How to Respond to Call Waiting

You’re on the phone with someone and –Eck!- Someone is calling you on the other line! How do you respond to it? How do you interrupt your current conversation? Follow these easy steps to responding to a call waiting in the appropriate manner.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Cell Phone

1. Decide if the call waiting could potentially be urgent. Is your nine-month-pregnant wife calling you at an abnormal time? Is your babysitter calling for the third time in the last hour? These are calls that are probably worth answering.
2. Determine if the conversation you’re in would be harmed by responding to a call waiting. For example, if you are speaking to a potential employer about an upcoming interview he may not think you are serious about the job if you interrupt the conversation to take another call.
3. Wait for a natural break in the conversation. Of course, you only have a few seconds to answer a call waiting before the caller gets sent to voice mail or the call ends, so find a break quickly.
4. Create your own break in the conversation if one doesn’t arrive on its own. You can do this by interjecting your voice into the conversation. For example, a “Yeah,…” or a “I see…” are ways to give yourself a chance to speak.
5. Stay polite with your current caller. Politely excuse yourself for one moment explaining that you have another call that you need to answer very quickly.
6. Talk with the call waiter for only a brief time. You might even answer their call by saying, “Hello! I’m on another call right now, so I only have a few moments, but how can I help you today?”
7. Quickly switch back to the first caller so that they are not left feeling abandoned.