Cadence Calling

I had a delightful chat with my pal tonight. She and I talk about everything, including religion and politics, and we're still friends. We were sharing customer service horror stories and we both wound up in Mumbai [I was at United, she was with MacAfee]. Late night customer service calls that land in the other hemisphere aren't very likely to bring customer satisfaction, we concluded.

Tangentially, we talked about the proper way to give numbers over the phone. There's a certain rhythm to it. If you mess up the rhythm, you confuse the recipient. Phone numbers, including the area code should go like this: ba-ba-BUM [pause] ba-ba BUM [pause] ba-BUM-ba-BUM. 3-3-4. Social security numbers are nine digits long. Logically, they could be broken up into three groups of three. But don't! The Social Security number is broken by two dashes. You give out your social as 3-2-4. Doing 3-3-3 just throws it off. Those dashes have been on social security cards since FDR printed 'em. Read 'em like that.

Finally, credit cards. Here's a clue: all VISA cards begin with the number 4. All Mastercards begin with the number 5. You DON'T have to tell someone the card type. Most of my cards are sixteen digits. That's a perfect 4-4-4-4 delivery. Lately I've had to add the 3 digit "secret" number. Guess it's not so secret anymore.

If people would just live by these rules, my life would be simplified. Is that too much to ask, people?

en-OH.

ba-BUM.