Suckerfish on the Side of Your Whale

Me: "Tech support, Terry speaking."
Caller: "Hello, Terry speaking!"

Let me stop you right there: don't say that. It's not funny, witty, or charming in any way. It's not even close to being funny.

And that reminds me of one of the first "jokes" I heard when I started doing tech support:

Me: "Now you'll need to open My Computer."
Caller: "How can I do that? I'm nowhere near you!"
Me: "..."
Caller: "You're not laughing."
Me: "It wasn't funny."

Admittedly, I wouldn't respond that way to everyone, but this was a caller who was going to be able to take the joke, and so I considered it worthwhile... even so, I heard that line often enough that I changed the way I phrased my instructions.

Labels: communication, humor