Business etiquette: What to do with that cell phone?

We asked dentists, hygienists, assistants, and front-office personnel one question ...

We received 279 answers to the question...

Some of the "other" responses included ...

• He could have stated ahead of time that he was waiting for an important call, then kept it short.
• Unless specified at the begining of the meeting of a possible emergency call, the cell phone should be off.
• The rep should ask if it's OK to answer important calls only from boss.
• He could have explained that he needed to leave it on due to family responsibilities.
• The rep could say he was expecting a very important phone call and ask if it is OK if he answers it. This scenario should be extremely rare.
• It would have been nice for him/her to pre-inform the doctor/team that he was expecting a very important call. Asked if they minded he take it, reminding them he would keep it short as possible.
• If he was expecting an important call, he should have said so and apologized in advance for possibly needing to take a call and kept it brief (which he did). Normally I would expect no phone calls to be the rule when having a meeting with the entire team. On a routine visit, no problem what he did was fine. When he's reserved time with me and my staff I expect that time commitment to go both ways. Especially since I'm the customer and he's trying to sell me something.
• We're pretty casual so I don't think the short call would have been a big deal.