Question about phone calls

[DaDancingPsych]

Maybe try to include the fact that you know that the person on the other end has to look it up.

Person answers the phone (PATP): Thank you for calling Dr. Blah-blah's office, how can I help you?
Me: Hi, this is MrsCrazyPete from ABC Pharmacy. I'm calling to find out about Joe Schmoe's lab results. Are you able to look that up for me?

Or even add, "I can wait while you look that up." Or maybe just assume that that is what they are doing and just sit through the silence for a minute.

Sure, it should be the other person's job to tell you that, but we can only change our behavior.

[MOM21SON]

I have been on both ends and I don't have the answer.  As a CS rep, I tell customers can you just give me a moment to look that up, they say yes and continue to chatter which I am required to respond to.  It makes the call way longer than it needs to be.

As a customer when I call a company, I am often listening to air and it does irk me.  So I have said, "did I lose you?"  The response is usually snippy.

So, anyway, I would like to hear responses to this as well.

[Raintree]

Yesterday I phoned someone for information and was met with silence, so I asked, "Are you still there?" The guy said yes, he was just checking on the computer. Which is what I thought, but he didn't even say, 'Hold on for a moment while I check." It made me wonder if the line had been cut off. I'm fine with waiting, but if I've been cut off I don't want to sit there holding the phone and wondering.

I suppose if I were on the other end and someone were chattering away while I tried to check something for them, I'd have to say, "let me place you on hold while I check." I can't multitask and if someone is yammering away while I look up their information it just makes the whole process very painful.