I am a person who asks "to whom am I speaking" and "how are you today."

However, I have worked phone lines, and mainly I do it because I'm either going to have to ask a lot of questions and it helps to be pleasant because I need their help OR I didn't catch their name when they said it (or they didn't say it), and I like addressing people by name when I'm speaking with them.

I haven't really encountered nasty people on the phones, though. It's been more of the face-to-face people that caused major issues.