Monday, December 29, 2008

Can & May!


WY Yap is an international traveller whose business requires him to work all over the world. As a man who needs to move so frequently, he has all the necessary telecommunication tools to be mobile. Over a friendly chat, he complained about the telemarketers or the marketing persons who are so unprofessional in their telephone approaches. Not speaking confidently is one issue but not knowing the different of an oversea call connected is ridiculous. Meaning... when one is calling a mobile hand phone which is roaming on oversea, the ringing tune is always slightly different from a local ringing. On roaming, the receiver has to pay for the calls received. No person will like to receive an unwanted prospecting call. Right?? (Note... for all salesperson.. please be aware of such information). If a telemarketer or marketing person is sensible, they should immediately disconnect those particular calls to avoid unnecessary disturbance to their prospects.

The saddest thing was...even WY Yap who accidentally picked up those silly calls, he repeatedly told them that he was speaking from oversea, the callers would still insist to continue talking. To make matter furious, the callers used this statement..."Can I speak with Mr Yap?" or at time "Can I speak to Mr Yap's wife?" 'Can' is a very authoritative word which is demanding and forceful. As a verb, 'can' in this application did not sound friendly and obliging. More so the callers were total strangers to him. They should use the verb 'may'..."May I speak to Mr Yap?" The may is softer to listen...with meaning like... to be allowed or permitted.

I totally agreed to Yap's explanation. Our marketing people are weak in every sense. They do not understand the ethics of telephone communication and their understanding of words application is rather weak. I hope the above could be an eye's opener to all people who handle sales and marketing.

When you are in love and have intention to date a new girlfriend, say..."May I take you for a dinner?" or "May I surrender my heart to you?" Not when you confess to her, you should say.. "Can I marry you my little darling?"

The verbs May and Can are simple words but they do have a lot of meaning in usage. Unless one uses them right, the end result might not be effective. The chat with WY Yap was definitely very fruitful and benefiting. May be some readers out there might offer some comments too!

Food for the thought - "If you can imagine it, You can achieve it. If you can dream it, You can become it. — William Arthur Ward.

"What a day may bring, a day may take away" — Thomas Fuller, (1608-1661), English clergyman, antiquarian.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Robert,

Being a service provider, the basic thing we need are to be tolerant, positive & relax...unless that caller is also having same career as WY Yap its obviously harassment.
Nothing much we can do for not answering the call, communication is crucial for a person like WY.

regards,
Red Lavender

Robert Foo said...

Hi RL,

May I be your friend? Can you allow me to listen to your thought? I hope my 'may' & 'can', could be meaningful to you.. my dear.

Anonymous said...

I wish I could be an international traveler! But he is working in his trips. i think I couldn't do that) I mean, travels for me are so exciting and full of new experience, that I couldn't spend even a minute working. That's why I travel only on my vacations. And that's why I read Essaytigers testimonials in order to pick the cheapest paper writing service.