A Word Edgewise, Please?

[Wade]

Me: Thank you for calling so-and-so, this is -
SC: My name is Mr. No-Manners, the policy is under Mrs. No-Manners, the policy number is blah-blah-blah.
Me: Okay, I don't normally service California policies, but I'll certainly try to assist. Give me just one moment to pull this up for-
SC: I made a payment in your local office last week and I just want to know where we stand.
Me: Okay, well I do see a payment on January -
SC: Right, I just want to know if you received it and what the balance is.



Me: Okay, I do see that payment posted on January 29th, and -
SC: What's the balance?
Me: You're currently paid through renew-
SC: When is that?
Me: April t-
SC: Okay, thank you.
<click>

[SnapAddict218]

I loathe people that do that. My boss is one of them. Honestly, I don't know if they know that they are doing it. Really.

What I usually do is stop talking as soon as they start. Gets them to SHUT UP so you can finish. AH!!

[Automan Empire]

Ha! I do that too. When they start talking over me, I stop cold. Then they finish talking. And I stare at them for several seconds, mouth closed. Then I begin to answer. If they interrupt again, I stop talking like a switch went off. THEN, they usually apologize and say, go ahead. Most of the time, the conversation proceeds normally, but if they do it a third time, I just start giving one-word answers, and the convo usually proceeds as above.

Some people seem to just love the sound of their own voice.

[tigerlily0]

Another option to deal with people who interrupt is to just keep talking. Talk over them and totally ignore the fact that they are trying to interrupt you. That is, don't allow them to interrupt. Although I suppose that's harder to do when the interrupter is a customer, and probably harder to do on the phone than in person.