is not present"; a senior gentleman tell me that he found such a mode of address to be offensive; a pastor (who's title was not noted on the account) become very irate that I did not address him as Reverend, and, my personal favourite, occuring 2 weeks after my transition:

ME: "Is that Geraldine?"

Caller: "IT'S SISTER GERALDINE!!!"

The recovering catholic schoolboy inside me almost wet himself. By the end of the call though, Sister was promising to pray for me wand to have a mass said in my honour. how's that for a compliment?