There's been a lively discussion going on at Jon Eliason's recent featured-post entitled "I answered my phone", where he takes great pride in pointing out that while sitting with two customers (note customers, not clients) and going through some properties on the computer, a couple of phone calls came in, and he excused himself, took those brief phone calls and returned to the customer.
The wife commented that she liked the fact that he picked up his phone, because too many agents allow the call to go to voicemail, and she doesn't know if/when they'll hear the message and/or return her call. Due to that interaction, he says, they are now clients, instead of customers.
A lively discussion ensued, and occasionally Jon dropped back into the conversation to add: I will answer my phone... [cause they could be calling] to tell me my son went into a Diabetic Coma, my brother was in a serious car accident... one of my family members died.. You get the idea.
Some of the replies were supportive and said that they, too, would take the phone call, and more than a handful were 
neutral, stating that they can see both sides, or telling some phone-related story but not choosing sides. But the overwhelming response was that most would not take a call (unless they perceived it as an emergency) while sitting with a customer/client/live-person in front of them.
Jon dropped back to explain that "we're talking customer here, not client"...as though we might have missed that nuance, and accused some of kow-towing to the "dollars that were in front of their faces" but that didn't seem to sway many... they still felt the person in front of them deserved their undivided attention... some even suggested that if a Realtor took a couple of calls while sitting with them, they might even walk out of the meeting.
Jon, once again dropped back, and told them that if they were the type that would walk out, if he took a couple of 2 second phone calls, that they wouldn't even have been allowed in his office... he would have turned them [away].
Personally, if I have a client, a customer, or just a plain ole person, sitting in front of me... at my desk, in my car, at a showing, during a listing presentation... whatever... and a call comes in... I may check the caller ID to see if it's an "expected" phone call... or if I perceive an emergency... (a late night call from my elderly mother, for example)... I might excuse myself for a brief moment to determine if this is an emergency. But otherwise, I give my undivided attention to the person in front of me.
And it's not because I'm kow-towing to the dollar in front of me... it's more of an issue of respect for the time of the person who has set aside their time to sit and visit with me. It's polite, and it's good business. If the call is not an emergency, I may shoot a quick text to them, and say "I'm with a client, but will call as soon as possible."
I think that the client who's sitting in front of me will appreciate, respect and understand my sending an incoming call to voicemail, and I think the person on the other end of the phone will leave me a message and I'll get back to them promptly, and they, too, will respect and understand that. We are the ones who set our clients expectations. If we teach them that we will call them back promptly, then they won't mind leaving a message. If we teach them that we will answer the phone each and every time on the first ring... well, then they'll come to expect that, too.
An important note: I am not saying that Jon is doing it wrong! He has to do what works for him, and in this particular scenario that he played out, it seemed to have worked well for him. But it doesn't work for me. And we all have to do what works best for our own business. Last I checked, Jon seemed to be getting a bit agitated that folks weren't agreeing with him (myself included) and were being "smug", so I figured, rather than continuing to engage him, I'd write my own post.
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