The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-21
TEL EPHONE CLERKAND
 INVISIBLE CUSTOMER
A COMBINATION or THE VERY
 MENrs ENTERPRIsE TELEPHoNE
 CLERK HAS SING BUs1.
 NEss OVER THE MAGIC WIRE.

Boston. Aug. 20, lso4.-Ars you ac- ouainted with the telephone clerk Very likely not under this title. But if you have had dealings. over the wire with any large department store m which no detail is omitted In getting and keeping business, you have un- doubtedly conversed with him. Like the telephone with which he Is so closely associated he is an omnipresent factor in modern business. constantly in polite attendance upon customers whose actual distance varies from the next block to half way across the con- tinent. And he successfully carries on every kind of business over the tele- phone from matching a pink ribbon or selecting a watermelon to alloting statercoms on a transatlantic steam ship or placing a carload of merchan- disc on a trans-continental freight train. Uusually. also. he Is the best paid man in his own department for his knowledge if the business must be quicker and more accurate than that of the average clerk and he must be thoroughly familiar with the telephone in addition.
 In answering the telephone intelli- gently. the first telephone clerk saw an opportunity for advancement. And the increase of business that followed tho quick, polite and efficient handling of orders that came in over the telephone through what one of the Belle tele- phone officials has picturesQuely and accurately described as the telephone door"-soon began proving that 1t was worth while to recognize this pioneer telephone clerk with an advance of salary. And this bit of history has constantly repeated itself. Eighteen months ago." said the manager of an important business in one of the larger American cities recently. i've placed a young. active and ambitious clerk in charge of our telephone business. This clerk was familiar with our stock and methods, and had a general knowledge of the needs of our customers. Within the first thirty days he called on every one of our customers by telephone. and in sixty days the increase in telephone orders was simply marvellous"
 The general public knows nothing whatever of the telephone clerk. You don't call up central and say Give me the telephone clerk at West-2019." You say Give me West-2019." But if West-2019 is conducted on the most approved and latest business methods it's the telephone clerk who picks up the receiver at the other end of the line and enters into conversation with you. He answers promptly and accu- rateIy: you have no difficulty in un- derstanding what he says and you feel an immediate confidence that he knows what he is talking about. And you presently hang up your own receiver and go way blessing the telephone for having saved you the trouble of mak- ing visit to the shop in person. If you decide hereafter to do all the bus mess that you can over the West-2019 telephone you have followed the ex- ample of many another customer and so helped prove the value of the tele phone clerk as a trade getter: he has opened the telephone door for you and you have found 1t moro convenient and not less satisfactory than the old fashioned front entrance.
 The degree to which this telephone door has become profitable Is one of the most remarkable trade develop ments of the past two decades. In ev- cry large bushes. to say nothing of an enormous and constantly growing number of smaller ones, it is an ac- cepted avenue of trade. One evidence of this condition Is the number of tel ephones--thousands and thousands and thousands of them-in active operation and the fact that in the larger Ameri- can cities from 16 to-40 per cent of these telephones are run on the pri- Vate branch eXchange SyStem-an ar ',ing gament. Tn other words. in whicf the business has outgrown the use of single telephone and has installed several. Tn the Bell telephone direc- tory of New York. for example. you will find the pages dotted like the starry Armament with stars against a large proportion of the names. each star being the distinctive mark of q private branch exchange system. And each private branch exchange that is connected with wholesale or retail business establishment means the em- ployment of several clerks whose duty is to sell goods quickly and efficiently over the telephone. Each of these private branch exchanges means also that the volume of business coming over the wire has become SO pressing that several telephone doors have be- come necessary fin order to admit the host of invisible customers without un- necessary crowding, the additional tel ephones being thus all equivalent for enlarged quarters.
 One of the facts in human nature that has made the telephone clerk so important Is that the average man or woman is much more impatient at the telephone than while waiting to attract the clerks attention in the crowd at a counter. On the face of 1t. he argues.
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