The person on the other end of the phone still has a room around them.

A voice on a call arrives with no setting attached, which makes it easy to treat as pure function. There is a room, though: a bad chair, a sick child, a queue behind them, a day that started badly, a manager two metres away. Forgetting the room is what makes people brisk with strangers in ways they never would be face to face.

Begin the next call with a question about their side of it. Ask whether now is a good moment. Speak as though you can see the room they are sitting in.