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Mary Jane Copps founded The Phone Lady consultancy to help people improve their phone etiquette.
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Copps trains Gen Z workers who are afraid to use the phone because they are so used to texting.
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Her work includes helping people overcome their “phone phobia” and have better conversations.
Smartphones can do many things, but many users hardly use them to make calls.
As a result, many younger employees lack the confidence to make effective phone calls at work.
Mary Jane Copps saw the rise of “phone phobia” 16 years ago and founded a consultancy called The Phone Lady to help companies improve their workforce’s phone skills.
“Gen Z never had the skills that were given to them,” she told Insider. “In my generation everyone had a telephone on the wall and we were taught at a young age to answer and make calls.
“Now we have several generations that never learned anything about phone calls and people have taken phones out of their homes.”
Alison Papadakis, director of clinical psychological studies at Johns Hopkins University, told Insider that phone phobia was more common in younger generations.
She said: “Gen Z and millennials have much less experience using the phone because texting and instant messaging have been the primary mode of communication for their generation. Because they have much less experience using the phone, they feel less comfortable using it. that people who are vulnerable to social anxiety have anxiety in that situation.
Copps charges $480 per hour for one-on-one coaching and $365 for 30-minute webinars as part of a seven-part program. For corporate workshops, the daily rate is $3,500. Insider verified these numbers using redacted invoices from Copps.
Many of Copps’ clients are in the financial sector or start-ups. Her first step is to find out why someone is afraid of phone calls.
“A common fear is ‘what if someone asks me a question and I don’t know the answer,'” she said. “I often say ‘for the next three days I don’t want you to text anyone’ and tell them to call their friends and family.
“If they’re not even used to talking to their mom on the phone, the process is so scary. So I can’t say I’m going to let them call potential clients because they’d just fall apart — we’ll start with their families or someone they know.”
Improvising on a phone call can be scary, so her approach involves using role-play. “If people aren’t ready to pick up the phone, I set up a time where I randomly call them throughout the day and do practice calls,” Copps said.
“You can’t build a relationship over email because it doesn’t go back and forth and you don’t hear each other’s tone,” she said, adding that phone calls are “critical to expressing interest and enthusiasm.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
