Nihongojouzu : Office Japanese - the Telephone: Part Two

Yesterday I posted an introductory piece on the fine art of placing a business phone call in Japanese.

As you will recall, we left proceedings at the point where you, the caller, had just given your name and company name and had asked to be put through to someone.

Part Two Being Put Through to the Other Party

１．相手を確認する

XX様でいらっしゃいますね。

-Necessary if the person coming to the phone simply says "はい”, or if you don't catch what they say, but not required if they announce themselves clearly.

２．名乗る

私、YY社のZZでございます。

-note that 私 in this context has the super formal reading わたくし

３．あいさつをする

先日お忙しいところありがとうございました。

If you don’t have a specific event to refer to (for example, when you last met) you can offer a more generic greeting:

いつもお世話になっております。

およびたてして、申し訳ございません。

-Obviously if you have had some interaction with the other party it is a good idea to mention it and give the call some context. Other possible greetings:

この度は、弊社の○○をご購入いただき、誠にありがとうございます
先ほどはお問い合わせありがとうございました

-Politeness and brevity are key
-呼び立てる　means to ask a person to come, or in this case, to call someone to the phone

４．用件を伝える

今、お時間をいただいてよろしいでしょうか。

早速ですが＿＿＿＿の件につきましてご連絡いたしました。

If you think the matter will take a while, forewarn the other person and give them the option of dealing with it later:

お時間長くなりますが、ただ今よろしいでしょうか？

What follows is the meat of the phone call and while equally polite it won’t necessarily be as formulaic. I’ll keep things simple for the moment, skip to the end of the call, and provide some useful phrases in a later article.

５．相手の理解を確認する