business-languagephrasestelephone
I am still a bit confused how to receive an external phone call at work.
Browsing the internet I find:
* Hello? (informal)
* Thank you for calling Boyz Autobody. Jody speaking. How can I help you?
* Doctor's office.
None of those work for me well. "Hello?" is certainly too informal. The second seems more for a receptionist…and the third…I don't know what's that supposed to mean.
What are your standard phrases?
"Who wants to know?" would normally be said only if you were being pointedly rude. It's a step below swearing at someone, but it's ruder than just ignoring niceties.
Taken at face value, "who wants to know?" is a reasonable enough thing to ask. It ignores the normal polite forms of etiquette, but considering just the bare meaning, we might expect it to be considered no ruder than something like "who's this?" that isn't particularly polite, but isn't explicitly rude either.
But it has acquired much more force, implying "I'm not inclined to tell you" or at least, "I expect you to demonstrate to me why I should tell you, before I do so".
This added forcefulness may well originate in posters like this:
(source: fortmissoulamuseum.org)
Here, "who wants to know" has the very different meaning: Consider who among our enemies would want to know what you are talking about. And then shut-up.
Just as the phrase "loose lips sink ships" entered the language of English-speaking people in Allied countries during World War 2 to mean "keep quiet about things that might have military intelligence value" or by extension, "I'm not going to talk about that", so "who wants to know?" worked at two levels; it both asked the question (maybe, after all, the person who wants to know should indeed be informed) but also referenced the need for secrecy.
And so at the time while it was brusque its position in etiquette is complex; on the one hand it chided ("you shouldn't be asking me") it also excused ("sorry, I'm not being rude in not telling you this").
And when time moved on it retained this underlying implication of not just asking about who was asking, but suggesting "I am not inclined to tell you this". Hence it seems like slightly-dodgy people in television shows are forever responding to opening questions from the police with "who wants to know?" It's a shorthand for the writer; having the character be a bit rude, but not openly aggressive, is intended to lead the audience to suppose that this person is not perfectly law-abiding but leave it open as to whether they are involved in any serious crime.
Similarly, teenage characters will often use it because [lead character makes exaggerated eye-roll to camera] Teenagers! They're so rude!
Whether the WWII saying is the source of this nuance or not, do not use "who wants to know" on answering the phone if you want to be polite.
I agree with deadrat that there is neither need nor desire for the pleasantries. The person on the other end most likely has a script that they will follow for this interaction.
It may seem a bit abrupt to begin immediately- what I like to do is to briefly and (I hope) clearly state a couple of generalities about the situation before launching into the full "song and dance".
For example, you might say "Hi there Dan, I've been having some intermittent connectivity issues with your FlashBang 2500+ router". That serves two functions- it allows the person on the other end some idea of where the interaction will be going, and it allows me an initial assessment of how good the communication is likely to be. If the line is bad, there is too much background noise, or the person at the other end has a heavy and unfamiliar accent then it's best to find out early. I may change my vocabulary, speak more slowly and distinctly or perhaps faster and using more slang and jargon, depending on what I hear.
The presumption (not expectation) is that they will be able to help you- no need to go over that. Of course if you have a problem that exceeds the bounds of their script or their abilities you'll eventually have to deal with someone else, but that generally won't happen without going through the process.
Best Answer
If your job is such that you would normally be the first person reached when someone calls from outside the company, then you would normally answer by saying something along the lines of your second example (at least giving the name of the company).
If you are not normally the first line of contact, then usually you would answer the phone by giving your particular department (e.g. "human resources") and possibly giving your name, depending on how verbose you want to be.
If you are not normally even the first line of contact within your department, then, depending on your work environment, you could either answer with the department, or just by saying "This is Alex", or "Alex speaking" and possibly adding, "how can I help you?"