The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-21

Tor that reason the modern business es- tablishments provide telephones enough to reduce any waiting on the part of it's customers to the smallest possible fraction. When you called 0o1s, for example, you called not one telephone but half a dozen and the operator coh- nected you with the one that was not In use at that particular moment. If Oo19 should call you. the chances are that yet another telephone would be called into reQuisition, reserved exclus- ively for outward messages. For the owner has probably long ago discov- cred that to block an inward message fHom one customer by an outward mes- sage to another is equivalent to trying to ship goods through his front door Just at the time when several persons were coming in to trade with him.
 E The telephone clerk in addition to becoming an important factor in so many different industries, has in many cases practically revolutionized them. This is particularly the case in the freight departments of the great rail- way systems, where, in the beginning the use of the telephone was by no means immediately welcomed. But from the customers point of view the innovation was great convenience for 1t saved the bother of personal visits to railway. stations often situated at an inconvenient distance from his busi- ness office. And the railways also soon began to discover that the shipping business could be conducted moro ex- pedftiously and economically when the customers were invisible. The tele- phone, in fact. saved valuable time that had formerly been spent in discussing the weather or in the exchange of writ ten memoranda by which a large part of the business had formerly been con- ducted. It eliminated the social amen- ities. saved time in correspondence and messenger service, and pinned the cus- toner down to an accurate and con- densed statement of immediate busi- ness. The telephone clerk could do much more business in a given time than before he became a clerk plus a telephone. A smaller number of clerks were therefore necessary to handle the same volume of business. and the tele- phone had begun proving its economy as trade doer even before 1t began proving its activity as trade winner.
 In many instances. moreover. the telephone clerk has superseded the man who once came around in a wagon and collected orders, especially, of course, in cities where there are no warning telephone companies. and every man who has telephone can talk with every other man who has one. In this case the telephone clerk calls at a certain hour on long list of custom CTS. takes their orders and insures the delivery of them. One clerk and telephone can thus cover in a given time wider area than several clerks In wagons, and in many modern groce- ry stores the telephone clerk is the most important figure: the invisible customer, in fact, receives even more attention than the one who comes in in person. and 1t is an obvious duty of the telephone clerk to fill the order from a distance in ,such fashion that the customer will be perfectly satisfied with the telephone service. The telephone clerk must see and taste for his customer as well as take his order, and in the case of the mistakes that will some. times happen. as the proverb says, he must also be something of a diplomat. He must have the soft answer that turneth away wrath as we'll as the pleasant greeting that invites conf- dence; and he must wear well" with his customers. The proof that he does so lies in the fact that modern bust- ness, as 1t has developed since Alexan- der Graham Bell first made the tele- phone door possible, simply can't get on without him. Primarily of course. the telephone door is for the inward messages that bring custom. Another telephone takes care of all the outward messages that might otherwise block the incoming tide of customers, and in New York City, for example, at least 600O0 telephones are now divided among the establishments that have found the wisdom of thus maintaining two or more instruments